WOW - what a journey! I am so proud to have been involved in the Cops for Cancer Tour de North 2011 - inaugural North to South route!
As Tour riders we raise a minimum amount of $2500 per rider and $5000 for our civilian rider. A good portion of Northern BC has not had the greatest economic times of late but as is usual with small Northern BC towns - they come together for a great cause and reveal the true human spirit that Northern BC is known for by rallying together behind those local riders and helping support their efforts - to all Northern BC'ers THANK YOU!
I have met some amazing people this week - all coming together to support a common goal - a desire to help kids, specifically kids battling cancer. Inspiring stories from cancer survivors and their families kept us fueled for the cause - some had attended Camp Goodtimes and simply stated "it is better than Disneyland!" Of those that spoke at our events - THANK YOU for sharing you stories - Trent and Nakisha-Fort St John, Lauren-Dawson Creek, Jameson and Hannah-Prince George, Emily and Dylan-Quesnel, Nick-Williams Lake - child cancer survivors of various ages who are all inspiring individuals!
Meeting these kids, these mini warriors, these strong souls - rocked me to the core and made me feel like I was really making a difference. A good friend of mine has had her family 'touched' by a child with cancer and I have felt so incredibly helpless watching them go through what they have had to endure the last couple of years. I sometimes have trouble expressing feelings that affect me so deeply and turn to alternative ways in which I feel like I can help - help in a way that is constructive and uplifting. Tour de North has done that for me this year and I write this last blog with tears rolling down my face, thinking of all the kids that I have met this week.....
This last week has not only been incredibly inspiring but also very fun - the riders on Tour this year were a dedicated bunch and it was so great to meet them and get to know them this week. Their personal dedication to fund raising for pediatric cancer causes was phenomenal but also just as important was their dedication to train the last 5 months in order to complete this ride safely and without injury and live up to their end of the bargain they made to their supporters by completing the challenging bike route.
They all poked fun at my aversion to 'hugging' but what they didn't know is that I do hug - when I get to know you and like you the hugs come freely and I am pretty sure I eventually ended up hugging everyone - if I missed anyone I apologize as I was 'hugging' in my heart! You are all worthy of hugging in my books - your all good peeps!
It was an incredible experience and would not have been as successful if it wasn't for great community support and the fantastic support crew we had all week! Thanks everyone and hoping to see Tour de North inspire many more people in the years to come!
Great people can accomplish great things! and ..... every day should start with "IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY!"
please stay tuned early next week for some more photos to be posted.
over and out...
Friday, September 16, 2011
Day 7 - Quesnel to Williams Lake - 120 kms
WE MADE IT!!!!!!
Well - the weather won today and it rained hard ALL day - nothing to complain about though as we were pretty fortunate all week and the possibility of it actually snowing on us was very possible so a little rain didn't hurt. But just to let you all know - it never stopped all day and it was really cold!
We had an amazing breakfast put on by the Integris Credit Union and visited an elementary school before we headed out for our last leg of tour. The kids were once again FANTASTIC! and they asked lots of great questions and sat on our bikes. Hopefully the message of healthy living and getting plenty of exercise that we brought to all the schools we visited is an inspiration to all the kids we spoke to!
Even though the heavy rain is not the nicest to ride in and we were all feeling the sore and tired muscles this morning, we were in high spirits as we knew the finish line was near. We had one more minor single cyclist wipeout with no injuries which makes Tour total to 3 'small' wipeouts and no real 'crashes' which is excellent and worthy to note as good communication and dedication to training made that possible. We were so fortunate to have Quesnel traffic section help control traffic all the way to Williams Lake for us - in the inclement weather, it enabled us to ride in a group and leave lots of space between bikers for everyone's safety. And we weren't the only one that got completely soaked that day as one of the members was riding on the police motorcycle along side us all day!
We slogged along and tried to keep the smiles on our faces for the duration of the rainy day - lots of jokes, singing and poking going on but all in good fun! Another incredible roadside lunch at McLeese Lake that consisted of hot Timmy's coffee and soup which was as popular to hold in your hands as it was to eat! As we approached the crest of our last hill before descending into Williams Lake a couple of police vehicles showed up to escort us in - and than 2 more - and than 2 more - and than 1 or 2 more! What an impressive light show bringing us into town - oncoming motorists probably initial thought was a funeral procession for some very important person but once they saw us they were honking and cheering and waving out their windows! It sure gave us the 'get up and go' to do that last cold downhill stretch where the rain kinda felt like small hail on the face!
