Back to Calgary

My heel seems much better, although I won't really know if I'm fully recovered till I do another long day of riding. Susan's still not 100% either, so we've decided to rest for a while and let these ailments fully heal. Continuing to ride will likley just aggravate them more and slow us down further. This means we've fallen behind schedule and will continue to fall further and further behind if we sit it out here in The Hat. But it's still a vacation and so after discovering all the nooks and crannies of Medicine Hat (a sunny patio serving cold beer, the world's biggest teepee, the wave pool with hot tub and steam room, Starbucks etc) we've come up with Plan B. We're renting a car, driving back to Calgary and flying across the prairies. It seems like cheating, but the only other option we have is to rest here for a week and then go as far as we can. Given north of Lake Superior is supposed to be the prettiest part, and our return flights are out of Ontario, we're skipping the prairies and heading to Thunder Bay. We'll rest there for a few more days before resuming our riding. It will be inspiratinal to start again in Thunder Bay - it's where Terry Fox had to stop on his epic cross country journey.

It would have been nice to drive across the prairies and drop the car off when we felt good again, but no car rental agencies would allow an out of province drop off. The train wasn't an option - we needed to get to Edmonton to take the train, and it was going to be slower and more expensive than flying, and Susan is a bit averse to the Greyhound after already having taken a bus ride once so far on this trip.

I've logged only just over 600km so far and am keen to ride again. Bring on Thunder Bay - not sure what's there but I'll let you know in a couple days.

Is it Only Sunday

So much has happened since Tuesday morning. Meeting with Amy at the airport we were both excited and nervous about taking off. Excited to finally be on our way after months of planning and training. Nervous, wondering if we/I would be able to put the bike back together. It all went well and thanks to Rob's helpful instructions all was put back together and the bike was in working order.

We had a pleasant ride thru Calgary on the bike paths. We finally made our way to Hwy 1 after a quick stop at Tim Horton's (wonder how many of those stops we will do along the way?). We had to use the handy compass initially to get our bearings as there were no mountains around to say yes that is North. We found our way onto hwy 1 and after about 500 meters realized we were heading into the sun and the winds were against us. Thank goodness for the compass. The mountains sure are handy on the west coast. Hopefully this is not a sign of what is to come.

We managed to ride 68 km on our first day. Pretty good considering we started riding after 2 pm. We were both pretty happy with that and thought we had had a good start to the trip. We both felt pretty good. I was having some shin pain which I had developed on day 2 of the Ride to Conquer Cancer trip but it was not holding me back in my cycling on this first day out.

We started riding on day 2 from Strathmore and our destination was for Brooks almost 120 km away. We stopped along the way for short little breaks. It is pretty much open country now with lots of fields and occasional cattle. Every time we stopped I was having more pain in my shin and walking was becoming unbearable. In Bosano we stopped for lunch. We talked about my leg and decided that if I was to continue on the trip I needed to have some serious rest days. The day after the Ride to Conquer Cancer I was on my feet all day and really had no time to look after my leg.

Amy wanted to keep riding as she was feeling pretty good. It was a very hard thing to do for me to leave Amy behind and separate so early on in the trip. We put together a game plan of where we were to meet on the Thursday and I boarded the Greyhound bus and went into Medicine Hat. That was another days ride for Amy.

When I arrived into Medicine hat I was totally disoriented. I was so used to seeing flat country side. Medicine Hat is in a river valley and surrounded by hills. Very interesting topography. The bus drove right by my campground and deposited me at the opposite end of town at the bottom of the hill. When I got back on the bike I knew I had to go up and head back West. Luckily I met up with a local who gave me instructions on how to get back up those hills the easiest way. My derailer had been damaged on the bus so I did not have any easy gears to use on the up hills. It was a long, hard day and rode into camp at about 7:30 PM. My leg was not happy at the end of this day.

I had enough food in my pack so the next day I did not move at all other than the BR and the office to get ice for my leg in an effort to get the leg healing. I only moved 50 ft from the tent. I expected Amy to roll in that evening but she never showed up. I was not too worried as the winds were pretty fierce on Thursday. They were coming from a southerly direction and I knew Amy was riding south west so I suspected she had stopped earlier for the day and settled in somewhere for the night.

Amy and I met up the next day. Oddly enough she has been having similar experiences with her leg as me except for her it is the achilles tendon that is bothering her. She ended up spending Thursday as a rest day as well in Brooks. It is weird sometimes with us. What Amy does Susan must do and vice versa.

Once we met up the discussion ensued about what we were going to do as it seems unrealistic for us to continue to plan to ride the number of kilometers each day. With our overuse injuries they will not heal if we continue to ride the number of kilometers we are planning to do.

There were so many options but the only option that worked for us is driving back to Calgary and flying to Thunder Bay and restarting our ride from there. Less mileage per day (about 70 Km). We had wanted to rent a car and continue the trip with driving across the country for the next couple of days until our injuries healed but you are not allowed to take rental cars out of the province.

So how are we both dealing with this. Of course there is extreme disappointment for the both of us. The positive side to this is that we are both injured so it does make the planning somewhat easier. I am a little stressed out about all this as I like to have things planned out and know what is going to happen. I am trying to let this all go. Amy is being calm and bringing my stress level down. What will be will be.

Next post will come from Thunder Bay.

From start to now

Getting ready for a trip like this takes time, and time was the one ingredient missing on the only day set aside to get ready for this trip. After the ride to Conquer Cancer I thought it would be fairly easy to re-pack for the big trip - but easier said than done. I wouldn't recommend anyone doing 2 big events back to back like this unless they were extremely organized. And even then, I still doubt it's possible or can happen stress-free. Those of you who know Susan (and how organized she is) will understand the true extent of the logistics required when even she found it near impossible to get ready in time.

