Lilah Aas is on the road again for Habitat for Humanity.

The Albert Lea woman is riding in her 13th Habitat 500, a 500-mile bike ride around Minnesota to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

“I never thought I’d do this more than one time,” Aas said. “But by the end of the first year, I knew I would do it again.”

This year’s ride started in Faribault on Sunday and ends there on Saturday. Along the way, riders will stay in Rochester, two nights in Rushford, Grand Meadow, Albert Lea and Lake Crystal.

Riders will also make a rest stop at the Spam Museum in Austin Thursday throughout the day.

In Albert Lea Thursday night, riders will be served dinner by members of First Lutheran Church and breakfast on Friday morning by members of Grace Lutheran Church. They’ll spend the night at the high school.

“Five years ago, the ride came through Albert Lea. It was a 90-plus mile ride and a 90-degree day,” Aas recalled. However, Earl Jacobsen had gotten the idea to make the riders smoothies.

Lilah Aas has been rider number 39 for the past few Habitat 500 rides. This is her identification from last year’s ride.

“As they rode in, they were asked what flavor smoothie they wanted,” Aas said. “Then there was a potluck at First Lutheran with tables full of food. People talked about that ride for a long time.”

Riders have to be off the road by 6 p.m., and dinner is being served at 6:30. Aas said anyone who would like to see the riders can come by the high school in the afternoon. The first riders will most likely be in shortly after noon, she added.

Because this is Aas’ 13th year of riding, her goal is to raise $13,000 this year. Before the ride started, she had raised around $9,000. People can contribute anytime before Dec. 31, she added. Checks payable to Habitat for Humanity may be mailed to her at 1129 Lakeview Blvd.

Over the 12 previous rides, Aas raised $78,218.01. “I’ve raised a house plus,” she said, explaining that Habitat houses are being built in Minnesota for between $60,000 and $65,000.

The riders have an opportunity to spend today riding around the Rushford area or helping build a Habitat home in the community. Aas is helping to build. She’ll either be helping on the roof or the siding.

“Riders can control where their money goes,” Aas said, adding because of the flooding in the area two years ago, she has designated 10 percent of what she is raising that year to the house in Rushford. The remaining 90 percent will go to Freeborn-Mower Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity will build its 1,700th home in Minnesota this year, she said.

Aas has a lot of respect for Habitat for Humanity as a charity. “It’s such an efficient charity,” she explained. “Less than 4 percent goes to support the ride. I always choose the option of paying extra for ride support, so 100 percent of what I raise goes to Habitat.”

The ride is also very well organized. A gear truck carries the things each rider needs, including bedding and clothing. “People pack light,” she said.

There are never more than 130 riders allowed on the ride. Riders ride at their own pace. “If they need to ride slowly, they ride slowly,” Aas said.

The ride itself is a mini-reunion of sorts, she added. Seventy percent of the riders are repeat riders. She’s made many friends. Her nephew and his wife from St. Paul also do the route.

“They joined me my second year,” she said.

The first time Aas rode in the Habitat 500, she was serving as the National Honor Society adviser at Albert Lea High School. She had five students interested in riding with her as a service project. But as the time for the ride drew near, she found herself alone.

Just before the ride, her nephew, who did a lot of work for Habitat for Humanity, and who was very encouraging of Aas’ efforts, died in a rock-climbing accident.

“I decided to do it anyway,” she said, adding she mailed off her registration and bought a bike.

She admitted she didn’t know much about the techniques needed to ride a bike. She also had to raise $1,000 — a prospect she found overwhelming at the time.

Aas remembers feeling very alone on that first ride (“I rode off in tears,” she recalled), and suggested the next year that people make an effort to make new riders feel welcome.

It wasn’t the only challenging year. In 2001, Aas’ husband, Gordon, was ill with cancer, and died in May of that year. She debated whether to ride that year, but in the end, she did.

Aas has continued to be among the top fundraisers on the ride since her third year of participating.