We pushed through our rest breaks and arrived in town ahead of schedule which allowed us to get out of the wet clothes and into something dry before attending the Welcome ceremony at Boitanio Park. We were 'piped in' by some local pipers and had a nice turnout from the public for the finale to our day and our week. The fun wasn't done as we had a dinner at TRU and another fabulous community turnout for dinner!
An amazing trip with a great group of people - nice to accomplish an 800+ km trip (I think it was 807.5!) and know that you 'gelled' really well as a group and even though most of us had never met before, we were there for a common goal and that brought us together to form a strong team - the goal to make life a little bit better for a child going through cancer.
Nice job guys and thanks for the incredible support from every community in the North that helped make this Tour a success!
Well - the weather won today and it rained hard ALL day - nothing to complain about though as we were pretty fortunate all week and the possibility of it actually snowing on us was very possible so a little rain didn't hurt. But just to let you all know - it never stopped all day and it was really cold!
We had an amazing breakfast put on by the Integris Credit Union and visited an elementary school before we headed out for our last leg of tour. The kids were once again FANTASTIC! and they asked lots of great questions and sat on our bikes. Hopefully the message of healthy living and getting plenty of exercise that we brought to all the schools we visited is an inspiration to all the kids we spoke to!
Even though the heavy rain is not the nicest to ride in and we were all feeling the sore and tired muscles this morning, we were in high spirits as we knew the finish line was near. We had one more minor single cyclist wipeout with no injuries which makes Tour total to 3 'small' wipeouts and no real 'crashes' which is excellent and worthy to note as good communication and dedication to training made that possible. We were so fortunate to have Quesnel traffic section help control traffic all the way to Williams Lake for us - in the inclement weather, it enabled us to ride in a group and leave lots of space between bikers for everyone's safety. And we weren't the only one that got completely soaked that day as one of the members was riding on the police motorcycle along side us all day!
We slogged along and tried to keep the smiles on our faces for the duration of the rainy day - lots of jokes, singing and poking going on but all in good fun! Another incredible roadside lunch at McLeese Lake that consisted of hot Timmy's coffee and soup which was as popular to hold in your hands as it was to eat! As we approached the crest of our last hill before descending into Williams Lake a couple of police vehicles showed up to escort us in - and than 2 more - and than 2 more - and than 1 or 2 more! What an impressive light show bringing us into town - oncoming motorists probably initial thought was a funeral procession for some very important person but once they saw us they were honking and cheering and waving out their windows! It sure gave us the 'get up and go' to do that last cold downhill stretch where the rain kinda felt like small hail on the face!
We pushed through our rest breaks and arrived in town ahead of schedule which allowed us to get out of the wet clothes and into something dry before attending the Welcome ceremony at Boitanio Park. We were 'piped in' by some local pipers and had a nice turnout from the public for the finale to our day and our week. The fun wasn't done as we had a dinner at TRU and another fabulous community turnout for dinner!
An amazing trip with a great group of people - nice to accomplish an 800+ km trip (I think it was 807.5!) and know that you 'gelled' really well as a group and even though most of us had never met before, we were there for a common goal and that brought us together to form a strong team - the goal to make life a little bit better for a child going through cancer.
Nice job guys and thanks for the incredible support from every community in the North that helped make this Tour a success!
Footnote from Day 6
I was so tired when I wrote Day 6 I forgot to report on the funniest thing that happened all day! First occurrence was a llama that rushed the fence at our arrival at the edge of her property (I have no idea if the llama was a female but we will go with that) Still not sure if she was excited or angry - hard to tell with a llama. She must have told her friends the horses 7 farms down because a herd of about 8 or 9 horses broke into a full gallop at the fence line when we passed! That was followed by one lone white horse a few kms down that had the most confused horse expression I have every seen on a horse as we rode by......
