Katie Melua - "Nine Million Bicycles" - Ivy Lea - Ottawa - Day 50

"There are nine million bicycles in Beijing...."
- Katie Melua

The Beatles - "Here Comes the Sun" - Carrying Place - Ivy Lea - Day 49

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
-The Beatles - "Here Comes the Sun"

Otis Redding - "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" - Darlington - Carrying Place - Day 48

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

- Otis Redding - "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"

Bruce Springsteen - "Darlington County" - Alliston to Darlington

Driving in to Darlington City
Got a union connection with an uncle of Wayne's
We drove eight hundred miles without seeing a cop
We got rock and roll music blasting off the T-top singing.
- Bruce Springsteen - "Darlington County"

Spike Jones - "Hello Mother, Hello Father"

Hello mother, hello father,
Here I am at Camp Grenada.
Camp is very entertaining,
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining!

Spike Jones – “Hello Mother, Hello Father”

Day 46: Alliston – REST DAY
4775kms biked out of total of 7650 kms

It was so nice to wake up in a hotel room rather than a tent this morning..! Having said that, I didn’t sleep particularly well but I think that it was because I had such a full agenda for the day which definitely had to include eating, cleaning my bike, getting caught up on posting my blog, checking out Alliston and showing my Dad a bit of our routine back at the campground. Mom had to go into Toronto so Dad and I made the most of the hotel’s ‘All You Can Eat’ breakfast buffet. Once again, I’m astounded how much I can eat and still be hungry. I think that my Dad was also pretty surprised when I went back for my 3rd helping of pancakes and crunchy bacon and my 3rd glass of orange juice topped off with a giant bowl of fresh fruit… and 3 cups of coffee.

It was a gorgeous clear-blue sky day so we walked from the hotel back to the campground which was about a 5 minute walk – so convenient..! Andrew and Peter and ‘set up’ just outside of the pavilion and were ‘knee deep’ in bike cleaning. Surrounded by oily rags, chain lube, pumps, patches, hoses and brushes they scrubbed furiously and adjusted wheels and chains and rings. I looked on as my bike stood under a tree, still caked with dirt and grease and decided that this would be a perfect time to impress Dad by showing him how much I’d learned so far about bicycle maintenance. Unfortunately Andrew enlightened my Dad with the fact that he pumps up my tires in the morning, reads the map every day, tells me to clean my bike etc. etc. My cover was blown..! I decided to try to salvage what I could of my reputation and wheeled my bike over and started to clean the chain… and then the derailer… and then I took off the squeaky pedal which had been squeeking for the past 3,500 kms… It was actually quite an enjoyable way to spend the morning and my Dad even pulled up his shirt sleeves and helped out..! My bike got a fantastic wash, tune up and was in tip top condition by the time we hung up the rags at around 1pm.

The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands which included stocking up on snacks for Happy Hour and picking up my clean, dry tent (courtesty of Melanie and John!!). At around 4pm during our shopping spree for food a the grocery store the heavens opened and it began to POUR down. I was so happy to have a warm, dry hotel bed to look forward to that evening rather than the wet campsite..! We did pop by the camp so I could introduce Melanie to everyone and by that point it had stopped raining (well, it had stopped TORRENTIALLY raining). There were huge puddles in the campground and some tents had been flooded as they'd unfortunately been set up next to the storm drains. I am certain that there is a Chinese proverb about tents and storm drains somewhere but unfortunately no one told Erik..!

"He who sets up tent next to storm drain will get wet".

That night Mom, Dad, Melanie and I went out for a lovely meal at a 'German / Italian' restaurant to end the rest day in Alliston. I devoured a huge chunk of lasagne and a black forest cake. It certainly felt wierd to be eating with my family and sat around a restaurant table knowing that I'd see them again in a few weeks time. Part of me wanted to return to 'normal life' and the other part of me longed to continue with the journey. It's been a long time since I've really thought about 'home' and post-biking and can certainly imagine that 'real life' will take some getting used to again.

Tom Petty - "Climb that Hill"

You got to get up and climb that hill.
Get up and climb that hill.
You got to get up and climb that hill again.