But we made it - due largely to our respective men helping us out with packing and keeping us sane along the way as we forced bikes, camping gear and clothes into our bike boxes - although I'm sure we drove them crazy all day.

The flight to Calgary was uneventful. I sat beside a classmate I did my MBA with who was heading to Calgary to do a sales pitch - it's a small world except, I'm finding, when you're trying to pedal your way across it.

Getting the bike back together then loaded up took about an hour and half and then we were off on a bike path we found heading towards town. We worked our way south east toward Hwy 1 to get out of Calgary and our first wrong turn was quickly identified as we noticed we were cycling into the sun and it was late afternoon. The first night was spent in a camp at Strathmore (68km) followed by a long day to Brooks the next day (138km). Susan's sore leg from the Conquer cancer ride had flared up so after lunch she took the bus to Medicine Hat to get a couple days rest while I continued another 50km to Brooks. The last hour was into a head wind that kept increasing.

The next day I contemplated the bus as well since after cycling about 7km I realized my sore achilles from the cancer ride was too inflamed to continue. Fortunately, my little voice of reason won over the "I can do it, just suck it up" voice as I had been unclipping my left foot and pedaling with only my right leg for quite a while (a bad sign and not sustainable over 100km - at least not by me). Also, brutal cross winds were slowing me down to around 12km/h which would have required about 12 hours of solid riding to reach my destination. Since there is nothing between Brookds and Medicine Hat, I turned around at the 10km mark and coasted back to town for a day of R&R. The winds got stronger throughout the day, to the point where branches were breaking off trees and skipping along the road and I could barely walk upright. Turns out a tornado touched down north of where I was, so my decision to stay and rest proved to be a good one. It would have been a miserable day.

My heel was good enough to ride this morning, so I got an early start and made it the 110 km to Medicine Hat by 2pm. I had a lot of strong cross winds and some good tailwinds along the way and didn't stop much since I was by myself. There wasn't much to see along the way although I had a staring contest with a deer during lunch. I guess I won as he evnentually cantered away across the highway leaving me to finish my lunch alone. My iPod kept me happy along the way, but I regret to say that so far Eminem is the best music to cycle to. I really hate to admit I like Eminem.

There is Strength in Numbers

The Ride to Conquer Cancer was an awesome weekend. A very inspiring weekend for sure. It was great to see so many survivors at the event both participating and helping out. As well the number of people out riding who had never done an event like this was also inspiring.

Thank you to all the people who volunteered. With out their support the event could not have gone off as well as it did.

The total ride was 260 km. I still cannot believe I did it even though I am now on a big adventure across Canada on my bike. The day started out a little cold and it looked like rain for a while but the day turned out to be awesome weather for riding. It was an amazing feeling getting out of the Start gate with so many people. Amy and I rode together the entire way. Along the way(just after the border) we picked up Teresa one of our Serious Adverse Events teammate and together we stayed for the next 2 days.

The route was pretty much mostly flat except for a couple of good climbs on the second day. The first day the route tooks us along the seashore of north Washington. The tide was out and you could see forever. Then it was into the country and farms and ranchlands for the rest of the trip. Scenery kept us entertained the whole way.

The end of the trip was of course the best. Coming into the finish line the 3 of us abreast of each other was like nothing I have ever felt. The three of us were overwhelmed at the end. I sigend up for next year then. If you have any inkling of wanting to ride a bike you can do this. It is all for a good cause.

Cancer must me beaten. I am getting tired of seeing what this disease does to people and their loved ones and want it to stop. And that is all I have to say about that.

The Ride to Conquer Cancer

We did it! Vancouver to Seattle in 2 days. Here are some stats: 1,701 riders, over $6.9M raised for cancer research & treatment, a total of 261 km ridden, a few sprinkles but no rain during the day. It poured for a few hours at night and riders ahead of us got a few brief showers with some hail - that was a benefit to being at the back of the pack!

This was one of the best organized events I've been in, thanks to hundreds of volunteers. It was fun yet tough and for such a good cause. I have already registered for next year.

The bikes with yellow flags are cancer survivors and it was very inspiring to ride with them. There was every type of bike and body shape on this ride. I ride a lot and found the days long, so I am truly amazed at how many people completed this ride who were from outward appearances not experienced cyclists. I know many people were hurting the second day, which had several fairly large hills to tackle, and yet they persevered and crossed the finish line. Susan and I both had some aches and pains, hopefully nothing too much to get in the way of the big ride.

Susan loves Bob

No, that isn't a spelling mistake. The Bob I'm talking about here is a bike trailer. Who knows what the acronym stands for - I think it means bike on board or bike out back - but regardless of what it really means Susan has decided to tow one on the big trip. So on Sunday we headed out to Golden Ears for a test ride with the Bob. Here she is following Paul along a stretch of road on our way to Golden Ears.

I'll post some movies soon of Susan maneouvering with this new extra loooong rig. There's no doubt she'll be as good at backing up the bob as Rob soon. That's backing up the trailer, not backing up Rob! The ride was a comfortable 60km and compared to Lytton it was a walk in the park due to its relative flatness.

We had a nice rest at the lake eating Susan's famous lemon squares and keeping an eye out for Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan who were filming a movie there. We saw lots of security, temporary structures and cables running in and out of the forest and a few horses, but no celebrities. We stopped in Port Moody on the ride home for dinner at the Mexican restaurant. If you're in that neighbourhood it's worth stopping by for a yummy meal.