Day One - Lunch to Camp...

So here we go - 'hop on ya bike!' and off we went, happy. Bike has been 're'serviced, body has been refueled, sock has been changed (and the single thrown away - deal with that sock monster in my washing machine! Now I may pull a pair out of the wash!!). Now we just had a 'mere' 46 kilometres to get to camp - how hard could it be, we had already completed over 70...
This is when we discovered that there is someone with a serious sense of sadism on the planning crew of the Ride to Conquer Cancer. Feeling fantastic, we all head away from lunch in our own time... to be faced with a hill that cars drive up by dropping to first gear! This hill is one serious hill! Apparently it is 1.4 kilometres with a gradient of 12% - are you reading this? I'm talking to you serious cyclists. This is one of the places you need to come and visit. This is the wall of the Wivenhoe Dam from what I understand. I'll be putting a Garmin post up (which I will pinch from one of the other riders' data) at the end of the Ride Adventure blogs to show you all where we went. This is truly a challenge. Every single person that rode their bike past us (while we were walking our way up - this is going to change next year - we WILL conquer this crazy, mad, sadistic hill!!) Carly yelled encouragement to... by name... loudly. In their wiseness, the organisers of the Ride had provided every single participant with name plates that had to be attached to their bikes, which meant that when you felt like you couldn't go on, a friendly voice would yell out encouragement - it was truly fantastic! The atmosphere that this one little idea created, made this one of the best events that Carly has ever participated in, and she has done a few!! It was my first!

Top of the hill = stop, nibble on something sugary, rehydrate, then jump back on the bike, get down low and go, go, GO!!! OMG - so much fun! The wind in my ears at 70km an hour, bring it on, again and again and again. Yeeehaaaa! Now I understand what Carly sees in thrill rides!

After this HUGE hill, we had several others and it all started to become way tooooo much, we began having random discussions with strangers who would get halfway up the next hill and then fall off their bikes, cleats still attached! We, of course, had to do the right thing and stop and walk with them! The brain started to give up before the legs towards the end of this section. Carly kept trying to not pay attention when someone in front would give up and get off their bike, but, it gets really hard to keep going. The last hill of this section, we forced our eyes down to the road and made a pact to not look up until we got to the top, short and steep, go legs, go legs, go legs. Push down, Pull up. Don't stop! Next thing, rewards! At the crest of the hill and looking at a descent so sweet with a sweeping bend on a cambered road. Yay, this was going to be fun!

It was so good! Down the hill, wind in my whiskers, round the sweeping bend, nice lean in, and what do our eyes see ahead of us?! The last Pit Stop! It took sooo long to complete this measely 22 kilometres, but there it was - done! Only 24kms to go until camp. Rest, rehydrate, munch a little (don't you love cut up orange pieces, it reminds me of school sport at primary school!), spoke to a few Ride people sho reassured us that the rest of the ride was a breeze, the hardest bit was all over and the last part was basically a nice easy long cool down. Carly's been a fitness trainer for a very long time, her interpretation of long cool down and their's conflict completely! Although, nobody ever said that this ride was going to be easy and if it wasn't a challenge, it wouldn't really be worth it, so hear me loud and clear. This last '24'kms was anything but easy.
I am pretty sure that I haven't mentioned that Carly has a little computer on her bike, it has 8 functions, but on this ride, the most important function was the ordometer. Throughout the ride it has given us hope, we look at it to see how far we have been and to see how far we have left to go for the day. We were pretty proud of ourselves. We had covered the k's and definately only had 24kms to go to reach the campsite at 118kms. So we pushed over the hills and dug deep for this last stage. The hills that apparently didn't exist, they weren't long - just crazy steep little numbers! We didn't walk one, it was after all, the last stage for the day. The fun part was down hill on them! Short and fast.

Obviously not us! Someone very happy to be at camp!

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This doesn't look like 118kms! Doing it hard!

