At 53, Eric Nordgren has overcome many challenges.

A tornado demolished his home in 1983. He lost three businesses because of internal theft in the ’80s. A fire destroyed his home in 2002. He was hit by a car and hospitalized during a triathlon in 1990 and 1991. And in 1998, a doctor told him that he no longer could participate in sports.

The triathlete, who was suffering from chronic back pain that caused him to hunch over, said the diagnosis “brought life to a halt.”

“I would just have to lie down for long, long periods and maybe several days sometimes,” said Nordgren, owner of Aspen Construction Services in Topeka.

But after meeting the right doctor and with the help of medication, Nordgren is ready for his next challenge on Thursday: a 225-mile bicycle ride in northeast Kansas.

His ride begins at 2 a.m. in Topeka and will pass through 10 counties and 22 cities, including Lawrence, Perry, Lecompton, Oskaloosa and Overbrook. He will ride through downtown Lawrence and Kansas University’s campus about 7 a.m.

Along the way, he hopes to raise awareness about cancer, a disease that claimed the life of his mother-in-law, Myrene Benteman, and his father, Harry Nordgren Jr., of Lawrence.

Nordgren said dealing with the 1999 death of his father has been his most difficult challenge.

“I went on for days and weeks where I would shift to tears at the slightest thought of his being gone in this life forever … of not ever again being able to turn and see him there. That was and continues to be tough,” he said.

The ride will be a tribute to his father, a KU fan who lived in former head basketball coach Larry Brown’s home. Nordgren will be wearing No. 82, the age his father would have turned Thursday.

So far, Nordgren has raised about $15,000 through Sunflowers to Roses, which supports the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Cancer Action and KU Cancer Research Center.

“It has really opened my eyes to a need that I wasn’t even aware of,” he said. “I had no clue that one-third of everyone in the United States will hear the words, ‘You’ve got cancer.’ That just never crossed my mind, and a quarter of those will die.”

While he will be wearing the yellow Livestrong wrist band to raise awareness about cancer, he also will be wearing a green wrist band to raise awareness of primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare liver disease that his wife, Barbara Nordgren, is suffering from. She is awaiting a liver transplant at KUMC.

It’s another challenge the Nordgrens hope to overcome.