I will definitely be posting about our adventure on the road with Cyclebetes, but I was just emailed a shot of me riding with my son that I love and wanted to share.
Thanks again to everyone for your support and for helping Beemer beat his goal!
More to come!
Especially not with help like this. I am so happy to announce that Westoba Credit Union has come on board as a Silver Sponsor for our Team Manitoba Support Van!
Westoba Credit Union – now active in Western Manitoba for nearly 50 years – has a long and unique story in our community. With involvement at all kinds of local events, Westoba has stepped up to the plate again and again to make living in Westman such a great experience.
And now, they’ve decided that Juvenile Diabetes is one disease we can live without. With their generous contribution to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada, we welcome them to the fight.
And you can join in on the fight, too, by joining us on August 28th at the Trans Canada and 1st Street North. With your $10 donation to the JDRF you can cycle along with us as we ride through Brandon. Join us at Murray’s on Richmond for a shorter ride – 5kms instead of 12kms – and drop your rock in the pond.
If we get enough ripples going, nothing can stop us ‘til we beat Type 1!
With the National Team getting closer and closer with each passing hour, it’s getting hard to concentrate on anything but the AMAZING trip I am about to embark on with my son, Brandon.
That is why I am so pleased to announce that Benmarks Sound has come on board as the Gold Sponsor for our Cyclebetes Team Manitoba Support Van!
The folks at Benmarks are the kind of people that bring a smile to your face. When I spoke initially to them I was a little hesitant, suggesting a bronze, or perhaps a silver sponsorship. When I ended up speaking to the owner, Brad Danielson, he made it clear that this is a cause worth supporting. 
Brad came through in a big way. With Diabetes in his family, it’s something that hits home and he wants to see a cure for this disease as much as anyone else.
I’ve spoken to Brad a couple of times about Juvenile Diabetes and I know that above all else, the reason he wants to see this thing beaten is for the 80+ kids that are diagnosed in our province each year. Like myself, he finds it too hard to accept that 1 in 800 kids will live with thousands of needles each year.
We are so thankful to Brad, his wife Deanna and the rest of the crew at Benmarks for making this happen and helping to get my son closer to his goal!
The Wheat City Derby Dolls heard about our Cyclebetes community bike ride that’s taking place on August 28th in Brandon and said, “Hey! What about us!?”
Our police escort runs out at the 8th street bridge, but we’ll be greeted by the smiling faces of some of the members of the Derby Dolls, who will finish out the last kilometre or so of the ride with us!
Not only are they going to provide us with an escort into the Riverbank Discovery Centre, but they’ll also be bringing family members and friends along for the ride…helping us raise money for a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.
Thanks, Dolls! It’s great to have your support…see you next Saturday!
…and Beemer is now 2/3 of the way to his goal!
Tyler Glen from Star FM came out to Murray Chevrolet Cadillac here in Brandon, but the city limits didn’t keep good folks away from a great cause.
A gentleman heard Beemer on the radio and drove to the dealership…from over 50 miles away…to come meet “the young lad who was biking across the prairies!” and give a donation.
We had friends and friends of friends from right across the city come out and support Brandon, helping him get closer to his goal. Lots of families came out too, and some very special kids who live with Type 1.
We signed up some more folks for the Community Bike Ride next weekend and talked with a lot of people about what it’s like to live with Type 1 – the reason we’re doing all this!
We got to meet a very cool kid – Porter – who was sadly diagnosed with Type 1 in June. His parents and their friends came together and raised hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and delivered it to us today at the dealership! We’re definitely going to get that family on board with Cyclebetes next year! ;o)
It’s not hard to raise some big dollars for such a great cause when dozens and dozens of families show up with open hearts. Thank you AGAIN to the folks who live in this community!
The support just keeps rolling in, and I can’t believe how much of a CAN DO spirit some folks have.
Take, for instance, the folks at Murray Chevrolet. Not only have they made a huge commitment in supporting the Cyclebetes National Relay, but they’ve gone to the next level provincially, as well!
The entire dealership is pitching in and staff and family members are coming out to help with a community BBQ. CKLQ will be on location the entire time, and Murray’s has graciously provided Team Manitoba with a place to collect pledges and share information about the Community Bike Ride (August 28th, more details here).
ALL THE PROCEEDS from the BBQ are going to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to help find a cure for Type 1.