Then according to my ordometer as we were approaching the very last kilometre we had another hill, slow and steady up, followed by the same style of down. I noticed a tourist street sign (you know those coloured ones that point out tourist bits to check out) stating Somerset Camp, but no little 'Ride' arrow indicator that we were to turn at the street, so we kept pedaling on. Glance down at the ordometer, it now says 119km. I'm wondering if this is time to turn back, when I see one of the 'Many Cyclists on Road' signs, so we are obviously going the right way. Next, we catch the warning, right turn ahead sign, see the friendly police officer watching out for traffic on the corner, look beyond him and see it! Yes - IT! The sign that says '120kms'. We have ridden 120kms so far! Head - you really need to stop having an impact now. No chance. The last 550 metres of this route was the slowest on two wheels yet! The speedo kept telling us we were well below average speed as we tried to force the legs to keep on pedalling, it really couldn't possibly be much longer. 8kph... I am ashamed to write it, but there it is. That was our top speed as we road the very last leg to camp. On the up side - we did it! We had made it through Day 1 without getting swept! We rolled into the campsite at just after 2.30pm, 120.55 kilometres from where we started at 6.30am this morning.

Tent city - here we come! Pick up our bag, camp mat and sleeping bag and consider sleep first, that is, until we get under a stiff breeze downwind of ourselves and realise that we cannot possibly put up with that in the confines of a tent!! So, we get our stuff back to the tent, grab a change of clothes, towel and toiletries and go join everyone for the one hour wait for a shower.... so worth the one hour wait for the shower!!! I have never known a shower to feel so good - and I didn't even pedal, that's what I brought Carly along for!!

Roaming around camp

Anyway, I am Cwa - Cat with Adventures, and this adventure is the very awesome Ride to Conquer Cancer. Love and Cheshire Smiles to you!!

Into camp, putting the bike in to
rest for the night.

Carly looks dreadful! So glad I didn't pedal!

Ready for bed!

First day - Day one of two...

Dawn to Lunch - 72.3kms...

 
So, here we are, pedalling away on our bike to the first pit stop. Left the university at about 6.30am and pedalled out of BrisVegas via some very pretty suburbs, which reminded Carly of Melbourne - almost a tad 'Toorak' although... not quite. Out through to some busy roads, onto an interesting bike track that went over a river and then under a bridge and on to Sumners Road, Progress Rd, Ipswich Rd and on to our first pitstop. Not so bad... at this point. Rode through a couple of industrial sites and hit several 'rolling hills'. Hills that I enjoyed, I felt great, good strong run-ups, good run down the hills, some great speed, start pedalling at the bottom, put some sheer thigh strength into it (have you seen the size of Carly's thighs!) and climb up to the top of the hill. Wahoo! Heaps of fun. Then we hit some of the real stuff! More challenging hills, this is where we discovered that we probably needed to do more hill training, in fact, maybe we should have done some hill training... any hill training would have been better than the amount we did. If you could see me, you would see me shamefully hold my head down, whiskers dropped shamefully by my side as I tell you - we did no hill training... yep, none. So when we hit the first pit stop at 23kms, we were actually really happy to stop, despite having down further distances, the hills took much out of us. It took us about an hour and 23 minutes to do the distance. Carly was already complaining that it was unfair that we were not sharing the pedalling, not my fault my legs wouldn't reach the pedals!

Pit Stop 1 - somewhere between
Inala and Redbank Plains

First experience of trying to find our
bike, one of eight pit stops over the 2 days.

