So there it is. 1500km done so far in October, one big crash, one new bike, lots of ups, surprisingly few downs. 55 hours and 26 minutes in the saddle, 14,233m of ascent and the month isn’t quite over. But the Great Cycle Challenge is done for this year. I also made my fundraising goal, a relatively modest $750 – or 50c per kilometre. That’s pretty good value, so if you want to add a little more, head on over to my sponsorship page and donate.
The cause, obviously, is a great one. The Children’s Medical Research Institute, which runs it, may be familiar from the annual Jeans for Genes day you may have seen around. Hopefully the Great Cycle Challenge will remain as a yearly event. It’s a great event for several reasons
1. All skill levels are catered for. Because you set your own goal, you’re not constrained by your own fitness or lack thereof. An enthusiastic racer like me could knock over 1500 or more in a month, or your grandma could set herself a target of 25km on her local cycleway and still have the same potential to make a difference.
2. It’s designed to fit in around your other commitments. Because you can ride any time in October, you don’t get a clash with, say, a race weekend or a birthday or a workday or any other commitment. You can ride whenever you want and that helps maximise participation
3. All the tools you need are provided. You don’t need any special equipment other than a bike and a web browser. You don’t need a $10,000 carbon race monster (though it helps), you don’t need a GPS unit (though it helps) and you don’t need all the lycra, dietary supplements and daily massages that a pro cyclist gets. Though they’d probably help too.
So yeah, I’ll be doing it again next year. And you probably should too, even if it’s only an excuse to up your monthly training volume.
