A wonderful way to celebrate a milestone birthday

Last Friday I celebrated one of those milestone birthdays by turning 65. Turning 40 or 50 is tough enough but your 65th birthday is a  real quantum leap. At 65 you are eligible for the Canada Pension Plan.

But it turned into an amazing day. All day long my computer gave off little beeps and a message would come through that another GearUp4CF donation had come in. Many had 65 somewhere in the amount. Most were from Ontario. When my sisters Geri and Annette called I realized they had mounted a very united campaign to their friends and colleagues to encourage donations on my birthday. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to my Ontario family: Geri, Annette, Pat, John, Arlene, Deanie, their children and their multitudes of friends and colleagues for being so generous and for making this such a special day.  190 donors have now raised over $38,000 for the 65for65 Roses campaign.

Our three CF riders- George Keulen, Paul Underhill and Mike Hamilton

Spin-a-Thon

Sharron Bates of Global TV organized and hosted a GearUp4CF Spin-a-Thon on Friday May 2 which was hugely successful. 15 riders were present and at 6 am. we started spinning. Every 40 minutes we were broadcast live on morning Global TV. Walter Brennen and I all had a chance to bring out what it is like to be involved in CF as parents, Paul Underhill tales about leading a much different life as as a lung transplant recipient and Mike Hamilton discussed his life as a young adult coping and living with CF. We had 3 volunteers leading us out  on our 4 hour spin class including Michel Pelletier from my Vancouver Velovet club who covered the last two hours. As the start to CF awareness month we also had a young CF child Luka on the show. We raised over 5,000 dollars that day through the CF office and my personal donations also climbed significantly. Good work to all the riders , the volunteers, and to Sharron for her hard work not only organizing the event but being behind the camera.

Riding Season

This is the time of the year when riding starts to become fun. It's time to put away the booties, leave the winter gear in the closet, and stuff the rain jacket in the back pocket. The cherry blossoms are in bloom in the Lower Mainland and it's glorious to be riding on the open road. It's still not warm out but 13 degrees is a lot better than 5 degrees. On Good Friday Paul Underhill hosted a Ride for Life to support transplant and close to 60 riders cycled 102 kilometres through the gorgeous Saanich countryside. It's always great to ride with locals and I was lucky to be guided around by Peter Dickinson, a long time local rider with a strong cadence and a great Trek bike. I'm still a worker bee so it's only now that you can go out after work and get in a decent ride and be home before dark. I love spring.

T.I.T.S.

In the early spring of 2008 I was training on my own when I was lucky to meet up with other Gear Up trainees Sandy, Mieko and Brian. What were solitary slogs up SFU mountain became shared hardship and long rides all over the Fraser Valley. One rainy day while riding toward Cypress Mountain Sandy told me she had met and ridden with Dr. David Speert, our original GearUp4CF rider,  who quizzed her about her training. A conversation ensued and his parting words were "Well Sandy all you need now are some tits" . Well Sandy is a nurse and used to hearing just about everything but she was a bit non-plussed about this rather pointed remark  looked down and said to Dave that she really had no problem with her body image. At which point he said "No, not tits,..... TITS, that is Time In The Saddle"".

And that is where we are in our training now. the weather has improved dramatically and now the GearUp trainees need some long rides and Time In The Saddle.

The Rewards of Riding

Wednesday evening about 7:30 pm as the sun was setting over the cranberry fields on Number 7 Road and River Road in Richmond

Here it is! Check out my clip on Breakfast Television, they selected me as their Athlete of the Week!