Pete Heal, somewhere in SA...
“There, that’s done.” Is all he said crossing the finish line, and that’s all that needed to be said. My good friend Pete Heal of Canberra, Australia, had just completed a 4014km (near 2700 miles) ride from Perth to Sydney, in 11 days, 18 hours. That’s more than 200 miles a day for almost twelve days straight. And here I sit, pondering whether or not I will ever complete a single-day double, much less 12 of them in a row! 
These photos shamelessly borrowed...
Pete set off on his ride two weeks ago, today, writing me that this was a personal goal of his, to ride across Australia. He didn’t want a lot of notoriety or publicity, and had actually asked me to not write about it in my blog. I complied, but I did follow his progress on line watching his GPS reports as he progressed across the country.
I would sit in my computer lab classroom in Maryland, paying attention to the lecture, and toggling to the GPS tracking web page that updated Pete’s progress. Quite addicting, really; looking at the closest town on the map, calculate distance from Perth; note the date/time and extrapolate an average speed. Then, sit back and ponder the immensity of what I was viewing.
For you math and cycling junkies, here are Pete's numbers for the twelve days.
209 miles a day.
Distances in kms were: (divide by 1.61 for miles)
281, 301, 359, 340, 381, 296, 316, 360, 389, 408, 301, 322.
Total 4014km.
Longest day 18hours elapsed.
At the finish near Bondi Beach...
Of course, now that he is home, (he rode home to Canberra, of course) He has E-mailed me a photo telling me that I could now publish a few comments. Since Pete is a man of few words, and many accomplishments, I too will keep this short.
There’s not really much to be said. Here’s a man with a goal; he dreams, he trains, he rides, he achieves. No strutting around, no showy tail feathers, actually happy to be home with “no one shouting about it.”
Congrats, Mate!
Jim
(Did I mention he broke the all-time cross Australia solo record?)