As you can see - most people were
 keen to stop at this point! - (Ash Elford)

Left Pit Stop 1 to head through Redbank Plains, past the cheering station at 42.16km - came zooming down a hill past cheering supporters and then pushed our way up a hill that any seasoned cyclist would find a breeze - I am sure that you have worked out by now that we are far from 'cyclist' let alone anything with seasoning!! But, despite the ride proving to be more challenging than we had expected, we had still not allowed ourselves to be swept. Stay away sweep vans! They had began to loop around the course like circling vultures - we got the distinct feeling that they were witnessing our pain and just waiting for our reserves and willpower to die! Not just yet! No sweep van for us. Not long past the cheering supporters (I just checked the map - 4.7k later), we hit Pit Stop 2 and it was surprisingly fast after the adrenalin kick of bells ringing, people screaming and signs proclaiming that we were all doing an 'Epic thing for Cancer research'. Hit Pit at 46.8km at 9.25am.

Pit Stop 2 - Ipswich



The Evil Pine Mountain Rd - actually taken on
Day 2 by Ash Elford - but you get the point!

Now came some of the real challenges! Between Ipswich and Ferndale Memorial Park, where we stopped for lunch, was one incrediably rough Pine Mountain Road. I'm sure I haven't yet mentioned to you my very 'wise' choice of steel water bottles. Although, between the two of us (that's me and Carly!), we were not aware that if we squeezed the biddon holders tighter, the constant noisy rattle of metal on metal while vibrating over some of the roughest roads we have ever witnessed would have been stopped.... so in the mean time, every person we rode near looked suspiciously to their right expecting a very old bike that was falling apart on the rough roads to pass on their right, not our gorgeous pink Giant Avail. I even had some well-meaning riders ask if everything was alright with the bike. We got to the point that as we came up behind a rider,Carly would holler 'Passing on the right, but I am sure you could hear us coming! It's alright, the bike isn't falling apart, it is the steel water bottles'. It wasn't until Day 2 (one the very same road!!) that someone said to me, 'Are those steel bottles driving you insane? Did you know you could just squeeze your holders tighter and it will stop that crazy noise?'

It was through this stage that our so-called 'bike service' really came into it's own. You see, in all her wiseness, Carly decided that it would be a really good idea to have the bike serviced the day before the ride, despite the fact that the bike seemed to be lovely before the service. This is one of those moments that Carly rarely has, it's not broken, so let's fix it anyway!! I guess you would say, it was a boy-moment.

On these more challenging hills, my gears were playing up really badly, so badly that Carly stopped talking to me and started talking to the bike. Not stuff that can be repeated on the blog, but definately to the bike and not to me! She would go to change gears to climb a hill and the bike would work through 2-3 gears and then not engage at all, then drop down through a number of gears all over again. She couldn't change through the three big cogs (yep, I hear cyclists groaning everywhere right now, I should know what they are called, but, sorry, I don't). The gears would just jam up altogether! Couldn't go up or down. So besides the legs being shot and the lungs suffering, the bike was not playing nicely with us, which made us consider tipping the bike upside down for a bike mechanic and a sweep vehicle! Yep, a sweep vehicle! So, Carly walked and I continued to hitch a ride. Each time we hit another hill, Carly would continue to try to struggle with both the gears and the hill, then we would see someone hop off their bike and start walking up the hill and that was it - Carly's head was done! The body would have probably coped a little longer, but the anger with the bike's misbehaviour and the head justifying walking over riding started to win out on each hill from this point forward. We finally reached the lunch stop at Ferndale Memorial Park at 11.20am. At this point, Carly took the bike directly to the mechanics and said some rather crude statements about the quality of the service she had paid for the day before and asked if there was anything that could be done about it before she found the nearest lake (or dam) to throw said bike into. Mechanics smiled, said 'more than happy to fix it, go have lunch and kick back for a little while and then head back to pick up your bike.' Smiles all round, music to our ears! Food and a serviced bike. Yay. Rather hungry after riding/walking 72.3kms.

Really well organised Lunch station!

I have to say, everything about this event was amazing! It was really well organised at the Pit Stops and at the Lunch Stop. We had Sweep Vultures everywhere, roaming bike mechanics to help sort out bike furbys, such as, replacing tyres, fixing cables, and all manner of things like replacing tyres, oh and apparently they replaced hundreds and hundreds of tyres!! Many a bike mechanic was going to suffer from very sore triceps due to DOMS from pumping up tyres all weekend.

