Ready to Go

Well after months of planning, training, fund raising and prep Megan and I are almost ready to leave for Quebec City to join the 4whatmatters National Cycling relay. We will be cycling from Quebec City starting on Wed Aug 31st and finishing in Digby NS on Sunday the 4th of Sept during the Digby Wharf Rat Rally.

We are both so thankful to everyone that has made donations, both big and small and supported us in so many way. We are very proud of the fact that we have raised just shy of $5,000.00 all of which will be given directly the Montreal based research project that we have chosen to support. There are some earlier post that talk about Dr. Sylvie and her team and I encourage you read about her work and the great team she has around her. I had the opportunity to visit the lab a couple of weeks ago in Montreal and I am convinced her work will lead to something great for Juvenile Diabetics.

Over the next few days of the trip Megan and I will be using various means to keep family and friends up to date on our progress and "life on the road" The following links are social media we intend to use, including this blog.

http://bit.ly/gjpaDQ

http://bit.ly/fEu3T5

Twitter @Beamerjdrf

www.facebook.com/cycle4 the foundations page

Thanks again everyone and look forward to providing updates as we roll on down the road.

Stephen and Megan

National Relay Ride Update

Well Megan and I are 7 days from leaving for Quebec City to join the National Relay Team as they make their way across the country. It has been a long summer of prep work including both physically getting some ride time in, which was a challenge in the early part of the spring summer with the weather, to the fund raising.

Megan and I are so thankful to all of those that have provided us with both financial support and encouragement since we first started the planning for joining this year Relay. From family to friends to complete strangers that have given of both their money and time, we are eternally thank full, it is your faith and trust that have helped keep us focused on the goal in hand, finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

We are promising to try and keep everyone up to date on our progress, for this final week prior to the ride as well as once we are on the road. A number of social networking tools are being used that will let folks track our progress and get ongoing updates, besides this blog, there are a number of tools listed at www.4whatmatters.com.

Over the last few days I have been doing a count down on my face book profile, the following is today's;

In 7 days Megan and I will be leaving for Quebec City to join the National Relay with www.4whatmatter.com and start our ride back to Nova Scotia. In respect to those 7 days here are 7 things that my daughter hates about diabetes;

1. The way some people believe that she or her parents could have done something to prevent her from becoming Type 1 diabetic.
2. Always having to do a finger poke to draw blood to test blood sugar levels 5-10times a day
3. Fruit Punch - especially at 3:am to treat a low blood sugar
4. Having to explain to a teacher/karate judge etc that the alarm that went off is not her cell phone but her insulin pump
5. Carrying a bag full of supplies, blood tester, insulin, pump infusion sets, a scale, extra lancets, alcohol swabs...
6. Weight all her food.
7. The belief (by those that don't know her that there are things she cannot do! Run track and field, play fiddle, blue belt in karate, straight A student.....Cycle from Quebec City to Nova Scotia

http://www.4whatmatters.com/champion/champion.aspx?asset=266

Halifax Waterfront Spin

Seems like forever since I updated this blog. Not really sure where the time is going but summer is speeding by. Megan and I are well into our preparations for the National Relay coming up in just under a months time. Flights are booked to Quebec City, fundraising is coming along, and physical prep is pretty much there, though at this point not much I can to be any more ready (short of finding a way to roll back a few years off the knees).

As part of our fund raising efforts we held a stationary spin event down on the Halifax waterfront last thurs the 28th of July. We had a great setup and we were right next to the ferry terminal, even the weather cooperated a little and it did not rain.

We met a ton of really great folks, from other type 1 diabetics to family members and friends. There were even a couple of people with type 2 diabetes that after talking with Megan, left feeling more inspired to look after themselves, test more and start watching what they eat and exercise more. If for no other reason this event was worth every minute on the bike.

At the end of the day we had collected about $500.00 in donations, spent about 7.5 hours peddling and logged more than 200km on the bike.