Join us at Murray’s from 11-2pm on August 21st…come and meet Team Manitoba’s Youth Ambassador, Brandon, who’s just 8 years old and will be cycling hundreds of kilometres over the next 10 days.
If you want to support Beemer and his goal of $5,000, you can view his online sponsorship page here.
I want to send a big thank you out to Hellen Burnell of Centum Mortgage Choice.
Hellen’s come on board with an extremely generous donation to support Beemer in his goal of raising $5000. CMC has shown that they are committed to this cause and to finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.
I know from personal experience that working with Hellen to help figure out the tangle of mortgage options is such a help. She knows the products available and how to get you into the right one.
Okay folks, here we go. This is my big push.
If you know me, you likely know my son Brandon, who we like to call Beemer. And, if you know Beemer, you likely know that he has Type 1 Diabetes.
He wants your help: he’s looking to raise $5,000 this year to help fund a cure for juvenile diabetes. Please donate here.
So, you may be wondering how he got diabetes. Did he eat too much sugar? Is he a lazy kid?
Absolutely not…but I’m going to get back to that in a second.
Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disease that strikes thousands of children each year, killing part of their pancreas and leaving them dependant on insulin injections and constant blood glucose monitoring.
For life.
So is he lazy? Nope! Brandon has already cycled over 200kms this year training to ride from Ontario to Alberta with a national relay team. d00ds, seriously, he’s 8 freekin’ years old and he’s going to ride with the National Relay team known as Cyclebetes.
This is one tough kid, and it shows. He refuses – daily – to let this disease beat him. When was the last time you cycled 20kms? He’s done it twice. In the last week.
It doesn’t just affect Beemer, but the whole family, too. Here’s how his little brother Andy is dealing with it:
Again, if you can help out, please donate here.
Every bit helps and you can be my son’s hero (as well as the hero of over 250,000 kids worldwide).
Beemer and I leave on August 26th to join the Cyclebetes National team. I’ve been training hard and I’m ready to take my son across a couple of great provinces and hundreds of kilometres closer to a cure.
I got to ride in to Calgary for the last 3okms with some great folks – Jeff, Charlie, Heather and Steve – as I passed my personal goal of 1,000kms for this trip.
The personal goal was nothing, though, in light of what this trip is about. The people I’ve met here and along the way have shown me again and again that Juvenile Diabetes is a disease that won’t last. It can’t, not with a group like this fighting against it.
It’s a little surreal right now…taking a few minutes to upload a video while everyone is relaxing…tomorrow we’ll ride out to Bragg Creek and then I’m going home.
It has been such a great trip, and I’ve got so many more memories that I want to make sure I capture, but, for now, what I’d like to do is get down some of the advice that I’ve received over the last two weeks:
Megan: Tell everyone we’re leaving at 7. Then we can leave on time for 7:30.
Kim: I can. I will.
Willie: Apparently one cloud can screw you.
Joanne: Ride like you’re wiping off dog poop from the bottom of your shoes.
Megan: Don’t forget the tent.
Barb: Don’t ever ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do. Do it first, then you can teach them so they can do it next time.
Steve: Ride like a Kenyan.
Willie: Do it if you’re gonna do it.
I know there’s more and I’ll get them in here as soon as I can. The video’s uploaded now and I’m going to get a last night in with this amazing group of anti-Type-1’ers.
This leg of the journey might be coming to an end, but I know that this group of people will accomplish great things – primarily curing Juvenile Diabetes – and I am so glad I sent that email to the H2V guys last year and got involved.
Wow. That’s the only word I have.
I have been continuously blown away by people I have met on this trip. I didn’t think that the biggest shock would come from someone I already knew. More on that in a second…
I have some very big thanks to push out to some people and organizations that made the Manitoba leg of Accu-Chek Cyclebetes so successful.
Krystal from 94.7 Star FM took calls from us all day long as we made our way from Winnipeg to the Wheat City, pumping up the event and directing people to our Facebook group and our website. People were honking at us from Portage la Prairie all the way into town.
We were met by an amazing group of supporters up on the highway as we rode into Brandon. They had signs, cheers, and most importantly, my family ;o) It was so great to see my very pregnant wife and my two man cubs.
