The Cgb Book - Part 1 of 12 - Back-2-Back Becomes Reality

7/26/2019 The Cgb Book - Part 1 of 12 - Back-2-Back Becomes Reality

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If it was easy, anyone could do it!The story of the 2013 Craig Gives Back-2-Back

Cross-Canada Bicycle Tour


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I want to try everything once and the fun stuff twice! - Craig Aucoin

Enjoy life, love your friends and relatives and never take anything or anyone for granted as lifecan change so quickly. - Lloyd McLean


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Many thanks to the following people, without whom this adventure would not havebeen possible.

Warren Spires, Amelia Schofield and all the staff at CNIB Halifax, NSEmily Cardwell, Kelly Picco and all the staff at CNIB St. Johns, NLDavid Purdon and the staff at CNIB Kelowna, BC

Andre Gallant and all the staff at YMCA Sydney, NSPictou ScotiabankCraig Aucoin and his parents Eileen & PhillipWoodland NurseriesChris Roos and all the staff at YMCA St. Johns, NLHugh MillerDon, Jenny and Jonas CoshBack to Basics PhysiotherapyAllan SlaunwhitePictou County CycleJohn MacMillanTerry CurleyDiana Deakin-Thomas and YMCA Canada

Steve Doucette and Canadian Guide Dogs for the BlindSteve Goodwin and the Pictou AdvocateThe Hanrahan/Hawkins familyLisa & Briley HaughanAndrea McLeanDave Kazala (our Northern Ontario support vehicle)Alicia & Chris KnockMacArthurs Quality Flowers & Plants Inc.All my fellow employees at Sobeys-AtlanticBruce Murray, Todd Lockhart and Vision Fire Commercial PhotographyThe MahsBob & Laureen MacDonaldThe entire New Glasgow YMCA staffKristin and Steven ZaiJennie Smith (our NB-QC support vehicle) and the entire Smith familyRandy SutherlandLouise & Wayne ThomasAnton and Altena BikeThe Worman familyDave & Kelly Zayonc and familyCrystal & Sean MurrayJamie PlayfairAdvocate Printing & PublishingAdvocate Communications GroupJim Proudfoot

Home Hardware CanadaJodi Matlock and the Monday & Wednesday Spin ClassAll the citizens and business of Pictou County that encouraged and supported us!My wonderful wife, my mother and my three sisters & their families


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INTRODUCTION

In 2013 Craig, Bob and I biked across Canada from St. Johns, NL to Victoria, BC, a distance of8,200kms. Incredibly we overcame many challenges and completed our ride in just under threemonths and right on schedule.

It would not have started without Craig, and could not have been completed without Bob. Theyare both amazing and I could not imagine doing it without them both.

We did this to help three charities. Why?

Why do something like this at all? It was a lot of hard work and took time away from our friendsand family.

I can tell you whybecause as Canadians we want the same for our friends and neighbors as wewould expect for ourselves and our families.

We do not want to prosper while our neighbor struggles, whether our neighbor is next door or

across the country. We are not a me first or may the strong survive society. We look aftereach other!

Craig received assistance from three charities that helped him to turn his life around. Craigwanted these charities to continue to be able to help others.

Craig is not a rich man, but he loves to bike.

I am not a rich man, but I love to bike and had a dream to bike across Canada. I recognized theopportunity to share Craigs story, and to also help him give back to the three terrific charitiesthat had changed his life.

What Craig could not do on his own we would do together.

We wanted to share Craigs story so others could be inspired and improve their own lives. Wewanted them to know that it is possible to have a great quality of life in spite of lifes challenges.

We wanted to raise awareness for the three charities that changed Craigs life and helped millionsof other Canadians. We wanted people to know these charities are there to help them too.

We also wanted to encourage those that could, to donate and those that could not donate togive their time by becoming volunteers.

So three months later did we achieve our goal?

If we inspired one person to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle, it was worth it!

If we inspired one person to become a volunteer, it was worth it!

If we changed one persons life, it was worth it.

This is our story


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By 2009 I had been running for a number of years, and had reached what I felt may have beenmy peak as I had stopped seeing any improvement in my race times. I was losing my motivationto get out running as I was not seeing any results, and when I did push harder it often ended inan injury, so my training runs became less and less frequent. Also I was biking back and forth towork accumulating as much as 200kms weekly, so the motivation to go out in the evenings and

weekends to run had kind of gone away.

At a get together barbeque with the local running group and friends I met Craig and we talkedabout his accomplishments and his desire to train more often. I committed to run with him onceevery week to help him prepare for a 10km race June in 2010, which gave us almost a full year.It was an offer I made part in an effort to re-motivate myself, so it was not simply to help Craig,but I hoped we would actually help each other. It was a win-win situation as it would ensure Iwould get out for a run at least once a week so I could maintain my fitness level, but also I couldassist Craig with improving his running techniques with the goal of making him a more efficientand fit runner.