Stephen

PEI Tip to Tip Round Up

Well seems a little hard to believe that after all the planning, organizing and training that it has been almost two full weeks since the PEI TIP to TIP ride.

I have to start by thanking a whole bunch of family and friends that made the ride possible. My In-Laws for getting me to the North Cape starting point the night before the ride, being able to stay in the Motor home over night made getting going in the morning a whole lot better, it was also nice to know that they were back there with an eye on traffic.

My Sister Pat and Brother Mike for all the pre-planning and ride day coordination. You both went above and beyond in order to make sure the million details that needed doing were done. Keeping everything moving on time, setups at the rally points, food and generally making sure I was safe and had everything I needed.

Of coarse none of this would have been possible without the support and inspiration of "My Girls", Tracey, Megan and Abby.

A big thank you to the Maritime JDRF team that made the trek to PEI for the day, and helped out however they could, Marilyn and Lara thanks again.

Thanks to my wife's work and the generous support of our sponsors including the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby http://www.wharfratrally.com/ Magic Lamp Software http://www.magiclampsoftware.net/ to go and all our PEI golf partners, Belfast Highland Greens, Red Sands Golf Club, Mill River resorts, Fox Meadow, Anderson's Creek, Green Gables, Glasgow Hills resort, Glen Afton, Rustico Resort and Stanhope Golf and Country Club.

As luck would have it I choose to ride from the most north/western point of PEI to the south/east, and unfortunately the wind decided to blow straight out of the south/east, at 30km gusting to 60km, which mean we had a solid head wind for the entire day, but such is the luck of the draw, at least the rain held off for the day so staying dry was not a problem, though staying warm was, as the temperature only hit about 12 or 13 c.

Saturday started with a strong breeze, but the rain stopped over night and the sun actually came out for few minutes, took off from the parking lot at the North Cape Light House at 5:55am and began heading south. The first run was from North Cape to Summerside where we were meeting up the other support crew, as well as the team from JDRF and other family. From North Cape to Summerside, I travelled the route 2 which has a very wide shoulder and nice new pavement. Head winds were strong but, we arrived in Summerside in just under 4 hours. Thanks to the very nice folks in the little white car that stopped and handed me a handful of toonies.

After a short rest, food, and refill water bottles it was time to swap out bikes for the trail ride from Summerside to Charlottetown. The Confederation trail in PEI is a great ride, that takes you through some very beautiful country with only very slight grade I think it's less than 2% up or down. One of the PEI Trail guides joined me in Summerside and gave me some company as well as some background about the areas we were cycling through. Stopped in Hunter River (where I lived for a few years) and had a whole bunch of my brothers children and boyfriends and girlfriends show up, it was great to see everyone. From there it was a nice ride into Charlottetown on the trail, which also gave a little shelter from the wind.

The rest of the support crew had gone on to setup in Charlottetown, we had a chance to meet with a bunch of folks that stopped by as well as a reporter from the local paper was there to take some photos and do a story. After about an hours rest it was time to take off again for the final section of the ride, swap bikes again back to the road bike and back onto route 2 heading south east. The wind only seemed to blow harder for the the trip east, I don't think I will ever forget the long hill coming into St Peters with the wind gusting from the side, that I thought a few times would blow me over.

After about 13 hours on the bike and coming into the final few kms it was great of my brother to jump on his bike and ride with me into East Point, it was getting pretty dark, cold and the wind just kept howling, but seeing that lighthouse in the distance slowly get closer felt pretty good.

It was a day I will not soon forget. Can't wait to start planning next years ride that will be bigger and better.

Thanks everyone for the support so far. Megan and I are getting prepared for the next big trip Quebec City to Digby. Sorry it took so long to get this story out.

Stephen

www.cycle4jdrf.com

we just took a break at the irving on route 2, mt.stewart. we're back on the road again, ready to finish this!

packing up at the charlottown stop, last stretch ahead!

today is my tip-to-tip ride in PEI, it has been very windy, and a little cooler than we would've liked it to be. I've been on time to all of my stops so far, hopefully i can keep that up.