- Tom Petty – “Climb that Hill”

Day 45: Owen Sound – Alliston
168 kms / 102 miles (circ. 122 hills)

The first thing I did this morning is stretch my arms and my legs in my sleeping bag to ensure that they were still working after yesterday’s shock to the system. I’m pretty sure that my body spent the entire evening recovering and asking itself, ‘what the hell just happened’. After 45 days of developing cycling muscles the swimming muscles have become significantly weaker. Fortunately everything still worked but the ride to Alliston was not an easy one. I was SUPER excited this morning though as today was the day I would meet my parents in Alliston!! AND, we would be staying in a nice hotel adjacent to the campground!

The cue sheets read some worrying words, ‘A challenging but scenic day as you ride through the Dufferin Highlands…’ ‘Challenging’ and ‘Highlands’ are two words that when used together are not exactly what you want to hear the day after a triathalon. It was also due to be a hot and sunny day which would also make the climbing even more difficult. In spite of efforts for an early start we didn’t hit the road until about 7:30am and almost immediately entered the highlands. The views from the top of the hills over the rolling green terrain was spectacular – absolutely gorgeous. We were in ‘Cottage Country’ and everything was so green.

We passed through a lot of small towns such as Walters Falls, Gorning, Bowles Hill (great winding downhill!), and climbed out of Beaver Valley but many of the restaurants were closed because it was a Holiday Monday. It was incredibly hot and water was in short supply. As we climbed a very sweaty and steep climb out of Beaver Valley I prayed to the ‘Gods of Liquid Refreshments’ that a well stocked gas station would be the view at the top of the hill. Fortunately my prayers were answered and I indulged in two giant bottles of iced tea and a peanut butter sandwich and a healthy packet of Sunchips.

The rolling terrain continued throughout the afternoon which made for a very challenging but scenic day. It felt good to be on more ‘familiar’ turf surrounded by corn, wheat and soybeans rather than steep granite cliffs. It was also great to see Collingwoods rolling hills off in the distance even though this did mean that there were more ups and downs ahead. The weather stayed beautiful and some clouds which passed over at around 2pm provided some much needed shade. As we neared Alliston the towns began to look more ‘Victorian’ in style with lots more red brick homes and it was clear that many of the towns had undergone some sort of ‘heritage preservation’ programme as all of the frontages were done in similar ‘Victorian’ themed styles. The homes also got much bigger the closer we got to Alliston.
Breandan was on turbo mode so he headed off to Alliston to meet his parents so Andrew and I stopped for a drink and a ‘snack’ in beautiful Creemore – famous for the Creemore brewery. The bakery / coffee shop where we stopped was lovely – it had a HUGE selection of coffees, teas, and plenty of homemade treats. I indulged in a mint chocolate chip ice-cream sandwich which was wonderful..! It was difficult to decide between that and a homemade blueberry pie – the pie would have been difficult to carry back to the campground on my bike though..! The shop was beautifully decorated with a giant window overlooking the main street and was pretty busy when we first arrived. I think that there are a lot of families which travel up to Creemore or use the area as ‘cottage country’. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a tour of the Creemore brewery (which is just off the main street) but it’s such a lovely town I’m keen to return and explore it at my leisure..!

We then continued on for another 40kms of rolling hills to Alliston. It was a great ride under a sky which had clouded over a bit which cooled things down nicely. I was keen to get to camp around 3:30 in time to meet my parents. It felt strange to think that I last saw them 46 days ago when I left home with the realisation that I’d have to bike a few thousand kilometres across the country before seeing them again. It’s amazing how quickly the time flies as it seemed like just yesterday I said goodbye to them but when I think back to everything I’ve seen and done over the past 46 days it’s overwhelming. I was worried that when seeing them I’d be keen for my ‘creature comforts’ again – particularly after a night out in a nice hotel and being taken out for dinner..! I must admit, I was super excited to see them.

We reached Alliston in record time and I felt pretty good considering we’d bike 166kms in 6 hours and 33 minutes…! Alliston itself was quite nice – lots of little shops and a bustling main street which was certainly worth exploring. Of course, Dairy Queen and Tim Hortons were enroute but we were in too much of a hurry to get to camp to stop. There were a few people who’d already arrived in camp and some tents were already up. The campground was nice – it had a pool and a huge pavilion that we could use for lounging and cooking under. I must admit however, it was a satisfying feeling that I would not have to put up my tent that night and the next. No sign of my parents though… I wondered if it was possible that they went to the wrong campground as I’d never really specified which campground in Alliston we were staying at AND the campground where we were staying was not actually in Alliston – it was in Nicolston Dam, just opposite the Nottawasaga Inn.

The French Connection pulled in around 5:30 where we learned that Yao had come off his bike in a patch of sand. His back wheel was completely bent and needed some serious tuning but fortunately he was ok apart from a few bruises. Graham had also come off and they were all a bit shaken up. It is always so scary to hear about a fall (even worse to be in one and/or witness one!) and I must admit, it is always such a relief when everyone does make it into camp each evening safe and sound. Thank goodness everyone made it to Alliston safely.

By 6pm my parents STILL hadn’t appeared so I decided to call and, sure enough, they’d been to the provincial park campground and had driven around there looking for us..! By this point they’d realised I was at the Nicolston campground and were enroute to pick me up by the time I’d called. When they finally DID arrive, it was so great to see my parents and show them around the truck and introduce everyone. The truck and routine which is now such an integral part of my life seems totally ‘normal’ to me but I can certainly understand how it’s quite a novelty to visitors. The smelly truck with all of our gear (shelves and shelves of wet shoes, tents, random plastic bags, plastic boxes…), the kitchen with its gigantic pots and pans, and tent city itself are all quite unique and appears slightly chaotic but we all seem to function in it with our own routines.

We went to my sister, Melanie’s house in Borden Base which is just outside of Alliston. It was also great to see Melanie and finally see where she lived! Another bonus was that she had a shower AND laundry so I dumped all of my belongings in her backyard and sorted through everything and completely reorganised my ‘stuff’. I have a huge bag of things which I’ve been carrying around for the past 45 days but haven’t used /worn so was more than happy to unload these with my parents to take back home for collection at the end of the trip..! Another bonus was that I had some of my Mom’s fantastic home cooking – homemade chilli which is absolutely delicious. It was great not to have dinner standing up and eating out of a giant plastic bowl and swatting random bugs for a change.

As I fell asleep that night at around 11pm in the comfort of the hotel room bed back in Alliston I was sooo glad not to be in a damp tent and sooo glad to be back with family. It felt weird though as I have gotten used to the ‘outside’ noises and the fresh air when falling asleep and in spite of the fact that I was in a comfy bed with a thick warm duvet, I had troubles falling asleep..! Too much excitement for one day ;-)

Queen - "We are the Champions"

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions...

- Queen - "We are the Champions"

Day 44: Owen Sound – REST DAY – TRIATHLON

Rather than the sound of zippers unzipping I awoke to the sound of the boys outside chopping wood to prepare the fire for breakfast..! It was an absolutely stunning morning with clear blue skies and a heavy dew. I slept wonderfully well and was mentally ready for the swim and the big handover to Graham for the bike who would then hand over to Eve for the run. The triathlon didn’t start until 3pm so we had some time in the morning to get ready, practise our massage techniques, have a hearty breakfast and head out early to register and get used to our new environment. It was a funny sort of morning as we’re usually chatty and full of jokes and laughs. This was still the case however you could certainly notice that there was a degree of ‘tension’ or ‘nerves’ in the air. James’ parents gave us a 5-star treatment again as around 9am the cars pulled up and a HUGE warm breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes and orange juice was served up. Breakfast of champions..! I am overwhelmed at their hospitality and it has definitely made the whole triathlon experience so special.

We biked out to Owen Sound and the race course at around noon just in time to see the junior athletes finishing their race and also register for our events. It was incredibly well organised as we picked up our ‘goodie bags’, signed our waiver forms (I feel as though I’m signing a lot of waiver forms these days…!), and were given our numbers. ‘Team Polly’ (Graham, Eve and I) was team 720 and ‘Team Cool’ (Andrew, Brendan and Yao) was 719. A highlight of the morning (which seemed to break some of the tension!) was a huge shopping spree as we bought new cycling wear and Eve bought her running gear (she was originally going to run in her cycling shorts). There were running shoes for sale as well but Brendan had managed to borrow Tony’s for the run so he was geared up in the shoe department. After picking up a special professional looking purple swim cap for my ‘Wave’ or ‘Heat’ I was also set and ready to go. Unfortunately it clashed with my red wet suit.