2004 was the first year that my wife and I began to take bicycle trips for our annual summervacation. These trips were typically self supported and lasted for a week or more in duration.

The last one we did was to the Magdalene Islands and back, carrying with us all camping andcooking gear required, including to the amusement of fellow cyclists, a cast iron fry pan! Itbecame an annual event for us and we truly enjoyed the combination of the freedom and thephysical activity involved in bicycle touring. Secretly I began to contemplate a bicycle trip thatwould take us across the country.

Starting the fall of 2009, Craig and I did get out and ran together almost every single weekend,as we prepared him for his first 10km race in 2010. By the time June came around he was morethan ready and easily beat his goal time. We continued training for another year and in 2011completed the same 10km race and this time taking over ten minutes off his time the previousyear. Our training had paid off and also had helped to reinvigorate my own interest in running.In 2011 I had set a goal to run five full marathons in one year, starting with one in August, onein September and then three in October within fourteen days of each other. My goal was also toqualify for the Boston Marathon which I ended up doing not once, but twice. So my relationshipwith Craig was truly a win-win situation as we were able to help each other and we each gaineda friend in the process. It was also during this time training with Craig I became aware of hislove of cycling.

Tandem cycling is certainly not for everyone as to begin with you must be a capable cyclist, andwilling to take on the additional responsibility of looking after the safety of a second person. Myfirst ride with Craig on his tandem mountain bike was a stressful experience and one that I hopedI would never have to repeat. I found the bike heavy and awkward and we just could not masterthe start which required both of us to coordinate our pedaling. We did however stubbornlypersevere and we did get out again and again. After just a few rides I had not only gotten usedto handling the long and heavier tandem, but we also developed our own technique for starting

off. We had become so proficient at it that in 2012 I was his guide cyclist during a sprintdistance triathlon in July, and we took over thirteen minutes off his previous best time for thebiking portion of the event! Craigs fitness level had improved significantly!

So now back to my secret intention of some day biking across Canada. I had asked my wife afew times, well many times, however that was going nowhere and I resigned myself to the fact Iwould be doing it by myself. Then I grew to know Craig better each week as we would run andor bike together on his tandem mountain bike each weekend. He was always keen to stay active


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and we got along well, which would be important if we were to spend almost three monthstogether on a bicycle trip across Canada!

After over a year of considering Craig as a bicycle partner to do a cross Canada trip, I finallycalled him on the phone one evening after we had done a run together earlier in the day. I couldtell that Craig was excited about doing such an adventure as he very quickly accepted the

challenge, however he told me later he tried to contain his excitement over the phone until ourconversation was over. According to Craig as soon as he had hung up the phone after I called,he began to cheer and jump in the air as this was a dream come true for him too! So the diewas cast, and Craig and I would begin to plan our trip with less than three years to our selectedstart date of Sunday, August 4, 2013.

So back to how we got here in the first place. How did Craig go from being a normal active eightyear old, to at age thirty-six planning to be the first legally blind person to bicycle on a tandembicycle across Canada?

During Halloween night in 1983, Craigs dad Phillip was taking a car load of neighborhoodchildren out for Halloween trick and treating. They lived in a rural area, so Craigs dad woulddrive them from house to house and the kids would emerge from the car and like ants heading to

a picnic, they would approach each house with hopes of yet another generous donation of sugarytreats. Craig was fine if he stayed close to the other children, however if he got separated hewas falling into ditches, pot holes, flower beds and sometimes even walking right off the end ofthe front steps. Phillip noticed that Craig was struggling as if he could not see. Phillip wouldholler directions to Craig as he made his way to and from from each house, but it was to noavail. When the house to house visits came to an end and Craig arrived home with his father,and Phillip exclaimed through frustration and concern to Craigs mother Eileen that their son wasas blind as a bat. What they would find out very soon was that what Craig had been sufferingwith for some time, was night blindness where low levels of visible light at night caused him tobe blind. Craig had been living with this for a number of years, however had assumed it was thesame for everyone and therefore had never mentioned it to his parents.

The next day after Halloween had Craig and his parents in the optometrists office, and he wasimmediately referred to a specialist as it was obvious he had a serious condition affecting hisvision. Unfortunately the visit to the specialist was to reveal what they had most feared andCraig was gradually losing his vision to a hereditary disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa. Craigwas told by the vision specialist that he was different than the other children he had spent ischildhood playing with. Craig would gradually no longer be able to do the things he loved themostplaying baseball, playing hockey or even riding a bike.

