Its Hard work!

Hello!

My name is Tamar and I am one of the 8 mum's completing this challenge and on the starting line for one of the relay teams.

Our son Mitchell was born on Dec 5th 2007 at 26 weeks gestation. He battled numerous infections, bowel problems, a heart op and eye surgery. He came through all of those over the 7 months that he was in the wellington neonatal unit, but his most serious ailment, unusually severe chronic lung disease he unfortunately could not win against and passed away on the 4th of July 2008. He is always in ours and a lot of peoples hearts as a wee boy with a lot of courage and an infectious smile.

I have stayed in contact with the other Mum's that we went through the unit with and have formed and enduring friendship based on the shared experiences we all have.

My training for this event so far has been quite limited. I was getting quite good on the exercycle so was pretty confident that a bike would be alright. How wrong I was. I bought a second hand bike from trademe a few weeks ago and decided that I would ride it the 4.5kms home. I haven't been on a bike since I was a teenager, but figured it would come back to me pretty quickly. I was wobbly for a bit but Ok. I was only about 1/2 a km into it before I started panting and puffing and wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into. Until that point I hadn't really taken into account the difference between an exercycle and a bike. On a bike, you are carrying your own weight and when you are a big girl like myself, that makes a hell of a difference!

I have been out a few times since then, but I get a really sore pelvic bone every time I ride which is quite off putting. I have a gel seat, but its not helping much ( the guy at the bike shop has since told me I have the wrong one, apparently I need one with grooves so the gel doesn't separate). BUT I have now bought the most unflattering bike pants that seem like they have an enormous maternity pad sewn into them! (haha)

So.... stay tuned to see if they help my training!

Tamar