Day 1: I rode 7.5K from home to SickKids (via the Novotel) to start the ride. I was still a bit battered and bruised from my crash 6 days earlier, but nothing was going to stop me from doing this event. Most of my cuts and bruises looked worse than they felt, and that was insignificant in comparison to the ongoing pain that some of the kids were dealing with daily. There were speeches and well wishes before we started out. I was even interviewed by CTV news.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/health/cyc ... -1.2514422
What I was most nervous about: not the distance, but the pace! At the pre-ride meeting my group leader (David) said that we'd be maintaining a pace of 30-32kph.
In every ride I've done this year, my average pace has been around 25kph. How the heck was I going to keep up??? This was my greatest worry, and it was persistent throughout the ride.I'd been told that the route we were taking out of town would be right along Lake Shore and Kingston Road, past many of my friends' houses, so I put the word out. But then at the last minute they decided to take a different route (due to construction and PanAm diversions). I posted a quick update to FB and to my surprise I had my own personal cheering section on the way out!
We had a police escort all the way out of Toronto, right to the Pickering border (about 25K). After that, we broke up into our pelotons for the rest of the way. There were only 4 women riding the full distance this year. At one point, Robin and I were leading the pack, out near Bowmanville.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMOR5GUUAAA4D1S.jpg:large
The hardest part of this day of the ride was the consistent cross wind. It had a tendency to break the peloton up and an accordion effect would happen for those at the back. I realized early on that the best place (for me) to be in the pack was in 2nd or 3rd position. The power of a peloton is amazing. I was able to keep that 30-32K cruising pace when safely tucked into the pack. Our group was only 9 riders at the most, and down to only 4 at one point on day 2. David was our group leader and Rob was another strong rider assigned to the back of our group to ensure nobody fell off the back. They would often trade off leading, but other times it was others in the pack who would lead (I even led a few times each day).
We had a lunch stop in Port Hope (103K into the day) and it was comforting to know that we were more than half way done. The second half of the day was less hilly than the first half, but it was still windy, which caused some difficulty. It was a challenge staying with the group, but I held on. There was one crash in the peloton ahead of ours and one ride had to be taken to the hospital to have her wounds cleaned and her thumb braced (it was broken). I'm glad that our peloton was small because we were less likely to get into trouble.
We finally arrived in Belleville around 7PM. I had a well-deserved shower, then met the group for dinner at the restaurant across the street. That beer (which my EVP at work - my boss's boss's boss) bought for me. He's a crazy fast rider and had finished well ahead of me. I left dinner as soon as I was done as I really just wanted to be horizontal in bed.
https://www.strava.com/activities/367720312
Day 2: It was an early start. I was up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00, and we rolled out at 7:15AM. Again, I started the day nervous about the pace I would have to keep. The group leader (whom I was becoming increasingly scared of) said that anyone who wasn't able to maintain the pace of 30kph would be asked to get in the sag wagon. Gulp. I was really angered by this because I didn't raise $4000 and train 3000 kilometers since May to get into the damned sag wagon! I'd already prepared my speech in my head where I'd tell him to screw off and just continue on my own if necessary.
The wind had shifted overnight and now we had a lovely tail wind (most of the way) and the roads were much flatter and much better paved than on Day 1, so it was actually easy to maintain a pace of 30-32kph, especially in my peloton. We started out with 9 riders, then at the first rest stop in Napanee, 2 of them decided to move up to the faster group. Now we were The Group of Seven (me and six guys). Finally, as we were approaching Kingston, I was able to remember everyone's name! You can tell the demographic of the group by the fact that we had 2 Davids, a Mike, a Rob, a Mark, and a Jeff. And there were multiple Davids, Robs, Steves, and Jeffs in the whole group.
