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) 

The Awe of the Wind

Wind

In our vast country we are blessed to experience many different climates, diverse environments and a variety of different weather. We’ve already seen the Pacific coast, mountains, prairies, desert, and the boreal forest of the Canadian Shield. Of all the different things Mother Nature has thrown at us, wind presents the biggest challenge by far.

A little reminder of Mother Nature and her wind here as told by Brad

Must always be ready for Mother Nature!

Whereas a mountain looms high above you, its imposing stature striking fear into your heart, it has a summit. Get to the summit and your legs stop burning and you can bask in your accomplishment on the descent down the hill. Wind, on the other hand, does not give you a preview of what’s to come. There is no summit to strive for, not an indication of gradient to tell how hard the next section will be, just a brutal soul-crushing force working against you, making every pedal stroke a battle. Imagine balancing all your weight on two points of contact no bigger than a few square inches and then trying to get where you’re going and there is an invisible force pushing and pulling you at over 70 km/h. A headwind can make it feel like you’re towing a tractor trailer behind you and crosswinds feel as if an invisible team of strongmen are having a tug of war and you are the flag in the middle of the rope.

As with many physically demanding feats, when battling wind the rider must look within to have the strength to succeed. There are a few techniques that may help get a rider where they need to go while in the grips of a gale:

1.    The Lieutenant Dan: Remember that scene in Forrest Gump when Lieutenant Dan “makes his peace with God?” Yelling and screaming with each torrent thrown their way, Lt. Dan Taylor begs for more, insisting that the storm isn’t that that bad. In riding terms it translates to refusing to shift to a lower gear, gritting your teeth and attacking into the wind as if you’re trying to catch Mother Nature herself to give her a piece of your mind. Swearing and yelling may accompany this technique as well, though passing motorists may alert the authorities that a crazy man is on the loose.

2.    The Little Engine That Could: Let the power of positive thinking wash over you. Click into a gear you can spin in comfortably, don’t let the lack of speed get you down and push play on the imaginary reel of inspirational movie quotes in you head. It may be hard riding and it may take you a while but you set a goal and through positive determination you’re going to make it.

3.    I Doubt I Will But I Might: This technique usually rears its desperate head towards the end of a long ride. You’ve eaten all your bars, your bottles are almost empty, you have no money and you’re feeling so fatigued you’re seeing spots. At this point you’re considering ALL your options to get you to the end of your ride: I could fake a mechanical breakdown, I could knock on a stranger’s door (despite his mean looking dogs), I could rob a convenience store for sustenance, I could call a cab, hop on a bus, call my roommate or friend or even a hated enemy. In the midst of weighing all these options, you’ve fought the wind the entire time and you now find yourself close enough to your destination and you’ve made it, barely.

4.    The Quitter: You’ll never need to know any of these techniques because as soon as you see the wind blowing, you aren’t leaving your house. You will certainly have a great excuse like, “I had a big day yesterday,” or “I won’t be able to train in my appropriate zone in that wind,” but everyone knows you’re too chicken to willingly put yourself into that kind of difficulty.

Anything you can do to get you through the wind is a good thing. Every day you fight the wind should bring you closer to the exhilaration of a tailwind. For all the times you can hate the wind with every ounce of your being, they all seem to fade away when you turn that corner and the wind is at your back. With that glorious blessing at your back, you can fly faster than your legs alone could ever take you. Whether you’re 10 years old or 50 years old, you can’t beat the feeling of pedaling your bike and going fast.

Erik Marsh (Co-Pilot)