Ron Burgandy once said, “OH…IT’S A DEEP BURN! OH SO DEEP!” If you don’t know who Ron Burgandy is, you should go and hire one of my favoourite movies. The Will Ferrel comedy ‘Anchorman’. I’ll be honest with you, I never thought that quote would be so applicable to my own MyPOWER experience.
When I was packing to go and meet up with the boys, my old man, a keen cyclist, gave me all his ‘stuff’. Me, a complete rookie, much like the boys 2 months before they left last year, couldn’t believe all the ‘stuff’ you had to have to get on the old ‘treadly’ and go for a ride.
There were the obvious things, such as the bike and the helmet, but after that, that’s when things start to get a little crazy. There is the lycra tights with padding for the rear end of the plane (by plane I mean human body), the tight cycling shirt with the plunging neckline zips (I think they were originally designed by some dude who thought chicks driving past would froth over their vee tanned chest), the arm warmers (similair to 80’s style fluro leg warmers) in case its cold early, the rain jacket (no need for explanation in brackets) ?? the Rocky style fingerless gloves (to prevent that nasty feeling we all felt the first time we fell off our bmx’s as grommets and mum had to wash the bits of gravel out with a scrubbing brush), and then there is the special peddles and shoes that you clip in…and etc…etc.
So as I said, I’m a complete rookie, and only really use my legs for walking, standing and surfing, and seeing as I was only going to be with boys for a few days riding, I wanted to try and experience just a little as to how difficult this trip has been for the boys….I wanted to feel the burn!!! So after another great meal from the super hospitable Paul and Barb in Beenleigh, we were getting ready for bed and talking about the next day, my first and longest day on the bike (which was never going to be that long for the boys). There were two options, we ride that shorter, and easier route to Southport in the Gold Coast, or we have a crack at a route that included riding up Mt Tambourine ( I think one of the biggest in QLD). At about 10pm I said to Tom, “I am only here for a short time, I want to feel the STING, feel the BURN!! I WANT TAMBOURINE!!!”, after trying to convince me that it would absolutely punish me, the boys agreed in principle to do it. The only catch was that Matt had been trying to organize a presentation to a group of school kids at The Southport School in the Gold Coast the next afternoon, but hadn’t heard back whether it was still on. So in the morning if the presentation was confirmed, we’d have to ride that easier, shorter route, but if not, Tambourine was their for the taking.
Morning came, and Tambourine went. The Southport School had rung to say that the about 150 Year 3 and Year 7 boys were keen to hear what MyPOWER was about.
I was stoked to be going to see the boys give their presentation to school kids, but I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t get to have a crack at Mt Tambourine and FEEL THE BURN….or so I thought.
So as we rode off I remember thinking, this will be easy, a little over 55km’s, not really any hills, almost 3 hours to do it in…easy…I’ll celebrate that thought with doing a skid on my borrowed bike….haven’t done one of those in years…come to think of it…haven’t been on a bike in years…hmmmm?
Around 30k’s into the ride and enjoying chatting to the boys laughing and joking, eating GO NATURAL bars (a delicious sponsor) I realized I probably wasn’t drinking enough water. It was around 35C and I started to feel in my quads that little tinge you get just before a buckling cramp occurs. I say to Tommy ‘I’m feeling like my quads are about to cramp up.” He laughs “Champ…you’re feeling the BURN!!!”
Three tiny hills later, my legs are completely cramping up, not just the quads, but now the hamstrings also…I’m on Struggle St in Bike Town when I get to the top of a slope and see on the other side the biggest hill I’ll have to conquer…DAMN…I cruise down the hill, sucking in the oxygen and getting ready to battle it out to the top. The boys begin yelling “ADS…CAN YOU FEEL THE STING? CAN YOU FEEL THE BURN?” When I don’t reply because I feel like my legs are about to explode, and I’m dropping into easier and easier gears, they start to give me words of encouragement. I needed them, because I ended up getting to the lowest gear you could possibly go, with my legs going round a million miles an hour, with my speed going up the hill being so ridiculously slow, that you could have walked past me with a coffee in your hand!!! It would have looked hilarious!!!
I eventually made it to the top of the hill in a world of pain and eventually the school, but the point of this story was not to humiliate myself, but was to highlight a few things.
At the presentation the boys give to school kids, one of the first things they explain is that they aren’t cyclists, and they’re not greenies. They tell the kids that they were once like them, 4 mates who went to school together, who agreed that there was something they could do to try and encourage people around our country to take action, and actually DO things to work toward living more sustainably. That involved cycling around the country.
The second is that what the boys have achieved to date has absolutely blown me away. What they have done to get here would have been so tough, both physically and mentally, that the little amount of pain that I went through today gave me a small insight of that. I wanted to FEEL THE BURN….and during my short time riding today I did.
Before I left I was the same as the boys. I wasn’t a cyclist. When I go back I won’t be a cyclist. And I think the boys won’t come back as cyclists either.
They will be 4 mates, that went to school together, came up with an idea over a few beers and worked hard to make it happen.
They will be 4 mates that had the idea to encourage people around our country and globe to take action and empower themselves to make the changes necessary to live in a world that isn’t killing itself slowly. And from the reception they received from the young guys at The Southport School I truly believe that MyPOWER is teaching our future generations the most sensible way to live for the future.
They already ARE, 4 mates that are changing the world.
Adam “Mr Tambourine Man” Brissenden.