Ride for Heart 2013

Completed.

The official course I took was 75km. But I’m also commuting to the venue with my bike, so…

Before I handed out in the morning:

By the time I was home:

The longest I’ve ever ridden on one single day.

The weather was perfect for cycling that day. It rained a few times that morning but I somehow managed to avoid all of them except the one on my way home. And even that one wasn’t too bad.

Since it was overcast, it wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t cold either. Just comfortable the whole way. I don’t think that I can ask for a better condition than that. Well… maybe a bit less windy on the way back.

But really, nothing to complain about the weather, especially given my past experience on this event a few years ago that it was pouring rain for at least half of the way. I was soaked before I was 1/10 of the way and was freezing the whole time. Compared to this time, it was a difference between heaven and hell.

Also got to ride with two rather cool ppl from the company for most of the way. A pleasant surprised. They are from the Whitby and St. Catherine office tho and are in different business line so our chance to cross path again is very small but it’s still nice to meet new acquaintance while I was planning to ride alone for the most part. And one of them was a real rider, with a nice bike and very fit (he did multiple loops so he ended up doing 125km that day). He could have ridden a lot faster but he stayed with us to keep us company. Good and bad cos I had to work very hard trying to keep up with his speed. But the good thing was that I didn’t get to slack off so it was a very good training for me.

Come to think of it, their names are James and Ian!!! LOL. 難道我跟這兩個名字的人真的特別有緣?!

The one dumb thing about this ride was the company photo. It’s retarded. We did a photo on route but the location is about 3-4 km from the start line so we had to wait for the slow ppl. I wasn’t against the slow ppl but they were doing only 25km so it’s ok to be slow. For me, I just wanted to get going and get done so that I could go home and chill and rest.

And, we had to wait for this one lady who really was the ‘team captain’ (I think she’s in HR. As far as I know, all she does is to organize events like this and to get corporate discount for events/attractions and to ask ppl to do payroll deductions for charities). For one thing, she was late. Second, she was slow. Third, she showed up at the photo location and then positioned herself right in the front of the pack, TWICE. (yea… did TWO photoes. Super dumb. We had to pretend to ride together and then had a photo and then go back and then do it again. Super retarded in my point of view. So fake. More like a company PR stunt than anything.)  Despised.

Not that I wanted to be in the front of the pack but I just didn’t like the way she had to make sure that she could be seen in the picture, as if to show ppl the ‘work’ she had done and that she actually did ride with the rest of the team, not just an organizer.

Really, I don’t actually know this person cos she’s not in my office (altho, it sounds like we are going to be in the same office before the end of the year… Another story… maybe in some other post). So, I don’t really know what her intention was, to be in the front of the pack but that was the impression that I got anyway.

I was so impatient about the picture that as soon as I was done, I started riding away and leaving those silly ppl to eat dust. And that’s when Ian joined me and the start of a pleasant ride.

All in all, it was a good day (altho I got rained on a bit on the way home). And I thanked all my friends and colleagues who donated to the good cause (actually, I was surprised by how hard it was to raise $300, which was my goal this year. Anyway, not trying to complain anymore here. Wanted to stay positive on this post.).