My Completely Adventuresome (Almost) Complete Adventure
I’m not sure I can sit to write this. My legs haven’t stopped cramping for three hours…
I just finished my longest ever bike ride with an added geographical challenge: visit every school in my new school district - and do it on my birthday too! 125km and 9 hours later - cursing the hills the whole way - I made it.
Almost.
Since recently becoming a teacher I have been exposed to a new world of schools in Nanaimo. Three schools over practicum, a handful more as a TTOC (teacher on call), but then back to just the one for my current contract. What about all those others? What exactly is a Cinnabar Valley, who exactly was Frank Ney, and why does Ladysmith have the only middle school in the district?! Time to get on my bike and find out.
I planned out this route on Komoot, a ride-planning app/website that helps pick suitable routes and easy connections between points of interest. I planned it in the depths of winter when I had not much else to do and was sure I’d be super fit and flying up the local inclines. 125km isn’t that much, right?!
Then suddenly it was the May long weekend, my birthday, and I was eating oatmeal at 6am in full lycra hitting my helmet on the kitchen cupboards.
To be fair, I’ve ridden more this year already than I have done most years in total: 770ish km before the long weekend thanks to motivational friends, a new bike, and an upcoming fundraising ride that I really should be training for. But my longest ride this year was only around 70km, and that was more than a month ago. It couldn’t that hard, and I couldn’t back out after telling people I was going to do it.
I started at 6:30 AM. Ok, 6:40, but 10 minutes of faffing (a technical term) is pretty good for me. The closest school was Brechin Elementary, so I started there and started off on a loop north.
By the end of hour 1 I had visited 9 schools (including one that wasn’t actually in the district), backtracked twice, and was already 30 minutes behind schedule.
By the end of hour 2 I had reached Lantzville, the furthest north I would be going and the start of the longest stretch of climbing I’d be doing (road riders be quiet, going from 2m to 150m in 5km is a lot for this guy who re-started cycling in pancake-flat Edmonton!).
I missed a crucial turn in hour 3 and had to re-double 4km on some of the country roads up in the hills to the west of town. Beautiful as they are to ride along, I knew it might cost me a school later.
I felt like I was going fast - or fast enough to stay ahead of schedule at least - but I just couldn’t make up that lost time. I was trying to finish the route at the Gabriola Island ferry so I could take the quick trip across and visit the elementary school there, but with evening birthday plans it was looking less and less likely at this point.
Hour 4 saw a 5% climb up to Cinnabar Valley at 65km into the ride. Speed was dropping, wind picking up, motivation flagging, water bottles emptying. My planned Ladysmith lunch stop became a stop in Cedar instead and that’s where the pain really started…
Halfway through a surprisingly good grocery store sandwich one of the worst leg cramps I’ve ever experienced hit with such force I couldn’t even jump up all the way. So I stayed standing bent double for two minutes, long enough to just manage to stretch it out, and even had to finish my sandwich standing that way! What I sight I must have been. Back on the bike ten minutes later and my other leg went - in three places! I seriously considered cutting out Ladysmith and just going home at this point, but losing 50km and at least three schools seemed such a shame.
I managed to pedal on through hours 5 and 6, slowly and carefully, and I have no shame in saying I walked up the hills in Ladysmith…
Pushing past 100km on the stretch home I started feeling a bit better, consistent pedaling and some nice country roads in South Wellington helped pick up the spirits after the less fun side-of-the-highway riding. Two more schools near downtown and I was done!
It was fun visiting all the schools and enjoying a day on the bike, even if I will be sore for a week after. I wonder who else has visited them all in one day, or if it can be done with Gabriola included (sorry friends over there!).
The final route!
Some stats:
125.6km (beat my previous record by 4km!)
1528m climbed (about 300 more than planned… and three times as much as my last 120+ ride in Edmonton!)
5 water bottles and 2 Gatorade bottles (probably needed 2 more)
2 bananas, 2 Cliff bars, a half-dozen handfuls of trail mix, half a bag of gummy candy, a bag of chips, a sandwich, a donut, and a Cherry Coke
37 stops, plus more to check maps, snacks, and snaps… no wonder I was an hour behind!
3 gravel segments (including a sneaky shortcut down the Parkway ravine and finding an abandoned road behind the dump!)
Best school sign: Qwam Qwum Stuwixwulh
Best view from the school: a tie between Cilaire (Departure Bay), Cinnabar Valley (the valley and hills beyond), and Ladysmith (down over Burleith Arm)
Some of the “extra” schools and stops along the way - École Océane is actually in the provincial Francophone district!
What should my next challenge ride be? What do you recommend for not suffering as much after rides (other than training more, I know I should do that already)? What’s your most random ride route?
Help me raise money to fight cancer in BC and encourage another big ride as I take on the Tour de Cure this summer! I’ll be trying two days of riding around the Lower Mainland, 160km on the first day and 100 the following day with camping overnight to really help my legs recover!