When you are eight years old a term like Retinitis Pigmentosa does not really register, nor doesthe term Choroideremia which is a more rare type of the disease attacking Craigs eyes. Thistype of Retinitis Pigmentosa meant that Craig would not have the typical tunnel vision, but thathis eyesight would fail first from the central part of his vision, leaving him only with peripheralvision until finally he would be completely blind by approximately forty years of age. Although he

may not of understood at age eight how his life was about to change, it began to graduallyhappen and Craig stopped playing baseball, stopped skating and playing hockey and ultimatelycould no longer ride his bike. At age sixteen when told that due to his deteriorating eyesight hewould never drive a car and never have the independence that his other friends would have, itfinally sunk home, and he now fully understood how his life was going be. As his friends finishedhigh school and left to pursue their dreams, Craig stayed behind and he gradually fell intodepression. Television and food became his crutch. The only thing keeping Craig going was hehad a hope that a cure would be discovered, his eyesight restored and he could return to the lifehe loved.


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Even now there is still no cure for Craigs eye disease, and in another two years he will becompletely blind, living in a world of nothing but darkness, just as the doctors had told him overthirty years ago. Craig however had decided in his early twenties that he needed to change hislife or he was not going to live much longer. He was now nearly two hundred and fifty poundsand in terrible physical condition. Step one for Craig was he finally accepted the disease that

was destroying his eyesight and made plans to learn how to live with this in his life, and not waiton the couch for a cure which might never happen. The CNIB assisted Craig in learning life skillsto live on his own. He learned Braille, how to cook and clean for himself and do it safely. Helearned to use a cane to help him get around, and he met others like himself who had achievedso much in their lives regardless of the challenge of living without their sight. Craig now hadhope!

Step two, Craig wanted to get back to the active lifestyle he used to have as a child. He wantedto be fit and lean and started to work out almost daily at the local YMCA. He gradually losteighty pounds and the more he worked out the more he loved it and he was hooked. There wasno going back to the old habits now!

Step three was a guide dog as Craig had been told how this makes getting around outside so

much easier. It is great having a cane and it will always have its purpose, however a trainedguide dog made getting around not only quicker, but safer. The Canadian Guide Dogs for theBlind provided Craig with training and a guide dog for the most reasonable cost of one dollar.His current guide dog, Baldwin is his constant companion and there is a bond and trust betweenthe two as if they have spent their entire lives together.

Through his own initiative and drive Craig had taken the steps necessary to change his life. Hewas now running and competing in triathlons. He had the support of his friends and relatives,and had achieved the active healthy lifestyle he had longed for. This is when I met Craig andwhy I chose to do a cross Canada bike trip with him, and why we wanted to share his story withCanadians so that he could inspire others to change their lives too.

BACK-2-BACK BECOMES REALITY

So now we are planning an 8,200 km bike trip that would take us 85 days. Craig and I wantedto use this bike trip to share the story of how he had chosen not to give up, but to change his lifefor the better. We wanted to give back to the three charities that he credited with changing hislife. We also wanted our ride to stand out so that we could attract a sponsor, media anddonations.

There are so many people that each year bike, run, walk among other methods across Canada,that to make our ride stand out we did three key things. First of all we decided we would bikeacross Canada not once, but twice, doing it first indoors as a virtual tour, which we would do

each weekend starting one year out from the departure date of our real cross Canada bike trip.This turned out to be a great decision as we would put in as much as ten hours every weekend inthe lobby of our local YMCA. Not only did it give us credibility as we piled up the hours andkilometers week after week, it also helped us get in shape!

It began quietly and painfully as we launched ourselves into the challenge, starting right off thebat with five hours of riding on our first day in the lobby of the old New Glasgow YMCA onFrederick Street. It was not so much the physical challenge that taxed our muscles, but was the


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intense pain we felt in our butts, and the closer we got to the end of each weekly session, themore we would give our bottoms a break by standing up on the pedals. When we did do this itfelt like our bottoms were re-inflating after being squashed for the previous four hours! Ouch!Ouch! Ouch! No one could really appreciate the suffering we endured for the first few weeks!

So all the planning began the winter of 2010-2011 when I first discussed with Craig the

possibility of biking across Canada to raise awareness and donations for what turned out to bethree charities, each attributed with contributing to helping Craig change his life. The first thingwe did was to contact all three charities, advising them of our plan and confirming their support.We were clear from the beginning we wanted no money from our three charities, and we wouldraise all we needed to complete the trip on our own. Any money donated over and above of ourexpenses would go to the three charities divided equally three ways. This was key thing numbertwo, in that we were promoting not one, but three charities and this would give supporters theoption of donating to the charity that meant the most to them.

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful talented sister who I asked for help in creating a logofor CraigGivesBack. I am also fortunate to have a friend who manages Vision Fire CommercialPhotography which produces professional quality videos and marketing imagery. Our first logoappears in our first promotional video! We took this video with us to the YMCA each Sunday for

our five hours of spinning and it was also eventually posted to our website craiggivesback.ca andFacebook page Facebook.com/craiggivesback.

