BRAD MARSH NEEDS YOUR HELP! SUPPORT THE RIDE! DONATION DAY TO TAKE PLACE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BRAD MARSH NEEDS YOUR HELP! SUPPORT THE RIDE! DONATION DAY TO TAKE PLACE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

Brad Marsh’s 90 Day Challenge to ride his bike across Canada to raise awareness and funds for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada gears up for the longest day on the bike yet and we want YOU to be part of it by showing your support for Brad and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.

There have been lots of hills, windy rides, rainy days, motels and hotels, big trucks, tons of floor hockey, one bear sighting and lots and lots of big smiles from the kids along the route and now Brad is attempting his biggest challenge of all as he gears up for his longest and most challenging day on the bike so far.

On Wednesday, June 27 Brad will peddle his longest distance yet. He will be on his bike for 10-14 hours and cover 330 kilometres in one day! It will be a huge accomplishment for a great cause and we want you to be there to support it!

How can you ‘be’ there? On Donation Day we are asking all of Brad’s supporters and followers who haven’t already donated to the ride to consider making a donation on that day by clicking on the ‘Support the Ride’ button on his Facebook page and leaving a comment on his wall. Then forward this to all of your friends and family to help raise the awareness of the Boys and Girls Clubs. All donations made on Donation Day will also be entered into a draw for some great prizes.

Join us throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates and interviews and feel free to Tweet and Facebook updates on your own pages to help spread the word. You can tweet this release using this url http://sdrv.ms/KYNlo4

To support the ride with a donation go to:

https://www.bgccan.com/en/Pages/Brad-Marsh.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/BradMarsh90DayChallenge/app_128953167177144

You can also donate directly from Brad’s Facebook page and don’t forget to leave a comment on his wall.

Team Marsh thanks you for your continued support!

Follow Brad’s “Living the Adventure of Life ONE 90 Day Challenge @ A Time” by becoming a fan at www.facebook.com/BradMarsh90DayChallenge and on Twitter @BradMarshNHL to keep up to date on this and future Challenges

Contact:                                                                                                                                              Laurel E. Anderson                                                                                                          Communications Director

laurel@sympatico.ca

613-889-1555                      ###

Once a Family, Always a Family

Once a Family, Always a Family

Written by Erik Marsh

When Dad retired I was only seven years old. It’s safe to say any old hockey stories I know or retell, I don’t know from first hand. More often than not I’ve collected the story after sitting around the table with a couple of cold beverages and my Dad and his buddies as they talk about the good ol’ days. What’s most incredible however, is not the stories themselves. It’s the camaraderie that is truly amazing. It doesn’t matter if they played together or against each other. It’s not even important that they played in the same era, for these guys it’s about sharing a common bond that lasts a lifetime.

I’ve learned from an early age that whenever there’s an opportunity to follow Dad around and get a privileged glimpse into the inner circle of the NHL brotherhood, I tag along without shame. At 26, some might say I’m getting a little old for it but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Through all of this tagging along I’ve learned that for every superstar there is an underrated linemate, for every wound that time has healed there’s likely a grudge that will never die and for every player lucky enough to play in hockey’s greatest league, there’s a team of mentors that got them there. The true insights into how the game is or was don’t come from commentators and analysts but from the men who were there long before outrageous contracts and composite one piece sticks.

The NHL Alumni is a strong family encompassing everyone lucky enough to make a living playing the game they love at the highest level. Each team’s Alumni is special in their own way but the Ottawa Senators Alumni is truly an exceptional group of guys. When the Alumni was formed it consisted of former NHLers who now call Ottawa their home. Most of the guys never played together and in the beginning, very few even played on the Senators. Despite the differences in where and when they played, these men came together forging a unique bond to make a difference in the Ottawa community. As the history of the Senators gets richer and richer every year, new players are joining the Alumni not only to give back to the city that cheered them on in their career, but to restore that kinship that only a hockey dressing room can build.

I can barely put into words the feeling of riding into Scotiabank Place June 4 with my Dad to the encouraging crowd awaiting our arrival. The outpouring of support has been incredible and truly appreciated through our entire ride from everyone but the Ottawa Senators Alumni especially have always, and continue to go above and beyond in helping this cause. Whether it’s as big as arranging an entire parade including military vehicles, a police escort and hundreds of people or being the first to offer a place to stay or just taking time out of their day to come say hi and show their support, the Ottawa Senators Alumni have the most heart in the league.

