50K Becel Ride for Heart 2016

On Sunday June 5th, I joined 20,000 people who participated in the Becel Ride for Heart 2016 :)

It had been nearly 4 years since I did the last Ride, and 2 years since I last rode a bike, so to do the Ride again, I was a bit nervous.  It didn't help that forecast said rain either.  But rain or shine, the ride would go on - though my preference would be no rain obviously.  Though I didn't train for it, I knew it to be a more leisure sort of event vs competitive.  Basically stay to your right if you're a slow bike rider; the faster riders would be on the left.

Since my bike had been in storage for so long, I had to make sure it was still in good riding condition.  I pumped up the tires and oiled the gears and took it out for a short ride on the Friday along the Martin Goodman trail.  Everything went well, I was relieved.  My bike good to go; lol as was I.  Muscle memory did not fail me.

The Saturday night, I was out late with friends, having gone to the Stratford festival to watch Chorus Line.  Following a little pitstop at the Halton Hills Outlet mall, and then we had birthday celebration (my friend Susans' birthday) at a

Chorus Line Musical @ Stratford Festival

korean restaurant which ended late.  Lots of fun, but by the time I returned home, it was nearly 1am.  Not good at all since I had to get up in... 4 hours? haha  After freshening up, it was 1:30am.  Now it was 3.5 hours.  Sleep did not come easily as I was worried I'd oversleep and miss the checkin time - latest was 8:30am for the 50K riders.  I wanted to get there for the earliest possible one, 6:30am since I knew I wasn't a strong rider, I would need all the time I could get.  So I was up by 5am (though I had woken up at least a dozen times, 3am, 4am, 4:50am, lol.  I'm not even sure if I slept at all!).  At any rate, adrenaline helped me a lot, along with a blend of both excitement and anxiety.

I geared up with my new adventure hydration pack (one that I had purchased for my Northface Race), packing extra clothes and socks in case they got wet in the rain.  For the past few nights I had been checking with the weather network on the weather, just to see if there were any changes.  However, it kept saying it was going to rain AND thunderstorm eventually.  I checked hourly time as well - it wasn't looking good.  Either way, to be safe, I had worn a long sleeve technical shirt, along with a light sweater and a raincoat.  I really didn't want to catch a cold.

I ate quickly, making a open-faced peanut butter sandwich and made another non-open faced one to go; just in case I got hungry and needed energy.  I put that in the pocket of my rain jacket for easy access. LOL literally, food in my pocket.  Packed away in my pack I also had cliff block gummies for electrolytes, and extra water (and a Chinese rice crispy, for that sugar rush if needed).

Flat tire on my hybrid bike!

I was out the door and I rode to the Martin Goodman trail.  Just as I arrived there, I heard this strange screeching sound.  I dismounted from my bike and then inspected my bike.  Oh my.  The back tire, it was completely deflated!  I was sure that I had pumped it up on the Friday.  I checked if it was because the cap was loose, maybe I could just return home and re-pump the tires.  But it was tightly capped on the tire.  This meant that my tire must have had a flat somewhere.  Nooooo.  I was no expert with fixing flats, so I pulled the bike along and walked back to my house.

I didn't want to give up though.  After dropping off my bike at my house, I took transit to reach my workplace which had some spare bikes available.  I had asked previously if I could borrow one for the ride (as my bike at the time hadn't been tuned up yet), so it was really a backup.  Who would have known that the backup would be my main option.  I was thankful for the mountain bike though.

I picked up the bike and then rode it to the Martin Goodman trail and then to the Exhibition place.  I had never rode there on my own before so I was little worried I'd get lost.  But with the ever so helpful google maps and also seeing a lot of people with the heart and stroke helmet cap, I was able to follow and get to the startline without incident.

After riding there, I had already done 10km.  I was tired. LOL. And the race hadn't started yet.  It was 8am.  I checked my phone to see if my friend (Susan) had arrived.  There was nothing, but I assumed she must have started already and had no time to message since she was doing it with family.

I texted her anyway, telling her that I had arrived and wished her luck with the ride.  Just as I was about to get on my bike to start the ride, I looked over and saw Howard adjusting his bike.  I kinda did a double take of course, what were really the chances of that?  We greeted each other, laughing at the oddity of it all and I asked where Susan was and she literally just walked up to me, not too far behind the rest of her family members doing the ride.  Talk about a morning of coincidences though!

Anthony, Me, Howard (behind me), Susan @ the Ride for heart start line

We took a quick picture together and we set off.  While I only had to ride on my own bike and carry my own weight, she took on the task of alternating with her cousin in pulling her nephew along for the ride.  I could imagine it was no easy task.  We rode at first together, and then I rode ahead for a little bit, stopping occassionally to wait for them to catch up.

There was a yellow school bus, however, that followed close behind us, like a constant reminder that we had to keep pedalling lol.  There was one point where I waited a while and found that I couldn't see them.  I rode on ahead, thinking I would eventually see them down the line, not that I was biking all that fast, lol I was starting to feel some discomfort on my saddle.

Finally, I reached the 25km - 50km split mark.  I had a choice then... I hadn't seen Susan for a while, so I wasn't sure if she opted to do the 25km (with the family) or continued the 50K.  Aside from that, everyone biked at their own pace, just like in running.
In terms of my weariness, I was pretty tired at this point, the 25K seemed like the easier way out.  But then... when did I ever choose that ;)  I had no reason to quit.  I signed up for the 50K.  It wasn't raining.  My legs were doing fine (just the soreness from the saddle bothered me.  I could do this.  I should do it).  And so I rode on.

I rode on my own for a bit and then I bumped into Howard.  He updated me on what happened to Susan, flat tire on the bikes.  Oh boy, I've had my share of it, so I understood.

