As I mentioned
previously, September 8th was a big day loaded with significant personal importance for both myself and my daughter: It was her first day at school, and there was no way in the world I was going to miss it.
Canada had it's Labour Day statutory holiday the day before, and funds were a little tight, which complicated things in being able to travel there on Monday and secure a hotel room in order to stay over in Cambridge (which is where she now lives) to be able to get to her school at an appropriate time to see her off.
Because her school day started at 8am, same-day travelling by bus/train combinations were not available, and so the previous week after exhausting all other options, I decided that I would ride my bike there for the big event, and back in the same day.
Now, this isn't too much of a stretch - I've ridden to Cambridge before, and I've done other long rides before (Lake Ontario->Lake Simcoe and back, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines to mention a few) but I'd never ridden this far in one day before, and I'd also never had my previous rides heavily time-constrained/pressured as they were all leisure, this was purely "business", and very important business at that. Another massive difference was that barring the Lake Simcoe ride, all of my other long distance rides were all on my Centurion, a geared road bike. Riding fixed brought in another level of complication/challenge to the event.
A rough mental guess of distance was in the range of 200km overall (the Lake Simcoe trip was just shy, at around 188km/112 miles) - being that it's roughly 100km out there by car/highway and about 1:15/25 depending on traffic (again, on the highway). Now that I look at it, the actual distance for the route I took was 56.3miles/90.8km (Google Maps) directly to the school.
I figured, based on my previous trip to Cambridge taking me 4:30 that I should give myself 5 full hours to get there in case of being tired/mechanical issues/whatever, meaning a departure time of 3am. The returning journey I didn't care about so much, so long as I got back with enough time for dinner and sleep for work the next day.
The ride:I left at 3:01 (Rogers phone network time) and posted my progress via twitter to try and keep a track of time-progress, as at the time I'd not got a computer on my bike.
That progress was as follows:
Left Queen/Roncesvalles at 3:01am
Dixie & Dundas @ 3:32am
Dundas & 403 @ 4:02am
Highway 5 & Burke St. @ 4:59am
Peters Corners @ 5:34am
Franklin & Main / Franklin & Dundas @ 6:26am
The route was, from my house to head down to the Queensway, then head west to Dixie Road, head north up to Dundas St (Highway 5) and west all the way to Peter's Corners and then take a right onto Highway 8 which takes you straight into Cambridge (turning into Dundas St in Cambridge, I believe). This was almost the exact route I took before (the difference being that I went up to Bloor to go west instead of Queensway/Dixie - this new route change was ideal though, and having tried it before when I went out to Waterdown, I was happy with it.
The ride was going very well, I didn't stop until I was north of Oakville on Highway 5, mostly for the famous P-break, but also just to stretch off and rest my legs a bit. I felt good and so instead of forcing myself to a 15 minute break, I hopped back on the bike and carried on.
Getting closer to Burlington I started to try and find a plaza where I'd stopped with my family a couple of years ago just for some basic familiarity - I kept
thinking that I'd found it, and of course kept seeing differences (gotta love those same-look/featured plaza's of our mega-metropolis). I eventually found it, and once I hit Brock Road, I knew this was the only major climb left in the ride, the rest being pretty much flat all the way over to Hwy8 and up into Cambridge.
As the timeline indicates, it took me 2 hours to reach Waterdown (Hwy5 & Burke) which I was pretty happy with. I had considered stopping for food/rest at this kind of distance, but felt fine and was happy to keep on trucking. Prepared with snacks in shorts-pocket, a loaded Camelbak (in their Cypher backpack, allowing space for raingear and tools) and two loaded bottles on the bike - I was feeling confident I could keep on rolling without any stops barring the necessary P-breaks.
Waterdown was a nice familiar sight, but west of there was fairly unfamiliar turf, having only ridden that section once before on my prior trip to Cambridge (which was, incidentally, 2 and a half years prior in May of 2007). It quickly got properly dark, being far out of any inhabitable area and started to get a little more traffic on the road. The traffic was very respectful of my space and gave me no worries - the ride had so far been very enjoyable, and I was liking the quiet, lonely setting I had to work in.
