Quality of Life

This weekend I'm taking a shot at one of the "2007 Goals" that I set for myself late last year - riding a double century in one day.

A "century", in cycling lingo, is a 100 mile ride - usually during the course of one day. Personally, I believe that if you sleep at anyone point on a ride, waking up and getting back on your bike counts as a new ride, so I'm not sure that I subscribe to the notion that 50 miles today and 50 miles tomorrow counts as a century, but whatever. Each to their own.

There's also a "metric century" (100 kilometres), brevets (time-limited rides of 200 kilometres or more - up to 1200 kilometres from what I understand). The "double century" is simply the equivalent of 2 century rides - or 322 kilometres in total.

When I tell people that I'm doing this, one of two things come out of their mouth a) a solid "Are you crazy?" or b) a pretty stiff "Why?". The answer to the first is easy - no, I'm not crazy, I actually do enjoy these types of challenges. Even though it is very tiring, both mentally and physically, I always come away from these types of things stronger - which is never a bad thing.

The answer to the second is a little more complicated. I do these rides for a couple of reasons. A few years ago, I was introduced to the notion of riding long distances to raise money to help kids with cancer lead more normal lives by sending them to summer camp. The formula was very simple ride far, raise money, feel good. Problem was, when you ride far (800 or so kilometres over a 4 day period, etc.) you start thinking of other reasons why you are riding, which makes answering "Why?" more complicated. I've been doing this for a few years now, so the answer is getting really complicated :)

When I first started riding five years ago, my grandfather was in the process of having a lung removed and going through chemotherapy. His experiences and total refusal to give in lead me to quit smoking and get serious about my health. He gave me the understanding that no matter how bad things got for me, all I needed to do was want something bad enough, and there was a pretty good chance I could achieve it. Years later, he's still kicking around and enjoying his life - simply because he wanted to and did what it took to get there. I ride on those same terms.

Things are a little different for your average kid with cancer. For a kid, being normal is a big deal. Growing up, most kids spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to just be a kid, fit in and lead an average existence. Cancer changes this. Suddenly, things that used to be easy, become hard. Fitting in at school is almost impossible. Family life often becomes strained. Luxuries like summer camp become unattainable. No matter how much a kid with cancer wants to be normal, it is one of the hardest things for them to achieve. Even worse, they're gonna try real hard to be normal when their sole focus should be on surviving their cancer. Being normal isn't something they should waste their energy on.

I have the luxury of wasting my energy on things like long rides, and I do so in the hope that it will raise awareness of a great charity, so that when I come knocking with my hat in my hand, you will open your wallet and give generously so that this year, a few more kids can focus on kicking their cancer while at the same time spending a few weeks at a special place that helps them remember what being normal is all about.

The name of one of these camps is Camp Quality. Originally an Australian camp, it was brought to Canada in 1988 by Vera Entwhistle, the founder of the original camp down-under. According to the Camp Quality website, "...while Vera was trying to come up with a name for her new camp, a doctor said to her, “No one can do anything about the quantity of life, but we all can do something about the quality."

So I guess the answer is pretty simple after all.

I ride for Quality.

Will you help me? We can all do something about Quality.

This weekend is a freebie. I'm putting in the miles by myself, riding from Toronto to Niagara Falls and back solely to raise awareness about the fact that on August 16, I'll be doing the real thing, and I want to do it with the benefit of having raised $20,000 in sponsorship funds that will all go towards making normal possible for these kids. So I will need your help. So far, I've raised approximately $8000. That's almost half way there. But halfway, doesn't mean half-done, it means not done. Remember what I said about riding a century 50 miles at a time? I can't raise $20,000 this year if I only get half way there.

When I get back, I'll post a few more details about this weekends ride, why you should give generously to the Tour for Kids and give you a chance to participate in a pretty cool sponsorship corporate opportunity that me and a few of the guys are putting together.