Since being banded I have discovered that I love cycling. I commute to work twice a week, 60km round trip, and recently bought my first road bike.

Two days after my purchase, a work colleague passed away as a result of cancer. His last weeks at home were made possible by the wonderful support of our local palliative care service. So when I heard that there was a bike ride to raise funds for this great service, I was very quick to sign up, along with my husband.

We're not sure what possessed us, but for some crazy reason we signed up for the 120km ride (about 75 miles, I believe)! Husband also bought a road bike and with just a few weeks, we really ramped up the training on them. We both have hybrids and have done plenty of riding, but road bikes are a whole new ball game.

Between buying our bikes and today's ride, we have had to learn how to ride road bikes, tried several saddles and worked hard to get some kilometres under our belts.

We set off at 8am this morning with the slow 120km riders. There were later start times for the fast 120km, slow and fast 60km riders.

The sun shone beautifully all day as we made our way around the first 60km circuit. We quickly fell behind most of the other riders, primarily because my husband still isn't confident going downhill. Initially I was a bit unhappy at such a slow pace (we had agreed to ride together so we could support each other the whole way).

I made sure I was drinking regularly, eating frequently, including bananas and cycling power gels. We also got in a nice coffee at the half way mark!

Many of the slow 120km group was still at the half way mark when we arrived and the organisers encouraged us all to start our second circuit with the fast 60km group. I'm pleased to say that husband and I held our ground well with this group of fresh riders right up until we had to come down a big hill and again, my husband slowed right down.

Although I was initially annoyed by having to slow down to stay with my husband, I quickly realised that he was, in fact, doing me a huge favor, because it meant we were able to pace ourselves and reach the end. Without him, I would almost certainly have gone out too hard and burned out before reaching the end.

The last 10km were a bit of a struggle but the exhileration and sense of achievement as we rode across the finish line together was incredible. And we had played our small part in a great event which raised more than $25,000 for our local palliative care service.

18 months ago I struggled to ride five kilometres around town. Now, minus 63kg and with a whole lot more confidence and fitness, the sky is the limit!

Pic is of me immediately after we finished.

Forgot the stats! Five hours of actual ride time at an average speed of 23.4kmh

Forgot the stats! Five hours of actual ride time at an average speed of 23.4kmh

Amazing! Congrats!

Well done.

Congrats not only did you complete it but you did it for a great cause.

Keep being a great inspiration . You look Amazing and Happy!

wow what an inspiration you are. That is amazing, thanks for sharing. I still consider my self a new bandster and have to admit I havent done much excesise the last five month but I recently quit smoking and I'm hoping that over time I will be able to increase my endurance and tolerance for excercise. Can you recomend somthing wheater it be certain foods or anything that might give me the energy to excersise. I'm consuming about 500 calories a day and its hard to find the energy to even just do my normal day activities and I am constantly getting sick all the time. Its weired cause all though my athma is far more controlled than its ever been I keep getting upper resportoy infections.