Distance left after lunch
- so they told us!

After eating a hearty ham sandwich, Cadbury chocolate (snack size of course), juice pack, nuts and sultanas and an orange, we went back to the mechanics where they asked us if we had actually paid someone to service the bike?! They had to adjust most of the cables, adjust the derailer and do something or rather to some other things!! They were quite upset that someone had clearly done a very bad job of our service the day before and advised us that if we were to go back, it would only be to get our money back off them. This service cost us zip, zilch, zero, nothing! So grateful. I'll tell you more when I update our adventures of the last '46'kms to the campsite tomorrow.

Bikes everywhere!

One sock down, seven to go!

Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying the blog and my huge Adventure - the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I am Cwa - Cat With Adventures, Cheshire Smiles to you all!

I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer!

So it's done and dusted! We just spent two days cycling through areas of Qld that I never even knew existed - there is some very pretty places out there! So we started our adventure at 3.45am, Carly & Sharn got dressed and we all loaded the car. Backpack, camp mat, sleeping bag, bike, me. Check. Ready to go. Friends came to our place - the Mums (thanks to the Mums!! Barb & Doss - you are amazing!) and we were on the road by 4.10am.

5.30am, waiting for the day to dawn

Me and my support team - Carly, Sharn
Doss (far left) and Barb (far right)

Myself & Carly - ready to ride

Checked in at St Lucia Campus of the University of Qld by 5.10am and trying not to freeze my whiskers off by 5.15am!! Bag checked onto the truck and keen and super excited about the ride... now. We are here with 1342 other riders and between us, this event is the largest single fundraising event in QIMR's history, raising an amazing 4.7 million dollars for Cancer Research, still makes me emotional to think of all of the people that worked together to make this event and the scope of it a reality... and we were a part of this history making event! I am both proud and honoured. (...and bleary-eyed and sniffly as I read back over it - such was the emotional power of this event to me and what is worse, I am in a public place eating breakfast while I write and check this blog with tears streaming down my face - Carly)

The following is from the press release at the Ride website.

Funds raised from the Ride will support ground-breaking QIMR research into a range of cancers including breast and ovarian cancer, bowel cancer, blood cancers such as leukemia, brain cancer and skin cancers including melanoma.

“The support will have a significant impact on cancer patients through improved diagnostics, prevention and treatment options,” said Professor Gannon.

“Planning is already underway for next year’s event which promised to be even bigger and better. I encourage everyone to register today by visiting www.conquercancer.org.au.”

QIMR scientist and rider Professor David Whiteman spoke to the impact of the Ride. “I feel honoured to ride alongside these inspiring and committed people. Their hard work to raise funds makes a huge impact to my research into the causes of skin cancer - their support will make it possible to improve our identification of at risk patients and help address the growing number of people diagnoses with skin cancers and melanomas every year.”



Oz anthem, speeches, tears, and GO!

Ready to Ride to Conquer Cancer

It was emotional as we thought of the people we were riding for, those that had fought and lost their battles and those that were still battling on. Cancer survivers riding were identified by their bright yellow flags attached to their bikes. When you felt like giving up, and a bike with a yellow flag powered past you, it definately made you dig deep and keep on riding while every fibre in every muscle was screaming out loud and it felt like your lungs were about to explode! If they can battle cancer and get on their bikes to peddle what eventuated to be 241km, then the rest of us could do it too! I have sooooo much to share with you, but I would hate for you to get bored, so I am going to spread this blog out over the week and share many more pics with you.

So for now, I am Cwa - a Cat with Adventures, this adventure was the Ride to Conquer Cancer and there is so much more to come! Love and Cheshire smiles to you.

