Today is June 14.  Tomorrow is the start of the 1000 km (600 miles) cycling marathon we have been training for during the last 6 months. Presently, we are in the team’s RV driving 1000 km northbound and we will cycle back home this week end with 1000 other devoted cyclists.

Mr. D’Aoust, our driver (and massage-therapist-extraordinaire) is driving swiftly while team member France is playing DJ while Robert is reading testimonies that he has received from friends and strangers who heard about his transformation story*.  Ugo is playing Scrabble in one of the beds and I am writing this blog on my laptop. Raymond, the other team member is following by car. It is a gorgeous sunny day and they are predicting blue skies for the next 4 days!  We are blessed!

This morning, upon leaving Canada’s national capital, we could not believe we were finally on our way to this promising adventure and recounted how this all started…

Back in November of last year, France and I met for a drink and she told me she had a client who was looking to sponsor a sport event. We threw a few ideas around and the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie was one of them.  We enquired how to sign up and were told the event was sold out year after year but that for 2012, there would be a drawing lot for 5 new teams.  Registration period came along and we paid 250$ to put our name in the lot… along with 546 other teams!

On December 1st at noon, the draw was held, live on the Internet.  When Pierre Lavoie drew Maxmedia’s name, I just about lost it! My work colleagues will tell you I did lose it, but I don’t know what they are talking about. I say that it’s not because can’t say a word for 15 minutes because you are laughing/crying/shaking that you are crazy.

It was December so we had 6 full months to prepare for this.

Each member of Team Maxmedia was on at a different level in terms of physical shape: Robert was 140 lbs overweight and had not exercised in years. On the other hand, Raymond had just come back from summiting  Aconcagua, the tallest mountain of the Americas, and was training for a half-marathon.  France was active, doing yoga and exercising weekly.  I was in good shape, skiing and running a couple of times a week and Ugo was the most fit, having been in cycling for almost two decades.

For the first three months, we each trained on our own and in April, we started cycling together outside.  Our first outing was for 19 km.  Then 40 km and last week, we went for 110 km, two days in a row.  Over the spring months, we rode in 40 km/hr wind, we rode at 3 degrees Celcius, we rode in rain storms so this week-end, whatever the weather will be like, this adventure will be a breeze!

We are pumped! The atmosphere in the RV is one of excitement mixed with nervousness. We have been traveling all day, sharing stories, listening to good music, and fueling on carbs. Cars and other RV have passed us along the way, honking and waving. We are an hour away to arriving in La Baie, the starting point of this amazing journey and it all starts tomorrow, at 8:30!

 



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