Ride for heart ….to the finish this time…
Another year, another try at the Ride for Heart. The annual fundraiser that closes down 2 major highways in downtown Toronto to allow pedestrians on to walk, run or ride. We were originally going to opt out this year since we had a major bathroom renovation on the go (more on that in another post), but extended family from out of town said they were doing it… so we said what the heck.. let’s just squeeze it in too…. (right there, that should have been a clue that we maybe had bit off more than we could chew).
We registered in the winter.. and months ticked by, we did a ride here and there. Nothing too strenuous (read….we did very little training….). And to top it all off, our littlest one hadn’t mastered riding until May of this year on our Algonquin trip.
We started the day strong, we all got up and headed to our local bagel place, The Bagel House to get fuelled up (diet schmiet… we’d be needing carbs today!). Montreal style bagels… YUM! onto Enercare center to get parked and luckily they let us park underneath in the VIP section since the other parking lots were full. Yay!
And we’re off…
Bikes unloaded we headed to the start… but confusingly, the path took us past the finish line first and incoming riders across our path… not sure that was the best planning move but whatever… we got this picture lest we not make it to the end …again.. ahem.
We met up with the rest of our group, we were 9 strong! 3 little ones including our two. Fuelled, hydrated and ready to roll!
We embarked on our journey with the littlest hooked up to my husband’s bike. While we were confident she could ride on her own for a little bit, the ‘chute’ at the entrance was downhill, narrow and very congested with riders at the start. We made it down with no issue and were off to the races.
We had to stop for the usual meet and greet with the CN tower…
At the 10 km mark, we were on the flatter side of things, and the much much wider Don Valley Parkway portion so we unhooked the little one… and bam!… she was off! Thanks to our group members who helped shield her as much as possible from other riders!
THE END IS NEAR
The finish line narrowed considerably and took a hairpin turn which required a lot of maneuvering. The path got really crowded and ended up being a little much for our daughter who got a little distraught, which was really unfortunate since she did great! 12 km all on her own leg power and with only a single gear bike! We finally reached the end… although some just didn’t get over earlier issues.
While others were incredibly happy to finish and get their medal! 25 km all on his own on his new gear bike! woohoo!
Another year and an actual successful completion of the ride. We raised funds for a great cause and had a great day on the road with friends and family.