The triathlon made us all feel like professional athletes – there were sponsors everywhere and loads of supporters out to enjoy the day. Everyone had their numbers written on their arms and we picked up our electronic tags which would serve as the ‘baton’ during the hand over from the swim to the bike to the run. I did a bit of reconnaissance and went out to check out the starting area for the swim. Much to my dismay, the water looked INCREDIBLY choppy (we’re talking Hawaii-sized surfing waves) with whitecaps starting for form along the crest of each wave. Whilst the course didn’t seem too far on paper, in ‘real life’ it was an entirely different matter. The buoys seemed like miles away and, combined with the choppy water and the number of people who would be swimming in the two heats ahead of mine, I realised that I might be in over my head (literally… gulp!). Perhaps I should have taken the swimming part of the event a bit more seriously and tried to at least train… once… or at least do one or two hundred meters of front crawl as practise. I hadn’t swum that far doing front crawl for at least 10 – 15 years..!! Oh dear.

I bit my nails nervously and headed back to our ‘meeting point’ to put on my wetsuit and see how the others were getting on in their preparations and stretching. I confessed to Graham and Eve that they’d have to bike and run VERY fast to make up for what would be an extremely challenging swim..! To make matters worse, I was due to swim against Andrew who confessed to being one of the top swimmers in Kenya in his youth. Oh dear. Was I ever in trouble..! I realised that if he beat me I’d never ever hear the end of it.

By this stage some of the TdC riders had arrived at the race to cheer us on which was so incredibly awesome of them..! It was like we had our own giant cheering section. Peter arrived first to give us some coaching and was followed shortly thereafter by Sandy, Carmen, Gary, Michael, Bob, Ned, Tak and a number of others. They’d all sped down to Owen Sound from Tobermory that morning to meet us and support us in this endeavour. It felt fantastic to have so much support and feel the enthusiasm from everyone. Really, really cool and it made the experience extra-special.

It was nearing 3pm so Andrew and I made our way to the start of the swimming course. Everyone was pulling on their wet-suits and smiling nervously. As I edged my way to the water with about 400 others I realised what I was about to do but tried to stay positive about things. It was ONLY 750meters… It could be worse. It could be 760… or 770…

Now, looking back on hindsight, I realise that it was in fact a blessing that I hadn’t trained and that there is quite a lot of truth in the expression, ‘Ignorance is bliss’. I could go through the play-by-play of the way the afternoon swim unfolded however it would take pages and pages of text that would never quite sum up the experience or the thoughts running through my head… In one word, it was ‘HARD’. Actually, make that two words, ‘EXTREMELY CHALLENGING’. I didn’t quite think that death by drowning or being kicked in the head was imminent however whilst drinking pints and pints of Owen Sound Baywater the thought,

‘Why the hell did I get stuck doing the swimming leg...’ did cross my mind once or twice.

This thought was followed closely by:

‘Oh dear… I don’t think I am going to make it’.

I started out doing front crawl but ended up swimming on top of quite a few swimmers and then being kicked in the face and kicking a few others… Thinking that this ‘kicking people thing’ was very ‘unCanadian-like’ (it was hard to say ‘Oos – I’m soooo sorry’ between mouthfuls of water and desperate gasps of air) I decided to change my tactics and swim breast-stroke the entire way so that I could swallow significantly less water, navigate my way around the other swimmers and mentally wrap my head around the distance left to go. The waves were huge and it was clear that A LOT of the swimmers were struggling – there were quite a few people swimming backstroke, holding onto the buoys for rests, putting up their arms for help from the rescue kayaks and I passed a lot of people who had stopped to catch their breath by treading water.

