pedal for hope ride

today i got to ride with the pedal for hope team. these guys (and one woman rider) are all police officers as well as john druce the former nhl player who managed to work his way onto the team and really belongs there to be honest! they ride on their holidays - so three weeks - 1000 km and 53 schools!

the reason they ride is to raise money to help in the fight against cancer - especially pediatric cancer.

i lead my school in fundraising for the pedal for hope campaing and we worked for seven days

selling cupcakes, cookies, holding a raffle, hat day, stuffie day, jammie day, movie day, all sorts of stuff!

this is my second time working with the team and my first time riding with them.

it might seem strange but i barely slept the night before and couldn't eat breakfast.

the day started at st. catherines school and they were swamped with heads to be shaved (which is the really big fundraiser) so we got off to a fairly late start off to my school (otonabee valley). we had a police escort and rode in a loose echolon single-file. the pace was really nice - 30 to 45 km/h with one stretch downhill where i cracked 60+ km/h for the first time on a bike.

then we got to ride along the highway as the escort shut down a lane for us. that was extremely sweet as the road surface was smooth.

really smooth.

here are the bikes lined up outside my school.

and here's me and my buddy sgt. marc habgood having a little quality time.

we raised $2300 towards cancer research.

april 18. 2010

after a winter of riding my road bike on rollers in the basement, it's a special joy to get out into the wind and bugs and pollen of a peterborough spring day. i ride every day to and from the school i teach at - eight km each way so no big deal - but it's a rain-or-shine deal so i've been experiencing every kind of weather and am pretty much unphased by whatever mother nature throws or blows my way.

today was a special ride. it was a fundraiser for camp kawartha, a camp that offers high-quality programs for kids. some kids simply can't afford to go and that's not right so my ride brought some money into a fund set aside to offer those kids a chance to enjoy the outdoors.

the ride to the camp kawartha environment centre from my home is about fifteen km. from there the ride to lakefield is an additional ten kilometres so a round trip of fifty kilometres. not a big ride at all but made more challenging by the insistent gusting of wind from the north east. the sky was clear, there were loads of riders and runners on the route - everybody was in a happy space - and so off i went.

i love riding on my own. it allows me to experience the ride and the scenery and then to tune into the little details along the way. i'm trying to figure out how to feel alright about stopping to take photographs. i'm sure that seems strange but really, i see something and in my mind i see it on a blog or in a frame and i've got to slow down, turn around, go back and photograph it.

in other bike news, i'll be riding with the pedal for hope team on tuesday morning (april 20). i'm so thrilled to have this special honour. at the end of the ride - which will be at my school (otonabee valley school) i'll be getting my head shaved. i've been leading the fundraising for that for the last little while. i'm hoping that we can raise a thousand or more dollars.

oh and fundraising for my africycle ride is going well - i'm a quarter of the way there!!!!