Thoughts from the Lanterne Rouge by Maddy Marsh

Erik, Maddy & Brad make the ride a family affair.

Most professional cyclists will probably list yellow as one of their favourite colours. This is because the leader of the Tour de France wears the maillot jaune, or the yellow jersey. In fact, the lead of each category in the Tour comes with an associated colour: the green of the Points Leader, the red and white polka dots of the King of the Mountains, and the white of the Best Young Rider. But there is one colour that is not sought after by the riders of the Tour: the red of the Lanterne Rouge. Named after the red lantern on the back of the caboose of trains, this title is earned by the rider in last place. And on the 90-Day Challenge ride across Canada, I am going to be the undisputed Lanterne Rouge.

After spending a few days on the ride, two things have been made clear to me: Canada is very big, and I am a lot slower than the men in my family. Although I spent most of my time on the bike drafting behind Erik, I still found myself having to crank it in a high gear to keep up. So somewhere between Kingston and Ottawa I made the decision to approach this as more of a mental challenge than a physical one. On a particularly difficult stretch of the road that had my legs burning, I turned to an old strategy that I had used during my time as a rower. I used to make a mental list of reasons to keep going, whether it was a person who inspired me or a personal goal I wanted to accomplish, and dedicated 10 strokes of each race to each of the items on the list. On the bike, I broke it down into 10-minute segments.

The first 10 minutes was a no-brainer: my dad. For obvious reasons, he is a huge inspiration. His commitment to the community, to the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs, and to his 90 day challenges is more than reason enough to keep the legs pumping. In the interest of time and space, I won’t go into all the details but will simply say that he is one of the biggest inspirations in my life and helped me get through those ten minutes in the same way that he has gotten me through innumerable situations.

Next I pedalled for the Boys and Girls Clubs. It sounds silly to say that I dedicated 10 minutes to them when the entire ride itself is devoted to them, but during those few minutes I spent some time thinking about what exactly it meant to be riding for them. I thought of the stories my dad had told me from the clubs out west, the little boy in the bike parade in Kingston who showed up dressed like Batman, and the look on a little boy’s face when he scored on a penalty shot during floor hockey. Those 10 minutes were when I truly understood what my dad had been saying this whole time about how the kids make it easy to get on the bike.

In the next few segments I rode for each member of my family who has contributed in some way to the trip, for our family friends who have supported us in countless ways so far, for the chance to see our beautiful country, and maybe a little bit for myself and my pride (Sorry, Erik, but I just couldn’t let you have the satisfaction of dropping your little sister).

While my first two days of riding certainly weren’t easy, they were a ton of fun and I can’t wait to get back on the bike in Moncton. Instead of one 90-Day Challenge, for me, this will be a succession of 10-minute challenges. Hopefully my mental lists will help me claw my way to Newfoundland, and maybe by the end of the trip I’ll be able to upgrade from the red of the Lanterne Rouge to the white jersey of the Best Young Rider.

Maddy

Warm Welcomes

Team Marsh is picture perfect!

Any time you’re away from home for a long stretch of time, it doesn’t matter what you miss about home in particular, when its boils down to it its really just a feeling of belonging. It’s the feeling of being comfortable putting your feet up on the coffee table and watching whatever you want on TV. It’s the feeling of walking into the kitchen and grabbing a snack. It’s the caring people around you that greet you with a smile and ask you how your day was. On the road it can get hard. You’re away from loved ones and friends and its hard to find a time and place where you can truly comfortably relax. It can wear you down mentally and make it hard to keep on going.

Luckily for us we’ve met up with some amazing people along the way that have gone out of their way to make us feel at home even though its been well over a month since we’ve been in Ottawa. When we rolled into Toronto ahead of schedule we called up my cousin Melissa and she and her husband Mark rolled out the red carpet for us. They had a comfortable place for Erik, Tory and I all to sleep and an incredible dinner on the table. We had a great time at dinner catching up and they insisted on taking care of us for the remaining two nights we’d be in Toronto. From there we were off to Belleville, where Senators Alumni and Lieutenant Colonel, Ed Staniowski took us in. Ed cooked up some steaks and we all sat back, relaxed and watched the hockey game. Admittedly, there was more than a few “back when we played…” type comments, we had a fantastic night. In the morning, I made my bed but I must say I was a little nervous as I’m not sure it was quite up to military standards.

