NEVER, Give Up!!

Well I’ve just had an awesome weekend and wanted to share it with you.  The heading to this blog will make sense shortly!

I’ve always loved cycling.  My Dad was a professional cyclist, as kids we always went along to cycling events, I had my favourite little red bike, every spare moment was on the bike!  I’m a bit of a “weekend warrior” and get out on the roads on the weekend and over the last 5 months have tried to get out on most weekends.  I thought it was time for a challenge – so registered for the Kinglake 70km bike ride – which happened to be yesterday!

Now, I don’t know whether you noticed the weather yesterday, but during the ride it absolutely poured with rain, was foggy at the top of the highest climb, windy and about 8 degrees!  There were moments when I really questioned why I would put myself through it.  Then there were other moments where I couldn’t believe the unimaginable feats of Cadel Evans in the Tour de France – they do this sort of thing every day for 21 days and about twice as fast as me!

So at the 40km mark I was completely soaked and hypothermia was starting to set in – I was starting to cramp up and had to make a number of nature stops on the way up.  Half way up the final large hill my quads completely ceased up from cramps and I had to stop.  I was in that much pain that I couldn’t actually lift my legs off the bike….so I had to just stay there!  After about 5 mins, the pain eased and I started to walk up the hill to give the legs a rest….then, the moment……

Have you ever been at that place, somewhere in your life, where you thought…”this is too tough”, “I’m in too much pain”, “I want to give up”.  Well, when it was just me, the bike, the road and the rain I was thinking all these thoughts.  But, then I said to myself I’m NOT going to give up and I’m going to push through to the finish….afterall, I’m already wet!

So I pushed through, took my time and made it!!!!  Not a huge feat for those seasoned riders, but I was stoked!

So the moral of this story….NEVER give up!  Fight off the demons, dig deep, talk yourself into it and take it step by step or peddle by peddle!

My biggest buzz was seeing last month’s client of the month, Ron Smelter, complete the ride.  Now 9 months ago there is no way that Ron could have ever imagined he would take part in such a ride, never mind finish it!  Ron’s lost 23kgs and has improved his fitness unbelievably.  For the record, Ron finished about 40 mins ahead of me – well done Ron, I’m proud of you!

I’ve put some piccys below: