Woohoo - I survived the Ride to Conquer Cancer 2014! What a big adventure. I am thrilled to say I managed to raise $3680 for the Lifehouse and for that I am most proud and grateful to my friends and family especially that helped me do that. Our team raised a total whopping amount of $34,000. Know that your money went to a truly needy cause. This weekend I had the privilege to ride with some of the toughest survivors of this disease. I met people who were riding for their loved ones and themselves. It was inspiring in so many ways. I wanted to thank one person though, in particular. Pelotone owner and ambassador of our Pelotone Team Karen Newham. Karen is one of the most generous people I have ever had the pleasure to meet and work with. She is a person that genuinely cares and has a true passion and commitment to helping others in the community. I have to admit I was rather nervous and doubtful about my ability to raise initially $2,500 for this cause. Karen jumped into this without a second thought. In the short time I have known her she has really inspired me to give back in so many ways and as a result I have been rewarded in so many ways. You are an amazing lady Karen and for this I feel very blessed and grateful to have had this opportunity. Day 1 (99kms) of the ride was probably the hardest for me in that the temperature went from 12 degrees to 41 degrees during the ride. I have to admit this did catch me off guard and I did suffer from the effects of heat exhaustion about the last 12kms out. Riding was mentally draining out amongst the sydney traffic. We were on long open road that had high speed limits with very little room for error. I have to admit I found the continuous pressure of riding defensively and alert tough in the heat! Unfortunately there a still some drivers out there that dont value human life - I find this frightening and truly sad. In particular some young drivers in our community have little respect for a cyclist on the road. Most of the time however there were many patient drivers also. I did make the decision on Saturday night to stay at my Mum and dads who live at Windsor. I have to say this was the best decision ever. I was able to get a fantastic long shower a good feed and complete deep sleep. This helped me physically to get through day 2. Day 2 (112kms) was warm also, though the temp went from 12 degrees to about 32 degrees. We rode for about 4 and half hours today. It was so beautiful heading out this morning with some Pelotone riders that I had missed riding with the day before. We set out well and were at the first pitstop before we knew it. The second leg I had the pleasure of riding with Andre - who has regularly trained at Amanda and my classes and has gone from strength to strength with his cycling. I have to say he set a cracking pace and I just hung on to the back of his wheel for the next 35kms. Wow what a buzz!! I truly enjoyed putting the metal to pedal so to speak at this stage and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of sticking with him - though he did the tough work out front he was in the zone. Andre was the second cyclist to get to the finish line on day 1 out of 905 cyclists! What an amazing ride!! The next part of the ride was the hilliest by far but I can confidently say every Pelotone team member who has been training with us really felt strong and capable on cracking those hills. They were particularly steep and gravelly going down but a great challenge. I wanted to also thank Albert Olleyt who did the entire ride with me both days. Albert I truly enjoyed cycling with you. You are a true gentleman, wonderful company and a great cyclist also. Together we rode in to Homebush and even better the last 9kms had the company of Karen and Kerrie to the finish! Physically I feel great and today I was more than prepared with hydration! This made a big difference. Heat is a massive game changer in an endurance event and I really learnt about how fragile the human body can be. So now I look forward to some down time .......maybe. My bike Ruby held up fantastically and Im pumped to get out on the road even more now than ever.! Best of all I had the pleasure of getting to know an amazing group of people who come to Pelotone to ride. You are a brilliant bunch I loved every minute of our journey together and look forward to continuing to train with you. Congrats on your mammoth effort JRO
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 11:26:40 +0000