Hallo Fellow Bolwellers,
I wanted to thank you for your contribution and
support for my participation in the Ride to Conquer Cancer fundraising
for the WA Institute of Medical Research the other weekend. The ride was
a two day affair with Saturday cycling 95km
from McCallum Park to Pinjarra via Armadale, with the trip back on
Sunday passing through Rockingham and Fremantle and covering 115km. Over
1200 riders participated, with another hundred or so volunteers and
over $4.6 million raised so far with another 4 weeks
of fundraising to go. One of Sunsupers’ (the major sponsor) bosses is
an ex Irish Olympic cyclist and he took part, as did many people who
work for the WA Institute of Medical Research. Many people who had
either fought through cancer or who were currently
undergoing cancer treatment also rode, and they had some pretty
inspirational stories to share. So there was lots of good and
interesting and uplifting conversations throughout the weekend.
Fortunately it was all really positive with the one exception of the
second highest fundraiser passing away from his cancer battle a week
prior to the ride.
One guy started the ride on a unicycle, a lot of
tandems, mountain bikes and fixies, plus most people on road bikes (no
Bolwells). Getting down took between two and a half and about 8 hours
which obviously matched the different ability
levels of those participating. Fortunately when arriving at Pinjarra,
bags were found and moved to the tent (once found as well). There was a
massage tent which if you got to after lunch you had a wait of over an
hour before a rub down. Yoga, a relaxation
tent with tea, barista coffee, tim tams and tv was available as well.
Little Creatures had a beer stall and all cyclists had a couple of
drinks provided and then lunch and dinner was pretty good as well.
Cheesecake and profiteroles for dessert
J
Sunday had most people waking up about 430 and then
breakfast and more coffee before we departed Pinjarra just before seven
in the morning. The ride north to Rockingham was pretty comfortable,
but as soon as we hit the coast the north easterly
kicked in and the last sixty kay was all about working through the
headwind. But as a challenge it’s nothing to knowing what people have to
fight through when going through chemotherapy, which makes it pretty
easy to dig a little deeper and push through the
wind.
Anyway, thanks for reading and again for your help.
And I look forward to driving around again at the end of the month,
hopefully in the correct little red car (the pretty one)
J
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