Tour de Cure - It All Starts Tomorrow!!

Hi everyone!

In February I sent many of you a note - letting you know of an adventure I had signed up for called Tour de Cure, where a group of guys and girls were going to get together and ride from Brisbane to Sydney to raise money for three Cancer Charities.... It seems like ages since that note! At that stage, I was bemoaning the early morning training sessions, my struggle to get fit quickly, being carried into air-conditioned service stations with heat exhaustion and the like...

Well, a lot can happen in three months - both personally and for the tour! Here's a quick summary... (actually, on reflection, it's not that quick!!)

For me:

The early morning training sessions continued - sometimes 4-5 days per week! To give you a flavour of an average day.... The alarm goes at 4am, and it's always the greatest temptation to roll over and concede that only the maddest of madmen would contemplate getting up at that hour of the day! And the madness continues, as you don the lycra, force food into your mouth, and pedal off into the night! Yes, by any definition, it's still night-time at 4.30am!! In recent times I've had a riding partner on the first part of the route. But up until then it was just me and my lycra, pedaling through the weird pre-dawn of Kings Cross, en route to the north shore to meet the rest of the team... The people are mostly friendly though, and I've had many girls ask me if I wanted a "date" as I cycled past... They're obviously impressed by the improving fitness levels they've been witnessing over the past couple of months...

From there it's cross the Harbour Bridge and into Maiseys at Neutral Bay for the first coffee of the morning! Adam, our barista there, knows all the orders by heart now, and he's working on remembering our names! The banter is pretty animated for 5am - but I generally find that I'm still in wake-up mode, and am more subdued than the rest... Plus - I know that Spit Hill is looming once the coffees are finished - and that thought seems to invade my subconscious and override any potential frivolity!

On the bikes again, and it's a bit of a race down Spit Hill, and up the other side... No-one ever claims it's a race, but unofficially speaking, if you're leading and you look back twice or more to see who's following, then "it's on!!" And there's enough A-Type personalities in the pack to make sure the hill is always keenly contested! I have only made it up first once... And it was a day when there were only three of us riding! I was careful not to look back at all - fearing that I would signal something to the two people behind... I quietly (well, as quietly as you can, when your lungs and quads are exploding in unison) went about the climb, and was rewarded with a view at the top which, for the first time ever, did not involve other people's lycra'ed butts...

We then try to pick up a bigger pack of cyclists heading north from Manly... Depending on which day it is, their speed varies... My favourite day is Wednesday, when they're having a "light spin". This means I can keep up! On other days, I still get dropped off the back... Which I really don't mind that much - as it's better than being yelled at (it happens) if you're not going fast enough!

Around Warriewood / Newport (and sometimes Church Point) the Tour de Cure guys turn for home, and head back along the coast towards Manly... It's about now that the sun starts to creep up over the ocean, and you start to feel like it's really really worthwhile getting out of bed. It's hard to describe some of the sunrises we have seen lately! Suffice to say that for a month or so, every day was different and increasingly more spectacular than the last!

One more coffee in Manly, and then back to the city where I get to my office by 8am - and still beat most people to work (though doubtless they're more productive in the afternoons, when I'm trying to pick the lock to the door of the sick bay so I can crawl in for a nap...)

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And here I am on the morning before the ride starts, feeling nervous and excited in equal measure! The last few weeks have been "mental" in terms of workload and travel, and I'm wishing I could have done more training to build on the hard work of the past few months (did I just say that!?). But I'm hoping I have done enough to get me over the line!! Anyway, the bags are packed, and the legs are freshly shaved - so there's not much more I can do, except get the flight to Brisbane this afternoon and startpedaling tomorrow!!

Without sounding OTT, this past few months have been quite a special time for me - largely because of my involvement with TDC. Not only have I got the benefit of losing weight, and being much much fitter than I ever have been. But I have got so much out of the involvement with the team and seeing the direct benefit of the work we are doing. To give an example, at one of our breakfasts in Sydney, we had a young cancer patient come in to talk to us. He's 15, and has an inoperable tumour in his brain which is also causing him to become blind. And his goal is to become a comedian!! He got up with Gretel Killeen in front of the audience, and performed some stand-up for us! If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is!!

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me to make this goal a reality over the past few months. To all my friends who have so generously donated money to my cause - a massive thank you!! Your generosity is overwhelming and totally humbling. I have reached my goal of raising more than $10,000 through all of your support!!

If you have pledged support - the on-line payment system is now up and running!!

Two special notes of thanks!

To my family - who have all been "shaking the can" on my behalf - thank you so much for all of your efforts! You know how much I appreciate it!!

And to David Bayes at Choice Hotels. Thank you so much for all your incredible support!! Choice Hotels have provided us with all our accommodation for the trip - an incredible gift to us which means we can give more money directly to the Charities!

Many others have asked me to re-send the link to the website, which I will do below...

www.tourdecure.com.au

To donate, just click on "the team" tab, and then on my head!