Day 61

July 12 - 210km (Ottawa)

While conversing with Linda, she mentioned one of her earlier biking experiences. She travelled from Ottawa to Montreal in a day which was a gruelling experience. She got me thinking about doing the same thing - the only issue was the most I had ever biked was 141km. Montreal to Ottawa would be over 200km, which would be a 60km jump in my personal record. And the day that I did 141km, I was absolutely gassed.

But the thought of attempting 200km excited me. I liked the idea of a challenge that was unprecedented for me - it may have been more logical to slowly progress my distances to 200km, but that was boring. Why not try? If I failed, I failed.

But this would require all of the hours of daylight possible. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and made sure to eat a lot of food. At 6:00, I was on my bike and ready to go. After saying goodbye to Linda, I cycled through the streets of Montreal. I was suprised at the number of early morning joggers and cyclists who were getting their exercise in before work. I remember seeing a mom jogging with her dog while pushing her child in a stroller. Talk about time-efficient exercise.

I encountered my first roadblock - literally - about an hour into biking. The bridge to cross over to Laval was barred by construction. After asking the construction worker in broken French on how to cross over (he responded in English), I realized I would have to take a detour around. This was not ideal and would add to my total distance. But I had no option except to push forward.

It was not easy, but I was very determined to make it. I was biking along the 148 and met many cyclists. It was a huge reversal as I was used to being the only cyclist on a road full of cars. One cyclist caught up to me and offered his place in Gatineau - I politely declined as I had a friend offering their appartment for the night.

The exhaustion I was feeling was a full-body experience. The last 20km was gruelling and it was getting dark, but I will never forget the feeling of biking into the city, knowing I hit 200km. The actual time I spent pedalling was probably over 14 hours with about 2-3 hours worth of breaks. But I did it.