Ride For Unison

unison bike ride

Two weekends ago, I had the pleasure of participating in the 1st Annual Ride For Unison; a 50km charity bike ride from Toronto’s east end, to the Metro Zoo and back.  The event raised aproximately $1800 for the The Unison Benevolent Fund, a non-profit organization that provides counselling, emergency relief, and benefit programs for those in the Canadian music community who face personal or professional challenges due to hardship, illness, unemployment or economic difficulties.

It was perfect weather for the trek and I had great chats with the other participants (mostly people who also work in the music industry) while riding in twos on stretches of road with less traffic.  Although, I did run into some technical problems on the road.  I launched into a sewer grate, turned the worst way toward my bike tire, somewhere in Scarborough.  I blew the inner-tube but within minutes, the event organizer Jodie Ferneyhough had taken off my front tire, replaced the inner-tube, then inflated my tire in lightning speed.  It looked like I was going to make the finish, until 10 meters from my first accident, the tire blew again (because of  a hole in the tire).

tire change

I told the group to head towards the finish without me.  I took the bus for the last leg.

I’m looking forward to next years’ event as well as finding more people to participate or sponsor me.  For more information on the Unison Fund, visit their website.