In February of 2012 we met with Warren Spires from the CNIB at Taks Thai Restaurant inPictou. Warren was recently hired as Atlantic Director, Fund Development for the CNIB andhaving significant experience in the marketing industry, saw this a great opportunity for bothCraig and the three charities. One task I had to complete in the near future would be withWarrens assistancewhich was to prepare sponsorship packages, with the goal of submitting topotential corporate sponsors for this event. We had estimated the cost of the trip includingequipment and expenses to be $20,000 to $25,000. We did complete a very comprehensivesponsorship document with Warren leading the way, however not due to lack of effort or followup we never were able to secure a sponsor! Not one! But in reality who were we, notcelebrities, but just two average guys trying to bike across the country!

We did however generate a lot of interest and support in Pictou County and the donations wewere to eventually receive amazed and humbled us. We had met with the staff at the NewGlasgow YMCA to discuss our plan to complete a Virtual Cross Canada Bicycle Tour in the lobbyof the YMCA and received their approval and support. We would use this as an opportunity toreceive donations, but also as training to prepare our bodies for an 8,200km trip across Canada.

The first date of our virtual tour was Sunday, August 5, 2012. We arrived at the YMCA with atandem mountain bike, stationary trainer and all the additional paraphernalia we would need tosurvive a five hour spinning session. We knew we would not be able use a standard stationarytrainer as we required one that would hold the weight of a tandem bicycle and also the weight ofits two riders. I do not even think the one we used was designed for such abuse! Pictou County

Cycle had a Kurt Kinetic Rockn Roll trainer available for us to borrow. It performed incrediblywell and simulated the feel of a bike on a flat paved road. The faster we pedaled, the harder itgot just like it would during our trip. It would last us almost 7,000kms before incident.

One thing we definitely learned after five hours of cycling is that your bottom tends to get very,very sore! Being a recumbent rider, I did not have cycling shorts with a chamois pad, as it is justnot necessary. It was very quickly apparent we were going to need them, so we were verygrateful when Pictou County Cycle once again helped us out with a free pair. Our bottoms werevery grateful and we proudly showed off the Pictou County Cycle logo every weekend. I also


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purchased tubes of chamois cream from the bike shop, and using this and the padded cyclingshorts made it almost bearable. We both did suffer from saddle sores which would partially healthe period in between the spinning sessions, but then we would tear the scabs off the nextweekend. The final solution was chamois cream, liberally applied, a pair of padded cycling shortsand then a second pair of shorts underneath. By the time we reached week fifty-two we had thesaddle sores under control.

The other challenge was to ensure we stayed hydrated and consumed sufficient calories to allowus to pedal at a challenging pace for a full five hours. We would line up our water bottles,energy bars and sugary treats alongside the bike. We would consume as much as 500-750mls offluid per hour and would start one hour in with our first energy bar and repeat every hour. Afterthree hours of pedaling we would switch from energy bars to honey waffles as we needed energyin a more easily digestible format. Everyone is different and Craig and I perspire at differentrates. I sweat a lot and it causes me to lose excessive salts and electrolytes, so in order to avoidpainful muscle cramps I used electrolyte pills in my water bottles. I tried a few brands andflavours, but eventually through the bike shop found a type that worked for me and the musclecramps ended.

We did not realize it at the time, but it turned out to be quite a commitment to put in our

kilometers every weekend for a full year. We tracked our kilometers, each day posting a map ofour weekly route and where we would end up. Craig was attending spinning classes and alsopracticing on a stationary trainer in his house and I was commuting by bicycle, so I was notworried about reaching our target distance during our weekend spinning session, as we morethan covered the distance every week. Between my daily commute to work and the weekendtraining, I was covered over 15,000kms during the fifty-two weeks prior to our departure date.

We had great experiences during our virtual tour even though we never left the lobby! Weshowed up every Sunday at the New Glasgow YMCA until Remembrance Day weekend as thecurrent YMCA was to close and then reopen the following week at their brand new facilities in thePictou County Wellness Centre. They had a lot of work to do in a short period of time to move allnecessary equipment from one building to the other which had been built and filled with mostlynew equipment, thanks to the generosity of the citizens and businesses of Pictou County. It is abeautiful facility. So Craig and I did a double spinning session on the Remembrance Dayweekend, putting in five hours on Saturday, November 10thand again on the Monday, November12thwhich was the holiday as Remembrance Day fell on the Sunday.

We actually did not have a YMCA to spin in again until November 24 thand the new location wasnew, beautiful and best of all we were located in the central hallway between the two skatingrinks and the YMCA. We could not have asked for better as now we had a constant flow oftraffic passing by on their way to the YMCA or brining their child for a hockey game. Hockeytournaments were our favourite, as the hallway was filled with crowds of people between gamesand they had come from all over the Maritimes, and were very interested and amazed at whatwe were doing and planning to do. They were also very generous and our weekly donation totalincreased significantly. We would also bring Baldwin, Craigs guide dogand he would lie on the

floor by our bike and everyone loved him. He helped with donations too!

Everything was going as per usual right up to Week 26 of 52 when we reached our halfway pointof Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario. We had completed more than 4,000 kilometres in the lobby and tocelebrate the halfway point of our virtual tour we invited other cyclists to join us in thegymnasium at the YMCA. We had both the Pictou County Tri Club and the local Pictou CountyRoad Riders join us for portions of our spinning session. We had media attend including CBC andCTV television and we even ended up being featured in the Sault Star, the daily newspaper inSault Ste. Marie!