Great Kingston Welcome 

Rolling into Kingston was truly one of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve had. Rick Smith, another member of the Senators Alumni, teamed up with his buddy, Inspector Brian Begbie of the Kingston Police to plan a full day of festivities celebrating not only my ride and the Boys and Girls Club but all the leaders and mentors in the community. We arrived at our “RV point” (that’s what Ed said, I’m assuming its military for “rendezvous”) to an entire crowd of people cheering and before I knew it I was at the front of an entire parade! A military band marched at the front filling the streets with music, followed by dozens of cyclists, police escorts, firefighters, mounted police, military vehicles, ambulances and hundreds more marching, including some Junior hockey players from the Kingston area.

The kids were raring to go when we finally arrived at the Boys and Girls Club and we had a fantastic floor hockey game and celebration to recognize the importance of leadership in the community. Everybody in Kingston did the city proud and I can’t express how incredible the reception there was. Inspector Begbie was proud of the leaders in his city too and told me, “Alright Brad, now if anyone tops that welcome, you let me know and then come back here and we’ll do it all over again!”

Huge Welcome at Scotiabank Place 

After Kingston it was on to Ottawa, my hometown. Erik, Madeline and I fought the wind the entire way. We battled and battled and finally rolled up to Scotiabank Place (maybe it was a good thing they built the arena out in Kanata) where we rode right into the Zamboni entrance straight onto the Arena Floor. The new Jumbotron was lowered and said “Welcome Home Brad!” The Senator’s Alumni was there to greet me as well as friends of mine I know through all sorts of things. As I stood up to give a quick speech I couldn’t help but be a bit choked up by the massive outpouring of support. The mayor declared June 4, 2012 “Brad Marsh Day” in Ottawa and Cyril Leeder, President of the Ottawa Senators presented Erik, Maddy and I with sweaters to take along for the ride. The media support was fantastic and we had a great time before we hopped on the bikes again for a quick 20km ride with some friends to the Boys and Girls Club. Johnny Barrett won the prize for best bike accessory as he strapped a case of beer to the pannier of his bike.

Once again the kids were fantastic and really had us running but thankfully I could lean on my Alumni buddies to take a shift for me every once and a while. Now I won’t start any squabbles between Inspector Begbie and the Ottawa team so I won’t say one was better than the other, I’ll just say that the support that everyone showed in those two cities especially means so much to me and everyone involved in this ride. The headlines the next day said, “Making a Difference” and with all the help we’re getting, this trip is becoming even more of a success.

As I said before, the distance can be hard, but with the warm welcomes we’ve received everywhere we go, we can always feel at home, even if my house if 4000km away. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has welcomed us into their communities and their homes, and lent us a hand with whatever it may be, you are what keep our pedals turning.

Brad

A Vlog about progress and butts!

Picture Perfect

Update from Team Marsh from Riviere-du-Loop gives a review of the ride so far and also the added bonus of a butt update! Also notice the snazzy Marsh cap and Sens biking jersey and leave a comment and let us know what you think! Watch here

A Day for Brad!

It's officially Brad Marsh Day today in Ottawa! Brad rode into Ottawa this afternoon and literally rode right into Scotiabank Place for a warm welcome! Stay tuned for media updates.

Old Man Strength

Erik, Brad and the wind.

Every sport has this guy. He looks to be about a hundred yet somehow manages to make you look like a complete novice while your jaw drops to the floor in disbelief. Whether it’s a cyclist on an old steel bike with panniers effortlessly blowing past you while you suck wind on a hard ascent or the Grandpa that hits every fairway and green on the course to destroy you by ten strokes, Old Man Strength is real. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in sports where endurance and intelligence are rewarded.

I seem to see it every time I’m out for a weekend ride. How can these old guys, more than double my age, just keep going and going while my legs scream at me to stop pedaling? Maybe they’ve tuned out their pain receptors the same as they can tune out a bunch of kids making too much racket or a nagging spouse. Maybe the beer belly and sagging skin is perfect insulation for the super-muscles they have hiding beneath the surface. Whatever the answer is, it’s no less frustrating every time one of these guys leaves me looking at his rear end as he rides away into the distance.

Isn’t everything supposed to be cyclical: The young boy grows up emulating his Dad, then comes the day he can finally best him only for his own son to overtake him when that fateful day comes? Why then am I finding it so tough to hang on to Dad’s wheel? Sure he put in more training hours than me but I’m young and full of vigor! Shouldn’t he be the one asking me to slow down? Realizing I won’t play in the NHL like Dad was disappointing but discovering he also has the rare genetic predisposition that is Old Man Strength might just be too much.

Erik Marsh (Co-pilot & Son)