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Dude's 2013 Ride-2-Survive

Dude

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It's been a while since I've posted here.

Training, work, and life have been busy. Last weekend I participated in a great event in Minneapolis, the MS 150- two days of riding, 125 KM each, in support of MS. Otherwise, a lot of riding, a bit of racing, and doing my best to stay uninjured through all of it.

We ride in 9 days…at 3:00 AM we’ll roll out of Kelowna, and 400 KM later, at about 10:30, finish off in delta.

Read this- it captures in words why I ride, and my biggest fear. Boys…almost all of us are dads…if not, uncles, or big brothers. If you don’t have tears running down your cheeks after reading this, you’re dead inside:
Determination and Hope

I’m still accepting donations. Go here to donate: Ride2Survive . Hit the “Donate Now” button on the top left, scroll down and find my name, and follow the instructions. Or, try this link:
Mike Meade's Personal Page for Ride2Survive 2013


As always, I really appreciate the support I get through TTP. You guys are awesome.

~Mike Meade.
 

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Dude

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So, a couple of weeks have gone by, just now trying to get around to my thank yous.

I did manage to get in a Facebook post, but usually try to give a bit more for TTP, considering the bulk of my sponsors are you guys. Have been for 5 years now, and by my rough estimate, responsible for about $10K in donations to the Canadian Cancer Society!

Then, of course, Regs went and shut down the site for two weeks. So it’s his fault I’m late. :D

This was my 5th year with R2S, 3rd as a Captain…and it was easily my toughest year on the bike. Not through lack of preparation…in fact, up to about a week leading up, I felt fantastic…in better shape than I’ve been in probably 7 years, due mostly to retiring, for the most part, from playing soccer. I was able to train more consistently, and do things like actually stretch, and not just survive on ice baths keeping me together through a bloody season of footy. Plus, of course, was able to ride a lot through winter.

I felt like I’d gone a few rounds with Tyson. Coming down with strep throat the Wednesday before the ride didn’t help, plus I had several, erm…”mechanical breakdowns” with the body. More on that in a bit. The fact that it was my first year riding after losing my Father in Law over the summer made it even more of an emotional roller coaster. In the end, as a team, we raised just shy of $400K for 80 riders, and are closing in fast. Personally, even though physically I was a mess this year, I somehow managed to ride every KM, many of them with extra internal motivation. Thankfully, we were blessed this year with low wind, nice, cool temps, and no rain. For me, there was a lot of anger, self-doubt, and digging deep along the way. I was a grumpy bastard on ride day!

I touched a bit on “mechanical breakdowns” of my body? Well, in 400 KM, almost all of us go through it. You almost can’t not. Something on your body is going to hurt. It’s a matter of being able to push through the pain or not. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t.

Going in this year, I had two significant physical issues I didn’t expect that I had to deal with…the upper back / neck kink (left side), and the lower hip (right side). Up till that Friday 8 days before, I was feeling perfect, then these all set in. Add in the strep throat, and it didn’t add up for a lot of success, physically, on ride day.

The following few paragraphs may be TMI and too difficult to read for some. If you have a week stomach, stop here.

In years past, I’ve dealt with varying degrees of IT band issues. I have worked on the IT issues a fair bit, and in the last three years, not so bad…manageable….but I had one other unmanageable pain that materialized last year…right ball pain.

That’s right, my right nut started hurting, and hurting bad, right about Merrit. This was last year. Yes, I did seek out medical attention to try and figure it out, and best we can figure, it is nerve related. Possibly slight differences in seat positioning, etc., and saddle type. The plumbing is fine, all clear. It’s an anomaly…the nut pain only manifests itself in one particular situation, and that is when sitting on a bike seat for 6, 7, or 8 hours, depending on how bad the road is. Bumps, you know, they can be jarring on the testy. I tried a couple of different saddles this year, and thought I had the nut, erm, sorted. Nope. This off season, I will once again try and find a saddle that works with my package.

In any event, I did take steps to relieve this pain this past off-season, but the only sure way to test the, erm, testy, is to ride long, long hours. This year, I didn’t do a 7 or 8 hour ride leading up to Saturday. I did a lot of mileage, but in the long mileage days, I ramped up the pace to a higher rate than I would in riding w/ the R2S group. It was by design: to ride harder and longer, in order that on “game” day I’m actually riding at a slower pace, and would have less issues, overall, with fatigue. In theory, it works. Used it before, due to limited time to train, I do a lot of shorter, high intensity rides…but it doesn’t allow for a “ball pain” test, per se. So, bottom line, didn’t test it (right ball) out, really. No real “ball busting” rides since this time last year.

