Then I started increasing my distances, and in the summer of 1994, I rode my first century - alone. It was so difficult and painful that I said I would never do a ride that long again. The next year, I rode Jasper to Banff (the Icefield Parkway) in 3 days, which had been a goal of mine since I was 17, when my father did it. I loved it!! And that would have to be when I really started to cycle! I did another century in 1997 - alone again - but this time I rode smarter and ate better, and it was not a problem. I’ve done centuries every year since then ... usually several each year.

In 1998, at the age of 31, I decided to try racing!

I figured I was pretty fast, but had no one to compare myself with because I did most of my cycling alone. I still remember my first race - a very hilly course (for Manitoba), cold, raining, on a borrowed bicycle with TT gearing. I DNF’d.

For the next 3 years I struggled to train to develop speed - and I was successful to a certain extent, but it was a lot of work. I tried out road racing - and always got dropped. I tried crits - and did OK with them, but hated them because of the high risk of accidents. And I tried TTs - and did OK, and liked them. In my 3rd year of racing, I only rode TTs.

Meanwhile that year, 2000, I had been riding some longer distances on my own - centuries and 200 km rides exploring the neighborhood, and I really enjoyed those. So I began considering devoting my time to touring instead of racing.

I looked into touring over the summer, but it just wasn’t quite what I wanted to do. Late in the year, I remembered that I had cut out an article from the newspaper about something called "Randonneuring" quite a few years earlier.

I had a plan all worked out for training over the winter prior to it - but that plan came to a screeching halt on November 1st when I dropped a pot of boiling water on my left foot which resulted in a bad 3rd degree burn.

I was off my bicycle and off my feet entirely for the next 3 months - so much for training! I couldn’t even lift upper body weights because as soon as my heart rate increased, my foot would swell and become very painful. At the end of February, 2002 I finally got back onto my exercise bicycle, and started working diligently to get ready for the RM1200. That experience made me even more determined to do it than ever.

I completed the Rocky Mountain 1200 in 2002, the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 in 2003, the Great Southern Randonee 1200 in 2004, and the Last Chance Randonnee 1200 in 2005. I have completed brevets every year since 2001 (my brevet stories), and I've also had the opportunity to tour the UK, France, Australia, and parts of Canada and the US. More recently, I've started racing 24-hour Time Trials
which I thoroughly enjoy!

I’d really encourage anyone to give Randonneuring a try ... you never know where it will lead!