The Brandon Police Service met us on the Trans-Canada with two vehicles and led us, along with CKLQ/Star FM, all the way through town. With about 5km left on the Community Ride, my son Beemer joined us and rode like a rock star into the apres-event at the Riverbank Discovery Centre.
When we got there, about 50 people joined us in thanking I-NetLink Wireless, Westman Evaluation and Rehabilitation, Murray Chevrolet Cadillac and A&L Get Active for their support and contributions.
The Brandon Sun had a reporter and photographer there to do some photos and to interview Megan Rose and myself.
Afterwards, we retreated to my brother’s house where he and my very dear Mother had made us a rockin’ supper for all the riders. It was sooooo good to be able to sit down as a team and have supper at a respectable time! …plus, the grub was amazing and everyone had a wonderful time.
So about this wow thing…
Jannessa rode as my stoker through the province. This girl has a ton of stuff in her. Seriously. At age 14, she not only lives with Juvenile Diabetes, but has also overcome a myriad of health troubles and not only survives, but downright pushes through whatever life throws at her. It was so great to get some time on the road to get to know her better, and even better for her to spend some time with a lot of Type 1’s who are living with the disease and fighting to get to the end of this thing. She is brave, confident and is going to make a difference. I was privileged to ride with her, and amazed that she rode for over 100kms in less than 24 hours.
What a great place to call home, but I didn’t get to stay. Tonight we made it into Moosomin and tomorrow we’re on to Swift Current. The next day, Brooks, then finally Calgary the day after. I’ll be saying my good-byes and driving home after that…
…I can’t believe this adventure is almost over…
It’s been so great getting to know so many people along the route so far. One of those is photographer Carey Tarr, a Type 1 Diabetic that is following the crew along the way and rockin’ out some great photos. Here’s a shot she got of me while driving past Kerry and I on the tandem…Carey was hanging out the side of the van! Carey…thanks so much for letting me post this!
I finally got a chance to put some video online as well tonight. KOA Rocks! Free wifi? Hu-zah!
These are the video highlights for Day 6 from the Biggest Bike Relay in the world. Cyclebetes is all about finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes, with the hope of helping millions of children around the world, including over 200,000 Canadians!
I’m losing perspective: all roads that aren’t dramatically downhill are starting to look like big climbs. Yoy.
Another night shift for RV2 and we’re totally rockin’ it. We’re still averaging 25km/hr even with these nasty up-hills. The Sault area is nasty on a bike, but so much more amazing on a bike because you can take in the scenery.
We had a pit stop in Wawa for the RV change where we found out that the other team totally knocked down a high speed of 71.8 on the tandem. Way cool…but way making Kerry and I want to destroy it!
We paced ourselves on a bunch of ascents and easy downs until, around 11pm, Kerry and I found our hill. We got into top gear and were totally blasting the descent. There was one big dip left in the road and we found another gear, pumping our legs as hard as we could, lungs burning, heart racing…and then we blew a pedal with 150 meters to go on the hill. So disappointing!
There was a bit of panic going on…not too sure what order things happened in because we were going too fast to look down and figure out what was going on. It was too dark. I caught 69.8 km/hr on the bike computer, but we’d lost a little bit already. We certainly didn’t bust through the 71.8, but we had at least 70km/hr, if not 71!
The threads on the crank were completely stripped. The pedal was still clipped in on my shoe…pretty crazy. It was a shaky moment, but luckily I was in the drops and Kerry is a real steady rider. I didn’t need to move my hands to reach the breaks, so we just had to shake off a wobble and slow down.
We’ll get it tomorrow, Kerry, tomorrow. ;o)
Got into camp and Canadian Olympic rower Chris Jarvis had made the most amazing campfire-cooked banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips. Dude actually cooked it on the campfire in foil. Made the batter from scratch. Epic.
Really hoping to get some internet access soon…have some video we NEED to get up here and lots of pictures.
I’m also thinking of my beautiful wife, who is officially going to celebrate her birthday without her husband. Love you baby…tomorrow we’ll be in Thunder Bay and I’m hoping Rogers has their act together for cell phone reception…
We rode all through the night last night into Mississauga and had one heck of a ride.
As we took the RV to start the all-nighter – Willie, Kim, Mark, Joanne, Jen and I – we looked up into the most amazing clear sky…crazy awesome stars and a nice cool night.
There was one cloud in the sky. One cloud. Willie looked up and had the nerve to say, “There’s one cloud, there is no way we can get screwed!”