Howard and I continued to ride on for a bit, I struggled quite a bit with the uphills.  Like struggled struggled.  lol the 'walk of shame' (walking up the hills!) even happened, though I tried my best to avoid it.  At one point though, I told him to go on, since he was on a road bike and technically speaking, I was totally slowing him down.  Besides, they had plans afterwards, not like my plan:  to bike home straight afterwards.  You see, I didn't have a bike lock lol.

After he rode off, I took my time on the hills, some walking, others I pedalled to the metal allowing the momentum of a down hill help me go up.  All the while, I kept noticing the dark storm clouds looming above me.  I would glance every so often at my watch, remembering that the forecast said it was going to storm in the afternoon.  Hurry.  Hurry!  Must stay ahead of the storm clouds! lol.

Toronto - Cityscape

I finally saw the Toronto cityscape.  Very nice, I had thought at that moment, at the same time, it also indicated that it was almost done.  lol.

Keep pedalling.. just a little while longer.  But I made sure not to over do it, I still had to reserve energy to bike home.  From that stretch until the Exhibition place, it seemed like forever.  I kept reading the signs on the highway, when I finally saw, "Next Exit:  Exhibition Place", I had expected to see the Exhibition place... but it was no where in sight. Where was it?  Why was it so far?  lol.  At this point, my discomfort on my saddle had intensified, I could feel every little bump.  I took a little more rest (dismount walk 2 minute, back on bike).  I didn't want to spend too much time out here, as I still feared for the storm to break out at any moment.  I was so close also.

Finally, I saw it.  The Exhibition place.  I was so happy.  So so happy.  I was even happier when I passed another finish checkpoint where it indicated that we all had to dismount our bikes and walk from that point on.  Yes.  Gladly.

I dismounted and walked a few meters and then saw lots of food being housed in front of me.  Bagels (three choices! plain, blueberry, and raisin!), with becel butter.  They had apples, bananas, and oranges I think.  And Eskin water.  I was just happy to see a bagel.  The bagel came with a fork.  Awesome.  I picked the raisin one and started eating it ferociously.  lol!  You'd think I never had a bagel in my life!  But after 60K (including my morning biking), that bagel was delicious.

I ate my bagel, chewing it with such relief as well, I walked passed where they were giving out the medals.  One of the attendants was going to give it to me, but my hands were full (water, bagel and bike lol), and he had to put it around my neck.  It was quite the feat since I hadn't taken off my helmet yet.  We had a good laugh at that.  After that I made my way to an empty picnic bench and plopped down happily.  Ouch.  It hurt, but it felt so much better than being on a bike.

I kept chewing on my bagel.  Mmm... so good.  I checked my phone then and saw I had messages.  Susan apparently had finished a 15 minutes ago.  She had done the 25K with her cousin and filled in the gap of what had happened after the flat had happened.  Volunteers had aided them in fixing their tires so they were able to continue their ride, though the bike Susan had to ride on couldn't completely be fixed.  Her bike no longer had the gliding capability, so in order to keep moving, she had to keep pedalling.  Wow, that must have been tough I thought.  But silver lining, great exercise? haha.

She said she and Howard were in the parking lot putting away the bikes, and asked if I wanted to get a ride back home.  I was actually okay riding home (reserved energy for it already), but the offer... the temptation of just sitting in a soft cushiony car instead of on the bike again... lol I couldn't reject it.  I was game for the ride, though it was a matter of whether my bike would fit on the bike rack.

Sushi Burrito

They tried several times, but nearly gave up on putting my bike on there.  However, luckily on the last try, it clipped properly on the bike rack.  Yay!  Now it was a matter of fitting me in the backseat. There was another bike on the other side of the backseat so I had to squish into the back.  But all was good.  I wasn't complaining. lol.

Susan and Howard went to wash their hands and then I got a call from Susan saying they saw a Sushi Burrito truck; did I want something?

Given how much I loved that bagel, and sushi = more carbs in my system, I was happy to jump at the proposition.  We got the softshell crab burrito and the spicy salmon one.  They were delicious!

Mac and Cheese Festival 2016

After engulfing the sushi within probably 5 minutes? we ended up deciding to go to the Mac and Cheese festival which was just at Ontario place.

We walked over, purchased 15 food tickets and wandered around.  We tried samples, got free coconut water, and also purchased on mac and cheese to share (it was a mac and cheese ball).  After we ate it we all realized that we were too full to really enjoy the food, so we used up the rest of the tickets to get takeout instead.

Mac and Cheese (deepfried)

It was just as well because as we just as we bought our last takeout item, the skies had suddenly gotten really dark.  Yep.  The storm was coming, and it was coming very quickly.   We swiftly made our way back to Susan's car and just as we neared the BMO field building, it started to rain.  We made a mad dash and got into the car before it really started to pour.  The rain was like an accumulation of weeks with no rain, it crashed down like a waterfall.  Driving in it was no walk in the park either.

Rain rain rain...

Thankfully by the time we reached my place, it had stopped - perhaps the clouds didn't extend all the way to my area ;) who knows... I wasn't complaining and so weren't my friends who still had to help me get the bike off the rack in the back.  Once I got home, I thanked my friends, and rolled both the mountain bike and hybrid bike to storage.  I freshened up and then just relaxed by watching some television.  It was nice just to sit. haha.

All in all, I made it.  The Ride was a lot of fun, and it could be an annual thing now :)  Once I fix that flat in my hybrid bike, I'll try to do more bike trails so that next year it would be easier.  Many thanks to the wonderful supporters who sponsored me for the ride:  Lynette, Madeline, Cecilia, and Kai!  For those that are still interested in making a contribution, I believe they are still accepting donations:  Heart & Stroke Ride for Heart Donation webpage