– This day was never going to be about me. I had an idea to build a CHOC themed racing ice cream tricycle that would be fast enough to surprise people and draw attention to the CHOC cause. This ride was for CHOC.
– A friend, Mike Woolnough who thrives on innovative ideas, bought into the idea and offered to build the bike. His words were, let it stew with me and once I have it, it’ll take a week to build it. He delivered a piece of art, a once-off only one in the world ice cream tricycle. This ride was for Mike.
– Many others contributed frames, parts, ideas, etc to make the bike a reality. That we had a working and tested bike on race day is an incredible feat in itself! Tested as in about 20km of total distance before the race. This ride was for them, they know who they are.
– Race day. What an awesome bike. It did everything asked from it and more. It comfortably rode past hundreds on the uphills and even hooked a few bunches on the flats. It was simply superb!
– The bike grabbed the attention we wanted to generate for CHOC. Loads of people commented on the bike as it either went past or was passed and hopefully they will tomorrow tell the story of the CHOC ice cream bike and draw more attention to the cause of these young kids with their bald heads going for chemo.
– The awareness of CHOC and support along the route was overwhelming to say the least. It felt like every 100m someone shouted “Go CHOC”, often I looked around of there was perhaps another cow next to me, often there wasn’t, they saw the ice cream bike and the CHOC logos.
– CHOC is an amazing cause and you only need to visit a CHOC house and see the little bald headed kids to understand what it is all about. I get a tear of sadness, compassion and gratefulness in my eye every time I think of them.
– It never felt like it was my race and it never bothered me, it always felt like I was riding for those bald kids and for Mike and those who had made this build possible. I felt so proud when I crossed the line with the bike in one piece. The project was now complete. We have a new story to tell and maybe it’ll inspire others in their own way.
– I called Mike to tell him the bike had completed the 94.7 and it was mission accomplished with distinction on all the objectives we had set. Mike’s words “this is the phone call I wanted to receive” put a big smile on my face.
– A special word of thank you to all my heroes out there today, those who pushed their own boundaries, those who rode for a cause, those who rode for others and even those who dragged themselves out of bed uninspired and returned home with a smile.
– What an inspiring day!
Making Trackz 