We had a brief stop at the CIBC branch in Kingston where a bicycle cop asked if they could escort us out of town. He called his motorcycle cop colleague, and they gave us a nice escort across the causeway and out toward Gananoque. Our official lunch break was just off the Thousand Islands Parkway, right down by the river. It was gorgeous, and I wanted to jump into the water! But alas, we still had about 150K to go at that point. David-the-slave-driver got us moving again and we continued on the Parkway path for another 30K or so. That section was lovely with a tail wind and I took the lead for a bit, holding a pace of 30-34kph! We had a brief stop in Brockville when our peloton shrank again as one rider's knee pain was too much for him, and two others wanted to go at their own pace and left ahead of us. We were now down to 4 riders in out group. We agreed that we'd take a quick pit stop in about 25-30K, rather than riding straight through to the next official stop in Morrisburg, which was 55K away. I was getting very cranky at that point, likely due to not eating enough, but also because the pavement was quite bad and I was afraid of flatting or getting caught in a rut and going down. We had a quick stop near Johnstown (just past the bridge to Ogdensburg, NY). The rest of the riding from that point was the flattest I have ever ridden. We got into our little peloton, took turns at the front, and made it to Morrisburg, where I bought a box of donuts for everyone (our support crew arrived a few minutes after we did, along with some of the riders from another peloton who'd stopped at a CIBC branch). So now we only had 44K to go to Cornwall. The last stretch was uneventful and the final beacon was the sign for the Best Western hotel up ahead. Woo hoo - I made it to Cornwall!!
https://www.strava.com/activities/368490589
Shower, change, beer (again, bought by my EVP), then dinner. I met the legendary Phil Liggett (voice of the Tour de France), which was cool. I also got a chance to meet some of the 1-day riders who'd be joining us for the final leg from Cornwall to Montreal. Off to bed...
Day 3: I woke before my alarm, so I just took my time getting up. I went to breakfast, then back to my room to get prepared for the final day. Rain (and potentially thunderstorms) was forecast, and we did get some sprinkles, but it was never a downpour and no thunder ever materialized. We had a bigger peloton for the final day as we had most of the 1-day riders with us. Phil Liggett was in my peloton, so I got to chat with him a bit during the ride. I think I got a better sense of why he's still a Lance Armstrong supporter, but I don't want to open up that debate in this report (I'll post it in the Dark Side thread).
The roads were wet, but there was a decent bike lane most of the way. It was definitely obvious by the road conditions when we entered into Quebec! Though they did have a bike lane through where we were riding. One rider hit a particularly big pot hole and it shredded his tire and blew his tube. He was a few riders ahead of me and lost control, crashed, and ended up in a ditch. That was actually lucky for him because it was a softer landing than if he'd hit the pavement. Miraculously, he was fine, but couldn't ride due to his tire being flat and the maintenance wagon was with a different group. We continued without him and he got into another support van until his bike could be fixed.Eventually, we rolled into John Abbott college in a suburb of Montreal, where we had our final pit stop, some food, and another police escort into Montreal. We went along Lake Shore Blvd the whole way at a painfully slow pace. I don't think we ever got much over 22kph for this final 30K into Montreal. We had one final big climb out of Ville St. Pierre into Montreal West and NDG (my old stomping grounds). It was nice to have the escort at this point because the roads were in horrible condition and it was nice to not have to share space on the road with cars, so we had lots of room to navigate around bumps and pot holes.
Finally, the hospital (and the finish line) was in sight. I got a little choked up, but managed to fight back tears. It was a bit of a surreal experience, and my brother was there to meet me (with BBQ chicken!
Yay!). Lots of hugs, official speeches, medal presentations, photos, and then five of us made the mad dash down to the train station. All I had time to do was change clothes in the bathroom. It's amazing that we covered the same distance in 5 hours that it had taken me more than 21 hours to do by bike!https://www.strava.com/activities/369033556
Would I do it again? Maybe, but not next year. The fundraising is as much of a challenge as the training is, and I don't know if I (and my donors) are ready for that again. But I'd love to ride to Montreal again - maybe I can find a group who wants to do it on our own time!
I think 'd prefer to do it in 4 days, rather than 3, but somehow it was nice to know that the last day was "only" 130K after the 260 the day before.I'll end the report the same way I started it - with thanks: To my donors and supporters who sent texts and FB messages along the way, checking up on me and wishing me well. It was nice to know that so many people wanted me to succeed at this. Thanks for sharing this journey with me, as it makes it that much more meaningful.