20 minutes later he and Kim were hunched under a gas station shelter while gallons and gallons of water poured off the roof of the building. We couldn’t see them for a couple of minutes before they pulled over. It was insane…and I have video to show it!
Mark and I rode together as the second tandem, J & J rocked shift three. We rotated through the night until we busted a couple flats in a row and switched over to singles.
Willie rode all the way through Toronto. When I say he ‘rode’ through Toronto I mean he totally destroyed that city.
On the last 20km stretch to Mississauga he came back to the RV and said, “James, it’s your Beemer. Do you want to take it in with me?”
It was the most incredible ride of my life. Willie let me draft pretty much the whole way and we rocked that last strip of road at 40-50km/hr the whole way, and got into the community event in M-Town at about 7:30 AM.
As I got off the bike, Googs came up and asked if I could help with the event. I was feeling pretty high so I was like, “Hell ya!” Then she told me I was doing the 30km ride. Nice. hehehe.
It turned out to be awesome and I got to ride with Patti for most of the shift…what a great morning, too. It is so incredibly lifting to share with other parents about D-Day, about the changes in life and what our hopes and aspirations for our kids and their life with this disease.
Googs totally rocked the event – for her first event where she had to write the entire script, it was incredible – and there was a strong group leading the team out of the city while she and I went to return a bunch of gear. We met up at the team change event (ON East to ON West) and had to say some good-byes to a great group of people while we got rolling with the next.
What a blast…so fortunate to be riding with a group of people that want so badly to totally lick this disease.
Kim Hexter is a ROCK STAR. If you’re ever going to do your first ride on a tandem in the dark, this is the lady you want riding the stokes is Kim. Thank you so much for an amazing first ride.
We’re doing a wild downhill right now with tandem needed some serious love. It’s lived through a hurricane, several thousand kms and a serious rain storm. Getting some big help tomorrow after the community ride in Mississauga.
Today my wife joined with Cyclebetes Manitoba team mates Jannessa Phillips and James Juliak went down to do a benefit BBQ for the team. Murray Chev Olds hosted the event and covered the expenses, allowing us to collect over $600 for the JDRF! Too awesome.
Drove for three hours and am about 3.5 hours away from my next cycling shift. Joanne and Jen rockin’ the tandem now and we’re about to do a change.
Looks like a great night of riding ahead of us!
Ride hard!
from Aug 28…
I just rode with the tandem and we took the team out of Montreal the hard way…with a big fat detour u-turn that by no means suggests we got lost. Seriously.
Riding in the pace van now with Carey and Kara in front of the tandem. It’s 6:06 PM and I’m not sure when I will get internet, but I wanted to capture some of what we got to experience again.
Megan picked us up at 8AM…which is waaaaay too early if you stay up until 3AM looking for a place to find crepes. Yeah, uh…totally Kara’s fault.
Team Food (that’s us) made our way down to Loblaws and grabbed a bunch of grub. Man, the looks on their faces when we bought six bags of apples and a billion bananas.
We met up with the convoy, got the bikes tuned up and then hit the road with the team to make our way to Roche’s head office and were promptly blown off our seats.
5 year old Sammy and 8 year old Liam totally funked out a solid 5kms and as the dozen or so of us on bikes rolled into Accu-Chek HQ, we were met by 150+ volunteers, Roche staff, JDRF Quebec representatives, stilt-walking clowns and families living with Type 1 Diabetes. They were cheering us through to this awesome event they were hosting for us, complete with buffet, drinks, some brief talks from JDRF, Cyclebetes, Roche and a truly endearing family.
Nathalie and her daughter drew more than a few tears as they shared how T1 affected their lives. Both mom and daughter were phenomenal and drew much applause.
Next up was our very own Nathalie and her son Liam, who are team members of Cyclebetes. Nathalie grabbed that mic and rocked it for 8 minutes and brought a great personal touch from our team to the event.
I then broke my legs in with a great shift behind the tandem and got to spend some time riding with Canadian Olympic medallist Chris Jarvis! Sooooo cooool!
I have about an hour before I get on the tandem for the first shift and I’ll be knocking off some big KMs with Kim Hexter. I am so pumped.
I’m thinking huge about my wife, my two man cubs and really wishing they could be here. I can’t wait to see you guys in 7 sleeps!