Anyhow, as if the riding gods were conspiring against me, ALL of my pains came on at once right after the first big climb of the day…at about 7:00 AM, at the top of the 30 KM ride up the Penask Summit out of Kelowna. My right ball hurt like hell, my lower back hurt, my neck was stiff, and the IT band in my left knee was starting to make itself painfully evident. I was literally breaking down all over the place…and at this point, I had roughly 14 more hours of riding, and about 15.5 hours left in the day (including two 45 minute breaks for breakfast and dinner).

And, my throat felt like sandpaper, my stomach like I’d drank a bottle of Sambuca the night before. A right mess.

So, you can imagine my frustration…first fighting the strep, then the back issues, then the bloody knee coming back to haunt me- at a point WAY earlier than in year’s past- and now my testy! The testy was quite literally the go / no go point for me. I can ride w/ the other stuff. The back and neck, well, I deal w/ it. It hurts, but I deal. Everyone ends up w/ a sore back of some sort by the end. I know how the knee is going to go…at some point it will seize up, the only question is, when. The ball, though? Honestly, fcuk me! That is something that has a short shelf life in terms of how much pain…plus I had to deal w/ it last year, and was not willing to go through that again. Last year I took Advil, but I felt every bloody bump in the road, and it’d send a shooting pain up to my right eyeball! So this year, no…not liking that prospect again.

Anyhow, at the top of Penask, I took: 1 Tylenol 3, 2 Advil Liquid Gold, 1 antibiotic, and rubbed GLOBS of Biofreeze all over both nuts and the knees. I mean GLOBS! This is the stuff that, in the locker room before and in the middle of matches, you take great pains not to go too high when rubbing down the hamstrings or groin. Well, I not only went well past the hammy and groin, but RIGHT ON the spot we take great pains to avoid.

For the next 30 minutes or so, my nuts were on frozen fire as I rode. After that, beautiful nut numbness incurred. I applied the gel liberally “down there” at every break (we have 10 x 7 minute stops, to refill bottles, to grab food, to go to the bathroom, and anything else you need…very fast pit-stops). Sooner than later, pissing became a messy process, because I couldn’t feel a damn thing down there, and had no directional control.

In the end, my painful ball ended up not playing a part in my day as it had threatened to. That being said, I still didn’t quite have all the feeling “down there” the day after. By the following Monday morning, directional control was pretty good. Happy to report, despite unfair and cruel punishment to my package, it has forgiven me.

Lesson learned? It’s amazing what the body will accomplish when the mind pushes it’s limits. Worth every second…

So, all you guys that always ask, “What about riding after X many hours? Don’t you hurt…down there?” Well, there is your answer. It’s abnormal, though. I’m hoping to figure this out this offseason. Treating the bits as badly as I did has a short shelf life.

Other than the biomechanical issues I had to fight, it was another amazing and inspirational day. Now being involved 5 years, I’ve seen riders come and go, some fantastic riders, and some people that otherwise have no business doing this event, except for the fact that cancer has somehow affected them deeply, and they will themselves into the fitness level it takes to complete this day. It truly is impressive to see that transformation. We had a small team this year- 81 riders, I think, but we managed to crack $400K…an average of just under $5K each, every penny going directly to the Canadian Cancer Society, not a penny shaved off the top for overhead. You guys have been a very important part of this for me, so I thank you once again, very sincerely, from the bottom of my heart.

I’m still going to kick you during the season if I play against you, though. I do it out of love.

:D

Photos here on this link to my Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/mike.me...0200775418320518.1073741828.1014560175&type=3

~Mike.459_R2S 2013 4076 bwk.jpg em & m.jpg
 

Dude

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I usually like to give this thread a bit of a rest, given I hound you guys so much every year.

This morning I woke up with the sad news that past rider, team mechanic, and friend Jon Stibbs passed away early today after losing his fight w/ Multiple Myeloma.

I'm pretty sure I've written about this man...

I met Jon during my first year riding R2S. He literally rode up next to me at the beginning of the Penask Summit climb, and introduced himself.

"You're the guy whose father in law is suffering from multiple myeloma, right?", to which I affirm. "Yeah, that's the same thing I have."

We ride the whole 3 hour climb side by side and chatted. I was amazed that this fit looking guy next to me was suffering from the same thing that was killing my father in law. WE chatted about everything you could imagine under those circumstances...why he was doing it now (awareness, and because, at 50 and with this disease, he may not get another shot), his fears of leaving his family behind, his kids, my kids...pretty deep conversation to be having with someone you've just met. That said, the circumstances aren't exactly normal.

One thing that struck me, when he asked how long my father in law had it and how he's doing now (then, he'd had it, we suspected, 7 years, and was recovering well after a nasty scare), he said to me, "That's good to hear. I don't know how long I have, so we're sort of in a mad rush to do as much as we can now."

Well, turns out, he had almost exactly a year longer than my father in law.