Post post: Did I get swept? It was definately longer than I expected and climbs of 1.4k length and 12% gradient - enough to challenge the most athletic cyclist - did I let Carly pack it in at any time, did we let the sweep van pick us up? Keep watching my blog and I'll let you know. 

The Countdown is on...

Two more sleeps to go...

We are getting closer and closer each day!! Only two days to go until the Ride to Conquer Cancer! So excited! There are so many questions... how many riders? ... will the rain hold off? ... where exactly are we riding? ... can I actually sleep in a tent? ... will I actually want to ride on Day 2? ...and  the most important question - Can I avoid the Sweep Van? This is the ultimate goal for us, has Carly done enough training to avoid being swept up and taken off to camp in the van, goal = ride the whole distance? There is certainly enough time to complete the distance!! They have given us 11 hours to complete Day 1 - no problem, but will the body get through it?

The answer is just going to have to be a very loud 'YES'. It is for such a great cause that we are just going to have to make it. Cancer is such an awful disease that often doesn't pick and choose it's victims. Sure, we can live healthy lifestyles and lower our risk factors, but sometimes the bottom line is - it just picks you. Sometimes the last person you would expect to be struck down with cancer is the exact person it strikes. This is why we are doing this ride. To find a cure or proven preventative would be the ultimate answer! We are sick of hearing about someone else close finding out they or their mother/brother/father/best friend, etc is fighting a losing battle. So... hear me loud and clear - NO SWEEP VAN!

Okay, so that is the depressing part done!

Now the great part - we are doing this ride with a number of like-minded individuals who are all doing this ride to make a difference. I will find out exactly how many on Saturday morning at 5.30am! We then get to ride from Brisbane through to North Booval (where the first Cheering Station is!) on to the second Cheering Station in Pine Mountain (hmmm, Mountain - now just a little scared - stay away van - I will not be swept!) and then on to our camp site at Esk - Somerset Dam, I think. I will get an opportunity to take some great photos through the ride, so next weeks blog will have photos 'en masse' (oo, I do believe - that was french! Getting ready for Paris). We then sleep in a tent. Yep, a tent.

Then we get to jump on our bikes and come back to Brisbane via Pine Mountain and Darra. Being that Carly is a Melbourne girl (approaching 40 - always a girl!) who has lived on the Gold Coast for the last 14 years, we have no idea where it is that we are actually riding. We thank our lucky stars that we are doing this ride with many others, we'll just follow someone who knows the way!

Anyway, once this ride is over and done with and we have shared the photos and experiences, we may just show you around the Goldy and share some of things you must see if you are visiting!

Meanwhile, I am Cwa - Cat with Adventures! Cheshire Smiles to you all

Let me Introduce Myself...

I am Cwa, Cat With Attitude or Adventures or Alopecia or as you will see over time - many other words starting with 'A'. This blog has been created to share the everyday adventures that I get up to with one or both of my two 'guides' - Carly and Sharn. Carly and myself are currently training to do a charity ride for the Queensland Institute of Medical Research - The Ride to Conquer Cancer. To know more, pop on over to their website www.conquercancer.org.au. Our adventure with a large number of strangers banding together for a truly worthy cause begins next weekend.

Me - Cwa, having a small break on the Sunshine Coast

Me & my bike - a women's Giant Avail, currently 2 years old

In the meantime, we have been training. I let Carly ride my bike. She does have to complete the ride after all and if she didn't have my bike to ride, how would she?

Anyway this first Blog is to introduce me. I have been around for a while now and I figure that it is probably time I began sharing my adventures - past, present and future. So each week, I will share. I will tell you tidbits about where I live, places to go, places to eat, where I have been, the adventures that I have experienced and the adventures that are coming. By the way, I'm heading OS next year, need to know some 'must see' places in France - any ideas?

Anyway, I am Cwa - a cat with attitude. My next adventure is the Ride to Conquer Cancer next weekend because I believe if we can make a difference - we should at least try our best to!