I had set myself the mental marker of Peter's Corners to stop next, as I had started to get a bit of discomfort in my feet/legs from repetition. I rode through the junction, however, and stopped a bit further on for a P-break and much needed leg-shake and rest. At this point I started to notice more traffic, and more concerning the type of traffic - big quarry rigs. I was surprised at the lack of daylight from the east, but carried on regardless, keeping respectfully close to the shoulder whenever traffic approached.
Though I didn't know it, it was around 30-45 minutes away from Cambridge when I started to see and feel some very mystical/eerie looking rolling mist/fog appearing and shortly after it was rolling over the roadway and eventually rose to start covering me in a fine layer of cool water - I was lucky in that the temperature wasn't cold, and I was very much warmed up from riding so this didn't bother me - it was more of a "wow, cool" kind of thing.
Then I got overtaken by a big quarry truck and the faithfully-following stream of early commuter traffic behind it - this woke me up and got me to pay more attention to my ride line on the road, having been in what seemed to be a very relaxed and comfortable state - very zen-like, I would suppose.
I did a time check and it was 5:45, still having no idea on my actual progress on the distance covered, I decided to stop at around 6am for a P-break and rest. It was around then that I came across the "Welcome to Cambridge" signage, and I decided to go a bit further and then stop - I had a slight climb up that I wanted to finish, then stopped at around 6:10 to call my girlfriend to make sure she'd set her alarm and woken up for work, I then took my break and carried on - getting slowly more familiar with my surroundings and eventually getting to Franklin & Dundas in Cambridge. After realising it was around 6:20 and nothing but Tim Hortons was open in the area, I rolled over to there and got myself sat down to rest.
Tim Hortons, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to keep their air conditioning on. With all the mist build up and inevitable sweat from the ride (and the backpack), I caught quite a chill sitting in there, so changed my jersey to a baselayer and my windbreaker (which I also use for light rain) and clipped my jersey to my backpack to dry off for my return ride later on.
It was then time to contact Hollys mum to see what her plan was, as I knew I was close to their house - so I was invited over to help Holly finish up getting ready for school and we all took the bus there, bike included.
Her big moment was very anti-climatic for me, there was no big crowd of teary-eyed parents and no big mass of bewildered children - I guessed later that people were slowly dribbling in and we just happened to be there early. Either way, Holly was super excited and I'd never been more proud of my little girl who was growing up - we said our good byes and I went on my way.
As A&W were initially closed, I decided to fuel-up there with a breakfast special (I'm no fast food fan, but A&W are rare in the GTA and I wanted to treat myself to something before riding back). Once I was finished there, having taken my time and felt rested enough, I set on my way again.
I was noticeably more tired, but mainly in my hips/legs. It wasn't to any massive extent, but definitely noticeable.
I can't recall all the stops I made, but I know I made a few more than I did going there - especially as I now had no pressure to get home for any particular time. I stopped at Dundas&403 for a longish stretch and a P-break, and I made a long lunch stop at Metro in Oakville (not sure exactly where) and had a very satisfying chicken & potato lunch, with some chocolate milk and cola (for sugar/liquid) and picked up a bar of milk chocolate to replenish my in-ride supply (I ate 2 chunks every 30-45 minutes on the way there, so figured the same on the way back).
When I reached back into my neighbourhood and decided to forego the usual ride-around-the-block to avoid breaking the one way and rode the ~100 feet down the sidewalk to my house. I was happy to be home, and very happy I'd accomplished a new feat - and with a lot more ease than I'd thought. It wasn't easy, and I certainly didn't push hard coming home, but I arrived back at around 1:30pm after leaving Cambridge at around 9am and stopping for what seemed like a LONG time for lunch, and my various breaks.
I soon after got a call from my colleague who happened to be in the area, so we met for a late lunch (I actually didn't eat, having fed more than sufficiently at the grocery store) and then went back home to rest up - I'd originally planned to shower and sleep, instead I showered after the lunch meet and just relaxed.
Riding from 3am was hard to prepare for, in terms of sleep pattern, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the ride out there - I have to admit the ride back started to sap my mental-strength a bit, particularly when the wind picked up - the fact I rode on a fixed gear certainly didn't help this either, but it's the most reliable bike I had, and a bit more of a personal challenge (and I can brag about it, too ;-))
Ride on!