There are a lot of people from this group, and on this ride, that inspire me for different reasons, and I've written about them. I don't know if I've ever mentioned Jon, but he inspired me more than any one other person. A fantastic man, great father, and on the day I met him, strong as an ox, rode every single km. There are the false heroes we all have to read about in the media...celebrities and pro athletes who, on the surface, appear to be one thing, but under the surface, smeared with ulterior motives and scandal. Jon was, to me, one of those real life, every day heroes nobody ever reads about. He had an impact on my life, and we remained friends. This is life...people die. We all go through it, losing friends and family. Jon was a good man, and I feel a little sick to my stomach this morning thinking about how he impacted me and his community in such a positive way, and the kids and Brenda, his wife, that he's leaving behind today.

RIP, Jon.
 

Rangerforever

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I'm pretty sure you've mentioned him bud and sorry to hear.

One of Moe's aunt's has this disease and indeed your updates on this kind of stuff helps us understand a bit more.
So thanks for that.

RIP Jon
 

Dude

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I tell you what, being involved w/ R2S as I am now means attending more funerals and memorials than ever.

I went to John’s celebration of life yesterday. I knew John from my experience training w/ him, riding side-by-side on the ride day, and when he worked as the team mechanic after he felt he was no longer strong enough for the ride itslef.

What I learned yesterday was that he lived his life with the same reckless abandone that I try to live mine, injuries be damed, and with risk as an afterthought. He was an avid skier as well as wind surfer, and up until 8 months before his passing, he spent every day squeezing as much as he could out of life.

That’s how I want to leave this world- having squeezed as much out of life as I can. I leartned that much about John- he left with no regrets. If I leave this world early due to doing something that others may have avoided due to risk, so be it. What would you like your thombstone to say, “Died peacefully in bed at the age of 93”, or “Succomed to injuries at age 41, suffered in a shark attack while surfing the Gold Coast of Austrailia”? Fcuk old age, give me the shark. I had a nasty crash this summer involving a bit of head and neck injury (as I told Frase, my lame reason for starting the season later than sooner this year). It was frightening. On a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, tingling shocks going up and nown my arms and fingers. Eventually got up and rode out, thanked my lucky stars for the quality of the full face helmet I broke. The only person, besides my good riding buddy who accompanies me on all these trips, who hasn’t asked me if I’m going to dial back the mountain biking, is my wife- cause she knows better. Though she may be looking to jack the life insurance…

The last thing I’ll write this year on this thread is as follows…if you followed one of my earlier links- this: http://www.ride2survive.ca/index.ph...ve-visits-with-lillee&catid=47:blog&Itemid=99 – you will have a hard time reading the following, but understand more why I continue to allow myself to be dragged back into this endeavor every year. This note was sent to the R2S team, to update us on Lilee. Their parents celebrate Christmas with her a week ago Thursday:

“Yesterday Lilee-Jean started to decline, today was even worse. She was throwing up all day and had two seizures, so we are officially at Canuck Place Children's Hospice. From the rapid change in her and the Seizures, They think this is the beginning of the end. They don't know how long it Could be a few days or A week. They don't know anything for sure, But just going by everything they have seen etc we probably won't be going home. We appreciate all the love and support through our journey. And ask for prayers of comfort and strength both for Andrew and I, and for our sweet Lilee-Bean. -Chelsey.”


I’ve never lost a child to anything. I can’t imagine. This kind of stuff motivates me on.
 

cascadesoccer

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Well said dude. I went to ucfv with Chelsey as she played with the womens team, and I haven't seen her since nor have ever met the incredible Lilee, but I see the facebook updates and what they have done for that little girl is simply short of amazing. Seeing what the community has done for her and the family, makes you feel that there is hope for society and that people are truly loving and giving. Here is hoping for a miracle and that this incredibly brave and strong little girl can over come the odds and head home with her family where she belongs.
 

WaterBreak

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Dude,
Cancer sucks.
i have been with my wife for 12 years. she has lost her father, uncle, grandparents, cousins and great aunts to cancer. 14 months ago i decided to do something in my small way.
i don't own a bike.
i don't have a lot of money to donate.
Currently i am awaiting surgery to run again.
but I do have hair. April it will be cut and donated.
it is a small gesture, but i shall gladly do it over and over again.
For her, for them. for anyone this has affected.
i don't know you dude, or many people on this site, but just know, we are out there, and we are doing our part to help. keep up the good work.
Cheers,
WB
 

WaterBreak

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@Dude , I need some help in finding a good place to donate my hair. i have researched a few places, locks for love, wigs for kids, balding for dollars, but i wanted to know if there was somewhere better, or more local that i could donate my hair to. i was hoping that you or someone on this site would know were a good place to do this is. like i said i have a few places in mind, but any information or help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Dude

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I do know hair. :D

From my contact:

Yes, CCS will take it. contact Carissa at challey@bc.cancer.ca
She knows where to mail it.

I wish I could comment on if it were better or worse than your options...but honestly, I don't. Hope this helps.
 
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