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To prepare for our halfway celebration we also had the assistance of Advocate Printing who haddonated the cost of creating our new logo and banners. They also designed our new t-shirts andwe had both on hand for our halfway party. Funny now, but when we ordered our first hundredt-shirts, I asked Craig if he was sure we could sell these. Well we ended up having to re-orderfive times, selling nearly five hundred t-shirts from January to November!

Other great experiences happened every weekend as we had so many people stop to talk with usto inquire about our adventure and donate to our trip. Some weekends we had incredibleresponse when there was a hockey tournament and teams from around the Maritimes attended.The lobby will fill with people and the amount of donations we received and the people we talkedwith was astounding.

We moved from summer to fall, from fall to winter. It was getting dark when we got up Sundaymorning to pack up the car with everything we needed. I grew a beard. Thanksgiving,Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, Easter all passed by. I shaved off my beard!

When we first started, it seemed we would never reach the end, but after the halfway point inJanuary, the time flew by and before we knew it we had some serious physical challenges

coming up that we had planned over a year previous.

Now there is Bob the trailer and Bob MacDonald, and both will play a critical role later on. Onewill be loved and the other ends up in pieces. Prior to even starting our virtual tour I hadconcerns as to what would happen if Craig or myself were to suffer an injury as cycling is not thesafest, especially on some of the roads we would be travelling. Still not sure who could havefilled my role, but Bob MacDonald suffers the same hereditary eye condition as Craig and hisemployment in the seasonal tax return industry did give him some flexibility to cover for the shortterm if Craig did suffer an injury either during training or during the actual trip.

Bob the brand name of our trailer is an acronym for Beast of Burden and a trailer I had usedfor over ten years for numerous bike trips. It attaches to the rear axle of the bike and has only asingle wheel that follows behind the rear wheel of the bicycle. It is a great way to transportheavy, but not bulky cargo. It is also easy to disassemble and send home if it becomes anannoyance. Not the same with Bob MacDonald, he would be more difficult to switch in or out ofthe trip!

Meanwhile Warren and I worked hard at pursuing potential sponsors, but met with continueddisappointment. Funny, I was so confident at first we would secure a sponsor, but looking backcan certainly understand the trepidation of giving two guys who had this crazy idea to bike acrossCanada without a support vehicle, on a completely foreign bicycle and with a timeframe that hadus still cycling to the end of October. Yeah, looking back I am not surprised at all!

On the other hand, the people of Pictou County not only supported and encouraged us, but theyopened their wallets and donated. We were waiting to secure a corporate sponsor before we

committed to ordering our bike from Holland, as it was not a small investment. It eventuallyreached the point where we had received sufficient donations that we could place the order andafter a number of emails back and forth, a down payment was made and the order wasconfirmed. One big help was Jenny and Jonas Cosh, as Jonas had done something very similarin 2010. Jonas, who has Cerebral Palsy had the opportunity to participate on a tall ship based inEngland. The ship, Lord Nelson is adapted to meet the needs of people with disabilities andthrough the generosity of Pictou County, he was able to train as a deck hand for a week. Jennyand Jonas came to our aid armed with ideas, one of which was to approach the PictouScotiabank to setup an account that anyone across Canada can deposit into with a donation.


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Another great idea was a draw on a gift basket and Craig, Jonas and Jenny made the rounds tolocal businesses for donations and this alone raised over $1,000.

The only thing we had to do prior to setting up a bank account was to incorporate as a Not forProfit Society, so by the end of January we created The CraigGivesBack Association and soonafter opened the bank account and the Scotiabank was generous enough to waive all bank fees.

It was great as all donations could now be deposited and that also meant not have a fewthousand dollars in a bucket at my house! We were also able to write cheques for any expensesand have an accurate record of any expenditures, which was especially important as we wereacting on behalf of three charities.

Warren and the CNIB were committed to supporting our adventure so much so that they retaineda graduate of Nova Scotia Community College, who had just finished a work term at the HalifaxCNIB office. Her education was Public Relations, so it was a perfect fit and she immediatelybegan work on media releases and our public media. We were so lucky to have Amelia and shewould be with us from first of May right up to the end of ride at the end of October. It was awonderful surprise.

The third and final decision we made to ensure our ride stood out from the many others, was we

had decided to do a ride on a bicycle which most Canadians had never heard of, let alone seenbefore. Craig and I would cross the country on the same bicycle, but face in opposite directionsthe entire distance!

