Adventure of a Lifetime

On the weekend of June 21-22, I took part in the inaugural Ride to Conquer Cancer for Princess Margaret Hospital. I originally signed on for the ride back in July 2007 when I was convinced to join a team of riders from PMH - that's us in the picture ... the RMP SoBs (not what you think - Staff on Bikes). I had no idea what a truly inspiring and amazing event it would be.

We started on the Friday (day 0) where we had to check in our bikes, pick up our jerseys, etc. at the CNE. Wow - what a sight! A gigantic warehouse filled with bikes and people. I found out that there were 2,850 riders! It took me more than an hour to weave through all of the different lines to get my check-in completed. Our team met for a heavy carb-loading dinner afterwards ... first time I was meeting some of the people on my team. What a great group - 4 cancer survivors amongst us (ranging in age from 26 to 45).

Day 1 was crazy! I barely slept the night before and couldn't really stomach much to eat that morning. I made my way to the start line before the other members of my team and managed to get fairly close to the start of all the riders. (If you have access to my Facebook, check out the pictures and what the start looked like with almost 3000 bikes!) Anyhow, the start went off without a hitch - I was worried about starting with this many people especially since my cycling shoes clip into the pedals and wipeouts happen easily. Anyhow, the organization and support on the route out of Toronto was amazing - roads closed, people directing traffic, pit stops - unbelievable. There were groups of people that we would encounter along the way who would be cheering us on, and yelling "thank you for doing this!". I had tears in my eyes at times. After one particularly gruelling hill outside of Milton, there was a group of people standing outside their house holding a sign that said "A cancer survivor lives here - Thank you!" And a little girl was cheering for us and running with the bikes - it was amazing.

After 110km (the last 10km in the pouring rain), I made it to camp. We had a 2km hill right at the end of the ride to get up the Hamilton mountain (not so easy after you've just done 100km!). We were treated to an amazing dinner, a band - everything that we needed we had for us. Massages, food, drink (beer - free beer!), pain killers (needed a few of those) - it was absolutely incredible. At about 7pm they interrupted the ceremony that they were doing to announce that the last rider had just come in (to put this in perspective ... I finished at 12:40 and it was now 7). When we found out that this rider had done the 110km WITH ONE LEG we all stood and gave her a standing ovation. She tearfully told us that she had lost her leg (at the hip) to cancer when she was 9 and she was doing this ride for all of the friends that she has lost to cancer. She also said "I wasn't expecting this reception when I got here ... I was just trying to finish the damn ride!" Anyhow, day 1 ended in tent city (picture over a 1000 tents in a field - somebody described it as looking like the civil war!)

Day 2 started off a bit rainy as we left Hamilton. The ride to Niagara Falls was a lot harder than I thought because they took us on a lot of hilly country roads. My legs were a bit sore, but I managed. Again - people cheering, pit stops galore - and I discovered that gummy bears make a good snack when you're on the bike (must be the sugar). Anyhow, 105km to NF for a grand total of 215km in 2 days. The finish area was lined with people cheering and clapping, cow bells going off, the announcer going nuts when riders were coming in - it was the perfect way to end things. You got off your bike and people were congratulating you, and thanking you - complete strangers. Thousands of people there, and again - food, drink, support. My team hung around waiting for everyone to finish (last on our team finished about 3 hours after I did) and waiting for the bus/train home.

Here's the stats for the event:
- we raised $14 million for cancer research!
- I personally raised almost $4000 (surpassing the required amount of $2500)
- somebody actually raised $250,000 on their own, and one team raised almost 1/2 million!
- 2,850 riders
- I rode 110km in just over 4 hours on day 1; 105km in just under 4 hours on day 2

I've already signed up for next year ... so yes, I'll be hitting y'all up for some more money!