Rodney's Blog

Well its been a few weeks since the 24 Hour Summer Solstice ended and a few of us are feeling a little ripped off, all that effort training and we barely got a lap in before the race was called.  The only cure for that is to sign up for another one and hope for no rain!

So a group of five got together and entered a team in the 24 Hour Hot August Nights in the Clydesdale category where your 5 person team has to have a combined weight of 1000lbs.  We’ll be cutting it close as most are hovering around the 200lb mark or getting very near to it but we’ll be OK.  We even have a great team name and slogan we just need a logo!

 The Fat and the Furious: Living life a quarter-pounder at a time!

Not sure who put this video together but it sums up the 2009 24 12 Hour Summer Solstice race at Albion Hills quite well.

Well it’s done, the 24 12 Hour Summer Solstice race has ended and our Ride For Rob teams are back at home. We knew it was going to rain, but no one expected 60mm of rain to fall from 3am straight-through until 10pm.  That lead to the race first being shorted from 17Km to 15.5Km and then finally down to 13Km before finally being stopped short at midnight.  By that point it was taking riders 3 hours to complete the 13Km course with one rider commenting “It was like riding in peanut butter”.

There were 2200 riders registered and 400 at the start line for what was to be a 24 hour race but turned into 12 hours of mud wrestling.

You can imagine how muddy it was but it was actually a lot worse.  $5000 carbon fibre bikes weighed as much and were as useful as a $125 bike from Walmart. And having 27 speeds meant nothing as shifting was impossible with all the mud.  Riders took home so much mud that Albion Hills is being renamed Albion Valley :)

What was normally a short, quick uphill, turned into a slick mess.

Riders left clean but returned almost unrecognizable, but still smiling!

But in total we raised well over $30,000 $50,000 for the Canadian Paraplegic Association and our friend Rob, who braved the rain to spend the day with us!

Thanks to all for your support and donations!

First of all I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who donated.  Your donations and support have gone a long way in making this ride a reality.  On behalf of the Canadian Paraplegic Association, Rob Buren and myself, thanks!  Your generous donations have helped me raise $1230 for the CPA and Rob!  If you haven’t donated you still can, just click the image below!

Throughout the GTA most of us are getting ready to depart for Albion Hills to set up our campsite and ensure everything is set for the start of the 24 Hour Summer Solstice tomorrow and 12 noon Eastern.  We have 50 riders split among 7 teams riding this weekend in the Ride For Rob.  While it will be a gruelling 24 hours, especially if the weather forecast holds true, it will also be an enjoyable few days for all as we are supporting a great cause and a great friend.

If you would like to follow along this weekend there are a variety of ways you can.  If you are in the GTA, Albion Hills is just North of Bolton, ON.  Sunday is supposed to be a nice day and park entry is only $6.  You can find directions here.

Otherwise you can follow along via my blog, twitter, Flickr.  I will be updating the blog with other online resources as I find them so check back often.

If you'd like to ride the trail without leaving your seat, there is this video that was shot just the other day at another race, but the same trail (1st video on the page).

Thanks again for your support!

So today we got to pre-ride the course for the 24 Hour Summer Solstice race next weekend.  This is the race we are participating in as the Ride for Rob.  The course was fast, with loads of twists, turns, fun downhills and not so bad uphills and a huge mud pit at M5!  You can see the course below and it came in just under 17KM.

The course starts and ends at M1 and the race starts and 12noon on Saturday June 20th and the last racer has to start the final lap by 12noon on Sunday and get it finished before 1:30pm.  I have been training hard for the last 6 weeks, riding over 100KM on the trails every week and it is showing.  I have lost over 20lbs so far and continue to shrink on a weekly basis.  I have also managed to raise $780 for the Canadian Paraplegic Association.

It is not too late to donate!  As a group we have raised almost $30,000 and we are still looking for your support to help those with Spinal Cord Injury! 

Please donate today!

And stay tuned, I’ll be blogging from the race and posting pictures next weekend so you can see the fun we are all having!!!