GearUp Day 7: Creston-Cranbrook

There is nothing worse in cycling than starting your ride in the pouring rain, and that is exactly what happened today.  After putting on all the warm clothes I had, trying to be as water proof as possible, within three minutes of riding I was pretty much soaked through.  In the words of one of the riders who had to sit today out, "in those first km's there wasn't anyone smiling or hooting or hollering, no one looked happy to be on the road."

My legs felt quite heavy all day and I pretty much just tried to stay in the middle of the pace line or on someone's wheel all day.  Today was one of those rides everyone just wanted to put their heads down and get through, and we did get through it quite fast...103km's in 3h48min.

For me, the first 60km's though were all about pushing through the mental barriers of wanting to get in the car...it actually turned out to be a pretty emotional day for me.  Just before rolling out this morning I read on Facebook about a friend who was recently admitted to St. Paul's for CF reasons...this really stuck with me all day.  As I was riding and wanting nothing more than to quit I kept remembering back to my old hospital room in St. Paul's and what my friend was going through.  I remembered unpacking all my stuff at each admission, the smell of the antibacterial wipes, the total lack of privacy, the constant interruptions, the shitty food, and the beeping from the fucking I.V. pump...it was at this point that I found myself actually crying for about 3 minutes during the ride.  I remember so often sitting in Room 1 of ward 8A and wanting nothing more than to be able to get out of there...and here I was today complaining about some stupid rain while having the opportunity to bike over 100km's.  It is amazing how CF puts things in perspective, and today was the perfect reminder about why we are doing this ride and just how shitty every single part of CF is.

I know my own health is still very fragile and I face my own post-transplant complications, but when I think back to those long day, weeks and months I spent in St. Paul's I just can't help but be so incredibly humbled by the gift of life I have been given.  This ride has been very physically and mentally demanding and we are not done yet, but how could I ever complain about some stupid rain or a headwind when so many people with CF are still fighting the fight to breathe.  If any of my CF friends are reading this tonight, and I know this doesn't really help you in any way, but please know that you are the ones who got me through the day today, thank-you.

Some rainy pics:

We were wet before we even turned a spoke.

Pace line in the rain.