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Day 6 - Prince George to Quesnel 120+ km
Before heading out of PG this morning we attended a school where the kids met us with incredible noise and enthusiasm! The kids cheered loud and put a smile on our face for the rest of our day! One of the small students has just recently gone through numerous cancer treatments and her schoolmates have rallied together to support her and her family. The school collected all their change and allowances and donated it to the Cops for Cancer tour! We talked with some of the students about why we are doing the Tour and tried to encourage them to maintain a healthy life style.
We headed out in some dense fog this morning that didn't burn off till mid morning but than the sun came to shine all day again! We rolled in to Hixon for lunch and were once again met by the local elementary school kids who welcomed us to their community and than asked us all kinds questions about our bikes and Tour. They were a pretty fun group and I think the best question was "do you take naps?"
The after lunch route was pretty challenging and there was some big and long hill climbs which has us pretty exhausted tonight - especially that last one that should have had a summit sign on the top deeming it a mountain but the Canadian Tire flag was just as good! We still made good time and got to Quesnel on schedule and were welcomed at the Canadian Tire by community members. We had an extra treat of massage therapists that gave all the riders a quick massage on those sore leg and back muscles - that was muchly appreciated! Another fantabulous supper and all are heading to bed a little early tonight so we can be on our "A" game tomorrow!
We headed out in some dense fog this morning that didn't burn off till mid morning but than the sun came to shine all day again! We rolled in to Hixon for lunch and were once again met by the local elementary school kids who welcomed us to their community and than asked us all kinds questions about our bikes and Tour. They were a pretty fun group and I think the best question was "do you take naps?"
The after lunch route was pretty challenging and there was some big and long hill climbs which has us pretty exhausted tonight - especially that last one that should have had a summit sign on the top deeming it a mountain but the Canadian Tire flag was just as good! We still made good time and got to Quesnel on schedule and were welcomed at the Canadian Tire by community members. We had an extra treat of massage therapists that gave all the riders a quick massage on those sore leg and back muscles - that was muchly appreciated! Another fantabulous supper and all are heading to bed a little early tonight so we can be on our "A" game tomorrow!
Day 5 - Mackenzie to Prince George - a long way....
It was an early morning as we had a long haul in front of us for today - our longest cycling day on Tour - just shy of 200 km! Don't worry Josh M's mom in Ontario - we all made it safe and sound!
We were blessed with a bit of a tailwind which allowed us to maintain a speed of well over 30 km an hour most of the day. This team is so strong that we are even going up small hills at 28 km an hour in a group - when riding along most of us would have only been at 16 or 17 km an hour!
We had small 'controlled' breaks today and kept on a strict schedule in order to be on time for our arrival into Prince George. We stopped in Bear Lake for lunch which was provided by the local ambulance crew - delicious! We enjoy all the honking motorists and even had a farmer in his tractor honk at us today!
We had one small wipe out on the railway tracks but nothing serious. Arrived in PG with pliantly of time to spare and had a nice rest before heading down the Hart Hwy at a mock speed of 42 km an hour - apparently someone didn't want the locals to see us dawdling along??? It was the hardest part of the whole day!
We drove by the soccer fields and kids cheered us on before we arrived at CNC to a large group of cheering family, friends and community partners. Incredible welcome event which sure puts a smile on your face!
Cutting this short today as we have to hit the road to Quesnel this morning and I have to find me some pancakes!
We were blessed with a bit of a tailwind which allowed us to maintain a speed of well over 30 km an hour most of the day. This team is so strong that we are even going up small hills at 28 km an hour in a group - when riding along most of us would have only been at 16 or 17 km an hour!
We had small 'controlled' breaks today and kept on a strict schedule in order to be on time for our arrival into Prince George. We stopped in Bear Lake for lunch which was provided by the local ambulance crew - delicious! We enjoy all the honking motorists and even had a farmer in his tractor honk at us today!
We had one small wipe out on the railway tracks but nothing serious. Arrived in PG with pliantly of time to spare and had a nice rest before heading down the Hart Hwy at a mock speed of 42 km an hour - apparently someone didn't want the locals to see us dawdling along??? It was the hardest part of the whole day!
We drove by the soccer fields and kids cheered us on before we arrived at CNC to a large group of cheering family, friends and community partners. Incredible welcome event which sure puts a smile on your face!
Cutting this short today as we have to hit the road to Quesnel this morning and I have to find me some pancakes!
Monday, September 12, 2011
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