ride4acure

I set out from Gisborne in the pouring rain just after 6am. I had waited for half an hour in hope that the rain would ease however it increased in intensity. So I ‘bit the bullet’ and mounted up and rode out. I absolutely flew down the Calder Freeway averaging 23.8 kms per hour in the pouring rain. I felt like a ‘cycling machine’ as my kids keep telling me. the rain was phenomenal, with great waves of water each time a truck went past! I felt invincible though…..and  I didn’t care about being wet, low visibility, traffic etc….in poor visibility I have three red flashing lights on my helmet, coat and back of bike!

I felt incredible when I arrived in the actual city it really hit home what I’ve done physically riding 1500 kms but also all of the speaking functions I’ve completed en route…..and the amazing final tally for this first ‘tally’ of the fundraising. Yesterday we were able to present a cheque for $40 309 to Assoc. Professor Grant MacCarthur who heads melanoma research at PeterMac. (Aleady overnight we have received almost another $1 000 in donations!)  It was really moving to be back at PeterMac and to see many of the people who so lovingly looked after both Hannah and us as Hannah underwent treatment there.  there were many many people waiting for me to arrive, including both channel 7 and SBS TV, plus Herald Sun newspaper. the scariest moment was when the TV guys asked me to remove my bike helmet! And I complained of ‘hat hair’!

When I pulled up at PeterMac amongst the crowd I saw the beautiful faces of a group of Hannah’s close girlfriends mostly from St Pauls Kempsey and UNE at Armidale…I was overcome with emotion when I saw them and cried with Joy at seeing their beautiful faces.  They had kept it a complete secret, even though I’d been talking to some of them only the week before!  Esther and Joe knew and had been able to keep it secret too!

We (20 of my family and the girls from Kempsey) went out to a great pizza and pasta restaurant last night to celebrate ride4acure’s arrival in Melbourne. The young fella’s went on to dance the night away to all hours at the Casino whilst I went back to my sisters and ‘crashed’ with Joe for the night.

Thanks everyone for the amazingly supportive emails and texts….I really appreciate you efforts to connect with me and the crew.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 1:04 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.