Janus is a Roman god with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. He isthe guardian of gates and doorways as he can see persons approaching from either direction. Asyou enter through a door or gate, you are entering a new environment, and Janus is also the godof new beginnings. January the first month of the year was so named in his honour. This wasso appropriate a name for our bike as in the end it was the ability of Bob and I to see in bothdirections that made our trip such a safe one. It would not be until almost the end of May thatour bike would finally arrive, but it was a thrilling moment to finally take that first ride. This wasthe second of three key things we did to make our trip stand out from all others biking acrossCanada. Our bike was essentially the only one in Canada on which the two riders faced inopposite directions!

So while I biked back and forth to work each day piling up the kilometers of training, Craig wasdoing what he could by participating in cycle fit spinning classes at the YMCA. One class hebecame a regular at was the Monday and Wednesday class at noon at the New Glasgow YMCA.Not only did this group donate, but they also purchased t-shirts and held a fundraiser at a localpub with music provided by themselves! Craig who has been teaching himself to play harmonicafor years also had a starring role in more than just a few songs and everyone was very impressedwith his ability. I had not heard him play often previous, but now I started to encourage him tostart busking on the waterfront in Pictou during the summers!

Also by coincidence one person who attended the weekly spin classes is the President and CEO of

Empire Theatres, and he made a very generous offer to assist in promotion of our upcomingadventure. If we could have a sixty second video submitted by the end of May, it would play atall Empire Theatres across Canada for the month of July. This was very exciting news as wecould promote Craigs story and generate support for our three charities. I thought we couldsimply edit and shorten our current video which was five minutes in duration, howeverfortunately Warren from the CNIB had spent years in the advertising industry, and saw anopportunity to create something new. Also lucky for us was Bruce at Visionfire Photography waswilling to prioritize creation of the video and already had a vision of the finished product.


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Just by luck our new bike the Janus had actually just arrived days previous to the taping of ournew video! It was still at Pictou County Cycle having been just assembled and I had only onetest drive! My next drive was to bike from the bike shop to Pictou where Bruce had chosen theroad to the PEI ferry which was straight and had an overpass. This was Friday evening afterwork and we had just enough daylight to complete this shoot, and then Craig and I bikedtogether to the Visionfire photo studio where we would spend the next almost four hours

shooting indoor and recording script. The final product was completed, reviewed, edited andapproved by end of May and sent to Empire Theatres. It would now play the entire month ofJuly in advance of our departure and we would eventually meet people from across the countrythat had seen the video.

May of 2013 was actually a very busy month, as along with the Janus arriving from Holland, theEmpire Theatre Video, we also had received good news that Home Hardware although not asponsor were offering the option to all their franchisees across Canada that followed our route,the opportunity to create a fundraiser and we would stop at their store. We were excited as thenumber of stores and fundraising potential would be significant.

Also in May, we were invited to speak at the YMCA Strong Song event at the Pictou CountyWellness Centre. It is a one day event which celebrates youth and includes speakers and music.

We were going to speak alongside internationally known celebrities such as Chris Keilburger,Spencer West and Molly Burke! It was an honour to receive this invitation from Crystal Murraywho organized the event. We were given the opportunity to share Craigs story and speak aboutour upcoming adventure to more than 1,200 children who had been bused in from around PictouCounty. One group of people I love to speak to is definitely children as they are so full of energyand cheer at almost every sentence. They were so wound up it made it such a great experience,and they inspired us to continue to work hard to achieve our dream. This event was actually thedebut of our new CraigGivesBack, video and everyone was so impressed with how good it lookedup on the big screen. Bruce and Todd at Visionfire had done an incredible job. It would receivesome additional editing to get it to the 60 second duration for Empire Theatres, but it lookedgreat!

Along with the good news and experiences in May, we also received bad news as we learned thesatellite location of the YMCA in the town of Pictou was to close. This of course is where Craighad trained almost daily since it had first opened. Many in the town of Pictou and thesurrounding area were devastated, and you truly do not realize how important something is untilit is gone. As with most decisions this was a financial one, and the YMCA was unable to maintainboth the new location at the Pictou County Wellness Centre and the Pictou location too. Thechallenge for Craig became the cost of getting to the New Glasgow location, as there is a busservice for those with mobility challenges, however it still has a fee and for Craig who lives on asubsidized income was unable to afford daily trips. The good news is that eventually a localfamily would purchase the remaining workout equipment and re-open the Pictou location, but asa private enterprise. They are unable to offer subsidized memberships for people with limitedincome such as Craig as they needed to now make a profit or at least break even to cover thecosts of the facility and staff wages. Craig however places a high value and priority on being

physically active, and therefore has been able to budget the monthly membership cost as part ofhis living expenses, and has been able to continue his workouts.

And we had more bad news, this time regarding our new back to back tandem bicycle, the Janus.While filming the second video at the Visionfire studios in May, we took a pizza break from thealmost six hour total filming time between the road and the studio. The Janus was on itskickstand on the set in front of the white background and while seated enjoying a piece of pizza,I noticed a dark line along the end of the frame boom at Craigs end. My heart sank as Iimmediately suspected a serious issue and it would soon be confirmed. Earlier in the evening on


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With the arrival of warmer temperatures and our new bike, we would begin outside training inaddition to indoor. I mapped a loop route around Pictou County that would take us over twohours to complete and we would repeat it two to three times to prepare for life on the road.

