I’m dedicating this ride to my dad, whom we lost on January 23, 2018 to a heart attack, he just turned 77. I can’t speak for everyone, but loosing a parent has been a very difficult experience for me to have to overcome. It feel like everything in my life was altered in one horrible event, and now I find myself reevaluating everything and realigning my motivation. My father was probably my biggest fan when it came to my fitness, he was a large part of what motivated me, but it wasn’t always this way.
When I was just a kid my relationship with my father wasn’t very easy, I though at the time it was because I was a mama’s boy. As I got older I started to realize the reason my dad and I always butted heads because we to were like 2 peas in a pod, we both refused to be wrong and we were very hard headed. It took me a very long time to realize that, but when I finally did our relationship began to change and I found myself appreciating our similarities. One thing I do respect about my father is his commitment, dedication and determination, all the characteristics that I strive for in my life.
Growing up I remember my father continuously struggling with his high blood pressure. It wasn’t until 5 years ago my father came into a cross roads in his life, he had mild stoke. The doctors were able to determine that he would need to have bypass surgery to help lower his chances of a heart attack in the future. Being very stubborn my father refused to listen to the doctors and decided that he would rather try to better his chances naturally with diet and exercise. Having a background in engineering my father began to document his life though his logs of information on his blood pressure, foods, activities and a short description on how he felt that day. It was after that moment my father began pushing himself in fitness, he walked, cycled and exercised in the basement everyday. He researched all kinds of remedies and types of food that would help him lower his blood pressure naturally. His improvement after his stroke began to mask the future chances of a heart attack and his urgency for the surgery was set aside. Life continued and we all fell back into our regular routines.
Similar to my father 4 years ago I went to the doctor for a routine check up, and the results from my blood test came back showing that I had a high amount of bad cholesterol. My doctor gave me a choice to alter my life and change my diet and maybe start exercising or take a medication that will help regulate my cholesterol levels. Similar to my father I choose to go down the diet and exercise route, but I didn’t realize how much my life would change after that. Being active became a part of my daily routine, I started running, cycling, swimming and I also got back into taking gymnastic as an adult which moved into calisthenics. This is how I discovered the Ride for Heart 3 years ago.
At the time I started participating in the Ride for Heart, my reasons were selfish and just focused on riding up the Don Valley with my good friend Brandon who was also looking for ways to improve his fitness as well. We both knew that raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation was important but it wasn’t our motivation to participate. We started with just an easy 25km ride the first year, then we moved up to the 50km last year, this year we both agreed to push ourself to hit the max distance of 75km. We registered as soon as we got our email alert which was last year. We were set and we both were very excited.
On January 8, 2018 my father celebrated his 77th birthday with just my mom and oldest brother cause he had the flu. No one could of predicted what was to come on January 23, 2018. What the doctors warned up about 5 years prior had just become reality, my father suffered a fatal heart attack. The day it happened I was at work in Toronto, when I got the call I was in a state of shock, I got into my car and started driving to Chatham where my parents lived. It wasn’t long before I got the second call with the news that my dad had succumb to his heart attack.
This ride has now become more of a personal journey for me. Bike riding had become my fathers passion in the last 5 years, he enjoy it so much that he also collect old bicycles just to fix them so he can take them back on the road again. I even had an extra bike at my house for when parents came to visit so I can ride with my father, it became our thing and we enjoyed it together.
Know that he is gone, I think participating for the Ride for Heart has become the perfect way I can commemorate his memory and my love for him.
If you would like to donate to my ride click on the the link => http://support.heartandstroke.ca/site/TR/RFH2018/RFH2018?px=1226669&pg=personal&fr_id=5303
