Oct 3rd (23 days to go!)

Oct 3rd & we're in the Month

Here we are, just 23 days away from heading off on whats sure to be an adventure.  There is at least one part of body that keeps screaming at me "what are we doing"?. Butt, hopefully we will push on without too much pain on the first day.  Heres hoping for a lovely Southerly breeze at our backs for the first 3 days.
Preparation is going well. and the Pirie cyclists have been great in helping both Bronte and myself get ready (I think it was the latter that really needed the help!) for this journey.  I keep telling myself it is not a race, but it doesnt seem to shorten the distance at all.
I took much inspiration from a group of riders known as the "Smiddy's", that were in the 5th leg of a massive journey around our country.  These guys and girls had endured some not so kind prevailing winds across the nullabour and were in their 13th day of a 15 day 2500km ride from Esperance to Adelaide.  What an effort, and well done to the eight riders and support crew for making it to Adelaide safe and sound.  If you want to know more about the 7in7 Smiddy challenge go to www.smiddy.org.au and there is heaps of info on the trips that Sharky and crew have put together, and all goes to support some great charities.
I hope to replace the cardboard cutout of myself in their somewhat humourous photos someday with the real me riding alongside or behind them.
The Long weekend provided my wife Katherine with some time away from me as I was able to have 4 days back to back in the saddle to help prepare my backside for the inevitable.  To my suprise after around 300km's I pulled up pretty well today and happy that my preparation has had some success.
We are well underway with our celebration night in Pirie also on the 29th Oct from 6.pm at the Virtus Soccer club.  Tickets can be purchased for just $25 from www.sarideforsickkids.com.au website, just follow the links to the community events and come and join us.
Looking forward to a possible ride with some of the Adelaide riders on the 13th & 14th Oct and catching up with a great mate of mine Craig 'Stinky' Stirna and seeing how his training and prep has been going.  I am a little frightened of Steve Sturm and crew and hope they are not intending on smashing out 30+k's through the Adelaide Hills, as Neil 'Im not too fond of hills' lucas will be a long way behind.
Will be out early in the morning to sneak in a lap before joining the Pirie old boys for their mid morning cruise out to Napperby and back.  Hoping for less encounters with Skippy's and snakes as it is that time of year up here.
Just clicked over to www.rmhcfundraising.org.au/event/sarfsk to see that Alex 'Sneaky Pete' Carapetis the Accountant has been withholding funds for a better return and has managed to jump to the top of the leaderboard with a nice little addition to his fundraising page. Nice one Alex! if you feel so inclined just visit the webpage and help us reach our target of $100k plus to go towards the Ronald McDonald House Adelaide.  Thank you to all those that have contributed so far, it is great to see the warm generosity from you all.
Time to go and get ready for another morning in the saddle then off to work.

The count down begins...............22 days and counting!