About 300 meters into the race I spotted a man with a purple cap carefully and quickly navigating his way through the water swimming a nice, neat, professional looking crawl. He wasn’t wearing a wet suit and looked like Andrew. I smiled smugly to myself and decided to employ a strategy - to pace myself by swimming behind ‘Andrew’ for the next 400 meters of the race and then overtaking him in the final 20 meters – catch him by surprise. Boy was Andrew ever going to be surprised when he was passed by me. He’d never hear the end of it..!! A cunning plan. It got to the point where I was giggling nervously in the water and mentally preparing the attack and take over and then the moves to my celebration dance on-shore when I beat him.

On hindsight I should have perhaps spent a bit more energy swimming…

As we neared the shore I was just about to do the sprint take over using my last few drops of energy and smile smugly at Andrew when ‘Andrew’ stood up to start to dash out of the water. My heart stopped - I realised that it wasn’t Andrew..!! Men in speedos, goggles and purple bathing caps all look alike in the water… the giant maple leaf tattoo on this guys back wasn’t visible in the water but it was certainly noticeable out of the water! Last time I checked Andrew didn’t have a giant maple leaf tattoo on his back… Oops. A case of mistaken identity. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at my stupid mistake and also stood up to give everyone on shore a broad, white pearly smile. Where was the paparazzi..? CBC news? CBS? Radio-Canada…?

This is when I realised that I had no idea what to do next now that I was done my swim.

Standing in the water looking a bit like an idiot with a giant smile on my face I wondered what to do. I didn’t see anyone on the shore with a bike, I didn’t know where I was supposed to go and I had no idea how the electronic bracelet on my ankle was supposed to get on Graham’s ankle. In fact, where was Graham..?? Clearly these were things I should have considered before I got into the water and started swimming.

SO, I did what all professional, experienced triatheletes do and followed the others as they ran out of the water, up a gravel running course and suddenly found myself in a giant parking lot full of shiney bikes wondering what to do next. Fortunately I suddenly heard Graham and Eve screaming,

‘Heeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttthhhhhhhhhherrrrrrrrrr’.

Oh thank god. Saved.

I ran as quickly as I could over to Graham and Eve, ripped off the electronic bracelet from my ankle and handed it over to Graham who strapped it on his ankle, threw on his helmet, hopped on his bike and was off like a rabbit, eager to catch up with Yao who had already sped off during the handover with Andrew… about 3 minutes before mine…! Andrew was present for the handover with Graham and when I told him about the mix- up with the other swimmer he couldn’t stop laughing.

When we saw Yao coming back on the bike from his leg of the race we all started screaming and cheering. Full of adrenaline, he raced into the parking area, racked his bike, and stripped off the tag for the handover to Brendan who raced off for the run. About 3 minutes after Yao’s arrival Graham frantically raced in and followed the same scenario, handing the ankle tag over to Eve who raced off after Brendan. We stood screaming our hearts out on the sidelines. We then headed over to the finish area where the first runners were already coming in from earlier heats. Incredible athletes. We cheered everyone on as they came in and the crowd went wild when Brendan, Eve, Erik, James, Laura, and Wing crossed the finish line in the run. Everyone finished and everyone made fantastic time. In fact, Laura placed first in her age group for the duathalon (run, bike, run) and ‘Team Cool’ placed 4th in the mixed tri and we placed 7th out of 14 teams. Not bad considering that the only leg we ‘trained’ for was the bike..!

I’ve never done anything like a ‘triathlon’ before but I must say that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s been one of the highlights of the journey so far. It has been a highlight for many reasons – some ‘individual’ but also a huge part of it was ‘group’ or ‘team’ related. It felt amazing to do something as a team and realise that to be successful we all had to work together. The whole is only as good as the sum of its parts. It was also incredible to have the support of the rest of the TdC group who came to watch us and cheer us on even after their long cycle into Owen Sound. Everyone was so positive and supportive that it was overwhelming. From the cheering, to the words of advice and encouragement, to the photo taking to the laughs to the hugs… Awesome.

That night we celebrated at Montana’s – the all you can eat ribs restaurant. It was so much fun and everyone ate their fill between lots of laughs, stories and pitchers of beer. Post dinner we cycled into camp for more hugs and congratulatory words and dove into our tents. I was exhausted but so happy. A wicked day and one that I will remember forever.