Every year since 2010, Rapha have challenge riders all over the world to complete 500km from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve! 8 days – 500km sounds easy enough! This is a challenge I have blogged about in the past:
As much as this is a test of physical strength, it more about the mental fortitude to be able to get back on the bike when everything is still sore from the last ride! This is a great challenge!
2018 – I chose to do this challenge limiting the number of rides – 4 to be exact, 1 ride every 2 days; to limit the impact on my family time!
Ride 1 – The Dreamworld Run on Christmas Eve 24/12/18 covering 120km (120/500). This is a favorite route of mine on the old highway to the Gold coast, now a very quite service road, perfect for time trialing on!
View my Strava data here!
Ride 2 – Boxing Day 26/12/18 – heading to Bribie for lunch with my whole family (my parents, sister and her family) at the Sandstone Point Hotel covering 150km (370/500).
View my Strava data here!
Ride 3 – Friday 28/12/18 – hitting the city and calling in some reinforcement to help with the motivation! Covering 140km (410/500). Today we headed to the city and had some fun doing a river loop and rolling along the footpaths and across bridges around Brisbane!
View my Strava data here!
Ride 4 – Sunday 30/12/18 today we hit the crit track at Murrarie with some support from the Starfish Tri Athletic squad we did some efforts and had coffee! Covering 130 (540/500)
View my Strava data here!
Challenge completed successfully in 4 rides! Covering 541km in 19 hours and climbing 3545m in elevation! Not a bad 7 days! It would be remiss of me not to give a few people a shout out for their achievements over this period!
- Michael Ingham – massive effort on Christmas Eve, covering 150km on the Birkdale/Thornside foreshore, a 10km loop!
- Cameron Wills – after failing and only banking 200km in 2017, he smashed it this year hitting 514km with a day to spare! What a difference 12 months makes!
- Meghan Hayes – some super early morning rides, even on Christmas Day, got it done in 7 rides on the 28th of December in only 5 days!
- To everyone that rolls over the 500km mark in 8 days, massive kudos – it is a huge achievement! Take a moment and appreciate exactly what you have done its HUGE!
Here is a link to the official Strava link to the entire challenge leaderboard, with over 95,000 participants covering nearly 18,000,000 kilometers!
My family have supported me again in my crazy attempts to complete another of these awesome challenges set by Strava – this Festive 500 is definitely one of my favorites! This is the fifth time I have completed this challenge, the first time was way back in 2013. I did it again in 2014, missed 2015, was back in 2016 & 2017 and, of course, this year, 2018!
It is always a challenge that tests the stamina, fortitude and mental strength. Backing up day after day is tough work, but the benefits are enormous! This challenge sets up a great bike base for 2019 and gives me a solid grounding and launching pad toward Cairns IM 2019!
Stay tuned for my 2018 wrap up and a few other exciting developments early in 2019!
If you’re not active at the moment & need some inspiration, follow me on Strava, Instagram, YouTube, like my facebook page and let’s get back out there swim, bike or running. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a blog post from me!
I believe the biggest regret we can have in life is to not TRI! So get out there and give it a go! If you ever have any questions please reach out, I’m only a message away.
Till next time, build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!
SO, YOU WANT TO BE AN IRONMAN? 
Top effort knocking it out in four big rides! Must have been pretty toasty up there in Brisbane.
Thanks heaps, yeah it got warm a couple of times! But not too bad, as we say up here it’s not the heat that hurts it’s the humidity that gets you #wetwithsweet
Cant wait to see you guys again in cairns!!!
Looking forward to it!