Powell River opened its wallet and donated more than $2,000 to the BC Lung Association’s 28th Bicycle Trek for Life and Breath this summer.
Powell River residents Melissa Larkin and Hugo Sloos rode the 200-kilometre course with more than 200 other cyclists September 8 and 9 to raise money for lung health research and clean air initiatives.
Sloos, a seven-time veteran of the event and president of Powell River Cycling Association, led Larkin on her first time participating in the two-day ride from White Rock to Cultus Lake and back.
“Melissa was just head down and would take the lead for a while,” said Sloos. Road cyclists form single file riding lines to take advantage of other riders pushing the wind. “She’d take the worst of it. This was the first time she’s done anything this long, so she didn’t know how long she had to be strong, but certainly on day two she pulled me.”
Cycling these distances takes its toll on participants. Even though riders have the chance to hit the hot tub after the first day, Sloos said he felt like “the walking wounded.”
“One hundred kilometres two days in a row is a huge accomplishment,” he said. “I was certainly proud of my wife for doing it. This was her first time, so for her to push through with the cramps and pain in her knees, it was a huge thing for her.”
The hardest part of the ride for Sloos was the hill near the end of the first day.
“If you could imagine riding 97 kilometres and then having to go up Huntingdon or Glacier street 800 metres long, that’s what it’s like,” he said. The hill has been measured at a grade of 20-to-22 per cent.
The annual ride has been running for the past 20 years and has grown over time.
“Many people do the event year after year,” said BC Lung Association event organizer Kate Jarvis. “The event has a real family feel with less fanfare than other, bigger commercial fundraisers, but with a lot of heart and soul.”
When Larkin finished the ride she was less than enthusiastic about doing it again.
“It wasn’t just the discomfort of sitting on the bike for five hours and pain in the legs. I could feel every pedal stroke in the back of my knee,” she said. “Right afterwards I was cursing up and down that I’d never do it again. Even a few days later after we got back, I thought that I’d never do it again.”
After doing the ride seven times Sloos comes back year after year because he says it’s great to catch up with the other veterans of the ride and the organizers do a great job setting it up.
“These guys have been doing it long before it was the ‘in’ thing or ‘chic,’” said Sloos. “I’ve got to say they’ve really been on the ball.”
After a couple of weeks recovering, Larkin is considering doing the ride again next year.
“I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. It was amazing to push my mental boundaries and my body. It was good to do it for charity, but I wouldn’t need a reason like this to do it again.”
