Читать книгу Cycle For Life: The Story of the 1991 Trans-Canada Record Attempt - Bill Psy.D. Narasnek - Страница 5

Since September 1990 not a day has gone by that I haven't, in some way, thought about riding across this great country.

To call it an obsession would only state the obvious. To fully realize the implications and profound effects of such an endeavour have been an unexpected and on-going revelation.

Testing the outer limits of our human physical and mental capacities has been the passion of many. It is a dangerous business, as I found out, for once those limits are approached there is no turning back and what we find we must live with, good or bad.

I had spent a number of years as a recreational runner having run many distance events and completed a number of marathons with a best time just under 2:42. In the early 1980's I made a gradual transition to cycling prompted by a few running injuries and my eldest sons' growing interest in the sport.

In 1983 and 1984 I won the title of Mr Fit Sudbury based on a point system for the year long Sudbury Fitness Challenge. This was a series of six events including running, cycling, canoeing, swimming, cross-country skiing, and a multi-event race, the Beaton Classic. In 1985 I applied for my first amateur bicycle racing license in the veterans, (35+), category.

That summers' competition came to an abrupt halt in Owen Sound when I was involved in a crash at the Provincial Championships which left me with a broken rib, broken collar bone and a pound of flesh lighter. I recovered, despite what my wife says about the effects of landing on my head. The next few years I raced in Ontario with respectable results. In 1987, at the National Championships in St. John, New Brunswick, I placed third in the forty kilometre individual time trial and seventh in the road race. In 1989 I amazed myself by winning the provincial road race championship for veterans.

Throughout the years of running and riding I trained continuously, year round. For me it had become a lifestyle. I enjoyed the training as much as the racing.

I recount this background simply to illustrate the physical training and racing base which made me feel, at some point, that I might be capable of the trans-Canada record.

My personal decision to attempt the record is still one of the things that amazes me the most. I must have been blinded by ambition! Thinking about the magnitude of the record in terms of hours, days, kilometres, the numbers are frightening. To have had the audacity to believe that I could do it....