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On Saturday June 30th, a small group of Truites (Truition Employees) embarked on a mission that would bring any normal human to their knees.  This journey brought the team in and out of small towns, through wilderness heavily populated by wild sylvilagus floridanus, and treacherous roads.  This small, but formidable team, road 820 kilometers.

Now let me fill in the gaps...  This team, lead and organized by Bruce Waters, road a combined total of 820kms.  Bruce contributed 420kms - four hundred and twenty kilometers - HIMSELF.  While Bruce planned on sleeping early Friday night at a hotel in preparation for an early start, he forgot to consider that most people consider his 1am start time to be a part of Friday night, not Saturday morning.  Lets just say Bruce didn't get much sleep.

When Luigi arrived at 5am, Bruce had already put about 150kms on his bike.  He was making good time despite the lack of sleep.  The two of them put on a few kilometers before the rest of us were supposed to arrive at 6:45am.

Matthew arrived around 6:30am and was ready to ride.  I dragged myself in at 7:01am, to find everyone on their bikes riding around in the parking lot waiting for me.  I yelled out the window, told them that the road was for cars, unpacked my stuff and we were off about 3 minutes later.

Viliam caught up to us about 45 minutes into our ride.  He turned out to be a critical member of the team.  About 30 minutes later, while Bruce was pacing us at 27km/hr into the wind (note - 33km/hr on both Luigi and my computers), his tire burst.  While I hate to say it, I was relieved - my heart rate was out of control, my legs were burning, it was only a matter of time before I fell off my bike.  Anyways, Viliam changed the tube and assessed the tire.  It looked rough, but would get us back to the hotel were Bruce had a cache of spare parts and tools.

When we got back to the hotel and properly pumped up the tire, it was clearly not going to work - the tube was sticking out through a hole in the tire.  This is where Viliam saved the day - he taped the inside of the tire to keep the tube in.  It held for another few hundred kilometers.  Aside from being a one man support team, he personally contributed 89kms to the cause.

As noted in previous rides, this is where things get blurry. 

At the end of it all, Bruce burst one more tire about 6km from the hotel with no spare.  After unsuccessfully trying to hitch a ride, he rode on the rim back to the hotel, swapped his back wheel with Luigi's and finished the full 420kms.  Unbelievable effort Bruce.

Luigi contributed 200kms, beating his previous best by 94kms - which he clocked for the first time a few weeks earlier.  Luigi is a machine. Apparently this was all possible because of 4 bowls of pasta the night before, and pasta for breakfast.  Mental note - pasta is okay for breakfast.

Matthew contributed 63kms.  What was significant about his ride was the fact that he rode the last 3 of those kilometers with no hands while chatting with Bruce.  Or at least it seemed that way when I saw him do it.

I added a personal high of 53kms, beating my previous best by 16kms - ya, it's my second distance ride ever, and on a mountain bike no less.  Though Matthew made this feel like much less of an accomplishment when he did that 'no hands' thing on his mountain bike.  I'll be sure to blow his doors off the next time we're on the ice.

The team goal was 900kms, but we were short 2 riders, and Luigi picked up most of the slack.  So it was a complete success.  However, Tuesday morning when most of the staff wandered all bleary-eyed into the office, a few of us were limping.  Apparently my knees were meant for sitting.

We also managed to raise $705 dollars for reBOOT, a non-profit organization that refurbishes used IT equipment to charities, non-profits and local communities.  After speaking to Rich Roxborough, the Executive Director of reBOOT Canada, you realize how important it is to re-purpose or properly dispose of old hardware.  If you recently upgraded hardware, PLEASE donate your old equipment rather than storing it in the basement until it is completely useless.  :)

Congratulations on a successful event Bruce!  It was great to be a part of it.

Posted at 09:40 AM in Fun Stuff | Permalink