Get Smart. Get Active. Tour 2008

Well it has begun, and what a great first day!

My Cadboro send off proceeded with out a hitch. We had a great group of students come out to wish me luck and enjoy our sunny morning.Thank you so much to all the dignitaries that came out to see me off, you are the people we need to make a difference! A special thank you goes out to Silken Laumann, who came out to talk about getting kids active and to through her considerable amount of support behind me, Thank you so much Silken, for your incredible commitment and kind words!

This morning also gave me my first experience with the media, as I gave everyone the ceremonial dip in the Pacific and rode away with everyone cheering. Of course this first ride lasted all of 500 feet before the cameras had their shot and I had to come back to do interviews. In the end all went well and after a few hugs and goodbyes with my friends I was off!

Unfortunately the weather that held out so nicely for the big event lasted all of about twenty minutes into my actual ride before I was ushered into my adventure by every season mother earth could throw at me. While crossing the Malahat I had Hail that coated the road (and me) in a nice sheet of ice (picture Tyler on bike, wall of hail, Tyler thinks “oh poop”, most painful decent ever), which wouldn’t have been to bad except ten minutes later the hail gave way to rain and I was coated in ice and soaked to the bone, FUN! The rest of the ride was a patch work of light rain, wonderful sun, and just to keep things interesting, the odd batch of snow. At the end of the day though, I made it to Nanimo happy, healthy, and 120 km closer to my goal (I know, I know still 7000+ more to go, but I’m looking at the small picture ok, I have to maintain some level of sanity).

So once again, thank you so much to everyone that made it out to day, and to those of you that couldn’t but sent my your best wishes, I know you were there in heart, so thank you to!

Active tip of the day: Take a tip from all the great students that came out today. Push away from the desk, put on some music and dance around the office. Challenge your co-workers to a dance off. You’ll have fun, feel great and get out of work for ten minutes, all at the same time!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan

Hello All,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the first days of spring!

With just over a week to go until the tour starts I am happy to report that everything is coming together wonderfully! First off the plans for my big send off event at Cadboro Bay beach are coming along great. Silken Laumann has agreed to come out and show her support with a short speech and my introduction. On top of that there are going to be two schools coming out, plus a number of classes from UVic. The event begins at 9:00 AM rain or shine so come out and see me off!

The next thing of great importance is that my donations page is up and running on the CAHPERD web page! This page will allow you to donate securely online and receive a charitable tax donation receipt. To donate you can go to the CAHPERD web site at www.cahperd.ca and follow the links or you can go directly to
https://www.excelway.ca/secure/donations/eng/donation_form.cfm. Only the english site is up so far but the french site will be up by tuesday.

My training continues but now with only a week left it is purely maintaining what I have built up so far. With that in mind I am cutting my hours back a bit and doing a bit of a taper before the big event. Also I am trying to find some time to relax and spend time with my friends before heading out on my big tour! Basically the name of the game is to rest and recover both physically and mentally while organizing the final few details before I tackle what will defiantly be the hardest thing I have ever done.

So with that in mind, take some time and relax during these stressful times. For so many of us heading into exams during the next couple of weeks and with tax season coming up, we are all undoubtably feeling the sting. So take a break, vary it up a bit! I’m taking the day off the bike and playing squash for a bit of variety.

What ever you need to do, I hope you are enjoying it!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan

Admin:

I have made Tyler’s link active and have added the donation link to the side bar on the blog and the rest of the site. Also, visit our page on CAHPERD’s website at:
http://www.cahperd.ca/eng/story_detail.cfm?id=434.

Added contact links for Angela - Media and Stephanie - Presentations if you want to get in touch with either.

Cheers, Scott

Hello All!

Does anybody every press buttons on your computer by accident and really cool things happen, and then you wish you knew how you did it? Because that has been happening to me a lot lately and it’s starting to bug me.

Anyway back to the tour. The days are ticking away slowly but surely and the tour is starting to come together. I can’t belive how far I have come in such a short time and how much I have learned. First and foremost is I did not give myself enough time! For anyone out there planning to do something like this, do yourself and favor and take a full year; from the time you have your plan on paper and you approach your first sponsor you really do need a year (at least!).

So, as you may have guessed by now, I am more stressed than I ever every been! The last week has been the hardest, and I have decided to cancel to the tour, and then decided to go through with it about a hundred times. In the end though I am filled with a new resolve and I am determined to carry through with it. I mean really, when it comes down to it I can’t really give myself the choice. I have put far to much work into this to back out now, I don’t think I could handle it.

With my new found resolve comes a renewed excitement. Where a week ago a had to force myself on to my bike, now I am cursing that I am so busy and I can’t ride longer. Also, some aspects of the tour are coming along really well. With the support of Uvic, plans are in the works for a big send off on the 31st with guest speakers and everything! Also, I have a new bike coming in from the wonderful people at Opus and Secret Cycles in Coquitlam BC. I am still looking for drivers to fill out the trip but it is no longer a life or death issue, but if anyone is looking for a cool vacation then let me know! Plus my t-shirts arrived today and I must say they look amazing (for the low low price of $15 you to can look super cool!), so hopefully they will bring in some much needed funding.

As you may have guessed from my earlier comment, being so busy with planning the trip has been cutting into my training time a little. I am still feeling confident about the ride, but I am defiantly not harboring any delusions about coasting through.

So I will continue to fight through and if the universes sees fit I will be starting my journey in just over 15 days!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan 

Ok here’s the deal, we all just stop keeping track of the days for the next month or so and I get an extra month to train and prepare! No, won’t work, ok I guess I’ll just harden up and accept that it is actually happening!

I am defiantly feeling the pressure. March just came so much faster than I though it would, and there is so much work to be done. Thankfully I do have an RV now. Fraserway RVs is providing me with a very nice RV at a discounted cost. Unfortunately they were not willing to outright sponsor the trip, but they did lower their price by a good amount. Thank you to all the people at Fraserway for you help with making my dream a reality.

With the van a reality, finding drivers has become the number one priority. Ideally I would love to set up a piggyback system for people across the country, and supply funding for people to come out and be part of the trip. Unfortunately, the lack of financial sponsorship and people able to offer their time is making this a very difficult challenge. Understandably it is a big commitment to ask from people, but I continue despite that, so I ask again if you want to take a week or two and have a bit of a vacation, or if you know someone that might be interested, then please let me know.

Other than that I am feeling great about the tour. Thanks to the continued hard work of CAHPERD the speaking tour in moving ahead at breakneck speed. Also, of great excitement are the plans to have a sending off event the morning of the 31st at Cadboro Bay, hosted by the Uvic School of Exercise Science, Physical, and Health Education.

Physically I am dealing with a bit of a nagging injury right now that has me a little worried. My Achilles tendon has been hurting me quite a bit the last week or so, and it has been affecting my ability to ride. I am working with my athletic therapist, Sandy, and it has been getting better, but I am worried that it will not be heeled by the start of the tour.

On the whole I am filled with feeling of doubt approaching the start of the tour. If the lack of support I am getting now indicative of the support I can expect for the entire trip, what does it say about the state of our communities when the local news show spare ten minutes of showing the same live view of the inner harbor to do a short story about the tour.

I will continue to push forward, and I am very excited to get out on the road and see what will happen.

I hope you are all healthy and happy, and enjoying the same great weather that we are here in Victoria.

Sincerely,

Tyler