The weekend following the Johnny Miles Marathon, Craigs hometown of Durham, Nova Scotiainvited us to include a stop at the Durham Community Hall. There was even music! When we

arrived we were joined by many local riders who then accompanied us from Durham to WestRiver, where we stopped at West River Greenhouses and received well wishes and generousdonations towards our trip.

Now having completed a ten hour spin session and completed kilometers and kilometers of onthe road training with Janus, we were now ready for our greatest challenge. We would attemptto bicycle across Prince Edward Island on the Confederation Trail in one day. It was a totaldistance of 273.4kms and our goal was to complete it in twelve hours.

We planned this for the long weekend of Canada Day and travelled over to Prince Edward Islandon Saturday. Our plan was to complete the ride in one day, however if things did not work outwe would finish the ride on Monday morning and then return home. Everything started onschedule Sunday morning, except I was nervous of getting our ten foot bike through the gates

whenever the Trans Canada Trail crossed a road, which means there must be well over ahundred of them from one end of the trail to the other. I made the last minute decision not tostart on the trail, but to start on the highway and we were off right on schedule.

Sometimes things do not work out as planned, and sometimes what happens just makes usready for what is yet to come. I had broken the trip into sections, each of which would takeapproximately two hours to complete. We were fortunate to have my wife volunteer to drive oursupport vehicle, and that allowed us to travel with a minimum of food and water and only a basicrepair kit.

Checkpoint number one we passed just ahead of schedule and we were now on our way toSummerside and our second checkpoint. It was now that we drove over something that actuallystuck in the rear tire and struck the pavement every time the tire rotated. As soon as we heard itand realized what it was we stopped, but the damage was done. Now this was actually the firsttime I had to repair a tire on the Janus so it was a new experience. We had Rohloff internalhubs front and rear, so removing a wheel is not the same as a standard bicycle. I was howeverup to the task and by the time Andrea had doubled back to where we had stopped, we were upand running again. Let me remind you with over five hundred kilometers on the Janus before wewent to Prince Edward Island, we had not had one flat tire. Well now we had our first and soonwe would have two more! I had packed a couple tube repair kits, one I had used recently for myown bike and a second that was new, however both tubes of patch glue had dried and wereuseless. With no backup tubes left and no way to repair any of the three with punctures, wewere out of options just on the outskirts of Summerside.

Andrea did her best to save the day by heading off to Canadian Tire for tubes and repair kits, but

it was Sunday and the store did not open until 10:00am. By the time Andrea had returned andwe had the bike repaired and back together, we were now three hours behind schedule! Wewere feeling quite demoralized, but undaunted we were off to give it our best effort.

The kilometers slipped by quickly as we stuck to the Trans Canada Highway until Charlottetownand thanks to some navigational errors on my part we actually decided to take the ConfederationTrail in spite of the metal gates. On the trail we quickly developed a system that would come inhandy later during our actual trip across Canada, but it allowed us to pass through each gatewithout having to get off the bike and even better without having to stop.


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and Sunday was back to the lobby of the Wellness Centre. The hockey rinks are not so busy inJuly, so with the hockey crowds gone for the summer, the traffic and donations had dropped offsignificantly during our Sunday spin session, however it was important to continue if not only forthe sake of continuing our training. The outdoor rides were also a great opportunity to graduallyadd more weight and also the Bob trailer, so that over time we could test and grow comfortablepedaling with the full weight of the bike, our clothing and all equipment necessary for camping

and cooking our own meals. We were to be fully self-supported for the nearly three months itwould take to travel across the country.

The July 21-22, 2013 weekend would be our first over-night on the Janus. On Saturday wewould fully load Janus, attach Bob (our trailer) and fully load it with all our gear just as it wouldbe during our trip across Canada. We would even stop along the route and cook and eat ourlunch, which of course was KD! It was just over ninety kilometers each way, so it was a modesttest of the equipment and our fitness. We departed from my house early Saturday morning andthe temperature rose quickly to the low 30s Celsius. Andrea along with our friends Hugh andJennifer would leave later by car and meet us at the campground just north of Pugwash. Wesurvived the trip out and back, however on the return I noticed a new noise which seemed to becoming from the rear wheel. I assumed it was the hydraulic brake pads rubbing on the rotor andmade what adjustments I could. As we continued, the noise would disappear and then start

again and I could not identify the cause. It would eventually be discovered what the noise was,however that would be in another two months and halfway across the country!

The first fully loaded trip was slower than expected and the bike felt heavy, so I reviewed all thegear we were carrying and shortened the list, removing any and all luxuries. This included ourinflatable sleeping pads and we opted for lighter less comfortable thin foam. I can sleepanywhere and on anything, but Craig was not excited!

