Becel

Becel Ride for Heart June 6

For the first time in a very long time I did something for charity. It felt good. I put up a posting at work and got about $160 collected from that and I got $180 by walking around after my shift. I still have to collect on Monday from people that said they would give but didn’t have it on them. I think my final total was $450.

Well now, the weather reports lied or I am just not paying attention. Scattered showers my ass!!! As we lined up for the start of the non-race bike ride, it started to sprinkle just a little bit and as I looked west it didn’t look good. We started in about 2 groups to get spread out, but the red lights did that for us as well.

We rode east on 8ave to the 4-way and angled ourselves down the side of the slope. It was kind of disappointing but I guess they took that way so people didn’t fly down the hill and hurt themselves. It was quite fun having a lane to ride in on Memorial, I kept a good pace on it even though the wind was at my face the whole time. We bounced onto Bowness Road and looped around the Pedestrian Bridge and then we got lost. A whole group of us missed a turn marker and added a few KM’s but that is OK we found our way.

Along Bowness going east I lost the route again, the rain was getting harder leaving large puddles on the road. I headed towards the Bridge because I knew there we had a lane to ourselves going back. Plus I knew Kim from work was there so I wouldn’t feel bad if I had to ask for directions J I am going to miss her she was always positive. Kim and her Husband are moving to his homeland Australia.

We turned North near the CBC I think to go up a pretty nasty hill climb. I think it was just worse because of the rain. There was one young guy trying to climb in his big ring and I could just see the chain trying to go Big on Big as he stood on the pedals. At the top of the hill we went east again on 20^th ave by now I had so much crud on my glasses I couldn’t see the route markers so I led 4 people all the way to Ed Trail without realizing it. So we backtracked and had a good laugh. We didn’t get to go through the finish line properly. So I cut across the field to get on the road to ride under the banner. I believe it said it was 1hr 45 ish mins not bad for a training ride I thought.

I collected my goodie bag that I had hidden in a tent with a lady and was happy to put on both shirts I earned. Now it was really coming down hard. Many people were already there and they announced that they were not going to make us wait around and get hypothermia just to win a door prize. I made the decision to wait for Kim and beg for a ride when I found out that the bus was picking them up. Kim didn’t disappoint me, when she told her husband that they were giving me a ride he gave me the keys and told me to get warm. By the time I had the bike loaded which is very hard when you can’t feel your fingers or your toes, Kim, her sister and Niece arrived to get home to dry off.

I got home and hoped into the shower right away slowly increasing the temperature of the water as I gained feeling. I told myself, and a few others that this was good training, who knows what for but it was good.