Written by Claire Humphrey and Bevin Reith*, LapDogs Cycling Club Members.

From the beginner mountain biker [Claire]:

It seems like everyone I know has a favourite charity event: the YMCA Relay for Strong Kids, the Friends for Life Bike Rally, WWF’s CN Tower Climb. I’ve always liked these events: they raise a lot of money for great causes, while also providing fun and fitness for the participants. But for years I limited my own role to handing out donations to my office buddies, cheering them on from the safety of my desk chair.

The turning point came when my friend, Jenn McCaw, began planning the inaugural Wild Ride for the Lung Association. “I’m thinking I should hold a mountain bike race,” she said. “You guys will ride, right?” She was looking right at me, and she’s my best friend in the world, so I stammered, “Sure, I guess.” And once the words were out of my mouth, there was no backing out.

Sure, I was reasonably fit, but I had no idea whether running, boxing or climbing could prepare me for a bike race, especially when I hadn’t touched my bike in about a decade. Bevin and I made sure to get out on the trails as early as we could that spring, but family events and business trips made it hard to log much distance. And I’m not what you’d call a naturally gifted rider. By the time the race rolled around, I still didn’t feel ready. What if I fell off my bike in front of everyone? What if I came in last, very last, hours behind everyone else?

…So what?

It was time to swallow my pride. I knew I wasn’t going to win that race. Heck, it might be a challenge to finish. But that wasn’t the point.

What was? Well, the Lung Association, for one thing. My grandfather died of emphysema. My mother suffers from asthma, and as it turns out, so do I. I had lots of motivation to raise money—so much that I ended up #1 fundraiser last year and #2 this year.

More than the fundraising, though, the point of an event like this is community. Everyone who comes out to a charity race is there to help others. The volunteers are there to help the event run smoothly, the participants are there to help the cause and the spectators are there to cheer on the participants.

So what happens when you come in at the back of the pack in a race like this? Your friend’s mom gives you the signal to dismount. Your sister-in-law is there clapping for you at the finish line. You get handed an electrolyte drink by your husband who finished an hour ahead of you. Your friend gives you a big hug and doesn’t even care that you’re all sweaty.

No one cares about your time. They’re just happy to see you.

There are a lot of ways to race. For the win. For your personal best. For heart, for the cure, or just for fun. Never raced before? Join me at next year’s Wild Ride, where I’ll be proudly bringing up the rear once again.

From the engineer [Bevin]:

Claire beat her last year’s time by 1 minute – with 2 stitches in her scalp after an out of control cyclist crashed into her 3 days before the race.

Our four person mixed team ‘The Fast and The Curious’ topped the podium in a field of one for gold medals all around.

111 folks participated in the event which is a 46% increase over last year.

Check out this great article and video – there is a split second of me at the 19s mark J.
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/2012/06/18/wild-ride-raises-14k-for-lung-association

Most importantly, the Wild Ride increased their stature in the 2nd year and may have chip timing next year. The Lung Association matched last year’s fundraising of 15K in this tight economy and have some valuable lessons learned to apply for next year. Here’s hoping it won’t conflict with MTB fest in 2013 and we can send a mixed LapDog Cycling Club squad to give everyone some more exposure.

* Bevin is also a member of the 2012 Duke’s Cycle Cannondale LapDogs Race Team

Written by Duke’s Cycle Cannondale LapDogs Racer and Club Member, Barry Cox

I have known about the LapDogs for years and this season finally joined the club. I have found that like many things, the more I put into being a member of the LapDogs, the more I have got out of it. One of the ways I have become involved is by helping to launch the club’s new youth program.

Two of my absolute favourite things are being a dad and riding my mountainbike. Getting involved with the youth program has allowed me to combine the two. This is the youth program’s first year in many ways we have started off small. That said, after just a couple of months we have a core group of riders and a number of members have expressed interest in getting their kids involved.

One of the cornerstones of the LapDogs Cycling Club is group rides, and with this in mind, we at least one kid-friendly group ride a month (check the club calendar!). We had a really good turnout for our youth ride at the Spring Fling in May, and the weekend before the Canada Cup, Paul Reinis, Rob MacEwen and I took a couple of our more competitive kids, Max Chalovich (age 12) and Findlay MacEwen (age 9) – seen below – on a pre-ride of the race course. Rob, Paul and I had an absolute hoot coaching the boys, and as a bonus, Max and Findlay both placed very well in their categories the next day.

I have also found out the hard way that it is not easy to ride Albion Hills while towing my 5-year-old son Wesley on a trail-a-bike behind my singlespeed, although we both enjoyed every minute of it (although Wesley could probably have done without the somewhat shambolic descent of Tea-Cup…).

For those of you who have read this far, and are interested in getting your kids involved, here are some other things you should know about the program:

• Although some of the kids on the team (like Max and Findlay) do race, racing is definitely not the emphasis of the youth program. The emphasis is on riding with good friends and having fun, just the same as it is with the “grown ups”. Experienced members are on-hand to give tips if needed;

• Parents are welcome on the youth rides too. In fact, we prefer it if Mom or Dad come along, as we shoot for a pretty even ratio of adults to kids;

• Again, just like the rest of the club, on most youth rides it is necessary for insurance reasons for participants to be club members. The club has rolled out a new “Family Membership” for 2012 so that the kids can get out and get involved – more details on this at www.lapdogs.ca.

We have a lot of ideas for future events in the hopper as well. We want to do a couple of road rides (although probably on a bike path and/or back streets) to encourage safe riding and help kids develop proper group-riding skills, and you can count on us having an event at Joyride before the end of the year. If you have not ridden at Joyride, trust me – you do not have to be a kid to have a blast. We also hope to a couple of talks on basic maintenance and bike repair for the kids over the off season.

The great thing about this being a new program is that it can take whatever direction the members want, so if you have any ideas for youth program activities, don’t be shy – let us know. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be part of the Lap Dogs, and to be involved with this program. I hope to see you all out at youth events soon, and if I haven’t met you yet, please feel free to introduce yourself.

If you have any questions about the youth program, please feel free to drop us a line at [email protected] and one of myself, Andrew Ryan, Rob MacEwen and Adil Quereshi (who have all volunteered time and effort to this program) will get right back to you.

Happy trails…