Craig and I would spend the next week saying goodbye as we prepared ourselves to be away forthree months. Craig went to see all his relatives in the Cape Breton community of Belle Cte,which coincided with Belle Cte Days celebrations and included fundraisers for CraigGivesBack. Ispent my final week at work and my fellow employees surprised me by organizing a fundraiser.It was an exciting time, however I was anxious to start the trip. All the preparations werefinished and soon it would just be Craig and I out on the road.

On July 29thCraig and I both took a trip to Halifax. I had to visit MEC and purchase last minutesupplies, and Craig travelled down with his parents and we both ended up at the CNIB office atthe same time to meet the staff and say thank you and goodbye. I finished the day with a visitto Back To Basics Physiotherapy as I had pressure points on both little toes that had beenaggravated by the ten hour spinning session at the Johnny Miles Marathon. Phillip hadrecommended wedges in my shoes that would bring my foot back to level on the pedals and itseemed to be working.

July 30thwas a day to spend with family and work on packing and repacking the bike gear. I hadbeen planning on taking the Janus over with Craig and I on the plane, however Craigs parents

surprised us and decided to take their van to Newfoundland along with Craigs aunt and uncle.They picked it up and we would see them and the bicycle in a few days in St. Johns.

Our final day before departing was July 31 stand we visited Ann Macgregor at CKEC and did a liveinterview that was replayed through the day. We also stopped at the New Glasgow News for aninterview with John Brannen. Lastly we stopped and signed documents at MacDonald, TraskChisholm Insurance, who thankfully had essentially donated the liability insurance for theduration of our trip. The last thing we wanted was for something terrible to happen and ourthree charities to be liable, so now we had taken care of this final detail. Now we had nothing to


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do but relax until early the next morning, so I took Craig out to lunch in Pictou and while therewe were visited by Allan Slaunwhite our Investors Group local representative who dropped by topresent a donation. What great people live in Pictou County! Another great person in PictouCounty is Terry Curly who organizes the Johnny Miles Race Events each year and he presentedus with a donation of the proceeds left from the Johnny Miles. It was very generous and wewere very grateful. Amazingly Craig and I had now raise more than we needed to complete the

ride across Canada and the remaining funds along with all funds raised during our trip would bedivided equally to our three charities.

One final thing I did my final evening at my home was I printed hundreds of the CraigGivesBackbusiness cards. I had created them back in the spring and we had been handing them out at ourspinning sessions at the Wellness Centre. They were great as they gave just the criticalinformation, but also instructions for the Text to Donate! We would give out nearly five hundredas we crossed the country!

The final weekend of July was our final weekend to test out the gear changes I had made. Itwas to be the weekend of the Melmerby Beach Triathlon, however they were having challengesgetting the cycling route approved and for the first time in thirty years it was cancelled. We arehappy to report it did return in 2014 with higher than normal number of participants, so the

future looks good! In spite of the cancellation in 2013, a number of local triathletes decided tohave their own unofficial triathlon on the same date and Craig and I again loaded up the bikeand trailer and headed off to Melmberby Beach to meet up with them. This was over seventy-five kilometers round trip and the bike performed much, much better. We even took our newpassenger Flat Stanley and we miserably failed the parenting test, as we lost him on theroadside on the way to Melmerby! We did not discover we had lost him until we had almostarrived at Melmerby, however on the way back we stopped at the same location we had on theway out and after a short search found him safe and sound on the gravel shoulder. I would laterlose him again, but we always found him, so I could be a worse parent! We also stopped by thePictou County Wellness Centre to say goodbye to the staff at the YMCA as we would not beseeing them again for another four months.

The only issue during this trip was on the return ride from Melmerby Beach, the noise that hadstarted the previous weekend had returned. Through further examination of the rear wheel, Idiscovered some of the spokes had loosened significantly! I always carry a repair kit, so wasable to tighten up the spokes for the short term and the noise was gone for the balance of thetrip. I would take the Janus to Pictou County Cycle for a full tune up the next day, and after thathopefully any issues are fixed and it will be ready for the 8,200km journey!

Ready or not, the real challenge begins in just a few days!


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Top left:Craig and I complete his first ever 10km race in New Glasgow, NS, Top Right:Craig Gives BackLogo #1, Middle left:Sunday, August 12, 2012 was the first of fifty-two weeks at the YMCA, Middleright: Craig Gives Back Logo #2, Bottom left: On December 2, 2012 we moved to the new YMCA,Bottom right:On January 27, 2013 we had a virtual halfway party.


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Top left: St. Patricks Day at the YMCA, Top Right: Easter at YMCA, Middle left: Janus arrives fromHolland, Middle right: On June 15, 2013 Craig and I train for 10 hours at the Johnny Miles MarathonRegistration, Bottom left:On June 22, 2013 the communities of Durham and Central West River give us asend off, Bottom right:On June 30 & July 1, 2013, Craig and I bike across Prince Edward Island.

The Cgb Book - Part 1 of 12 - Back-2-Back Becomes Reality

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