Brandon-born cyclist learns from challenges

Madysyn Kennedy thinks big, and the Canadian Cancer Society is set to benefit from her vision.

The 29-year-old Beausejour resident, who was born in Brandon, is cycling across the country with the goal of raising $1 million for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Her mother Jodi was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, so it’s personal. But she noted there is also a simple lesson for other people: Run head on into your perceived limits and see what happens.

“I think a lot of people shy away from that and are afraid of that,” said Kennedy, who spoke from Portage la Prairie as she stopped for a meal on Monday afternoon. “Something I’ve learned is you don’t have to be afraid of that.

“That’s where all the lessons are and that’s where you truly grow, is in that truly dark place. You can’t grow and get to the next level when you’re inside of your comfort zone.

“When I come up to something that I know is going to challenge, I’m almost excited for the growth that’s going to happen.

“… As human being, we’re capable of so much more than we believe. We can do anything if we set our minds to it, and most people just quit a little bit too early.”

She is expected to arrive in the city today around 12:30 or 1 p.m., with a fundraising barbecue to follow at RE/MAX Valleyview Realty at 1209 Richmond Ave. in the strip mall near the Co-op grocery store.

Incredibly, Kennedy only took up endurance sport last summer, training for and completing Ironman Arizona last fall. The race includes a 3.8-km swim, 180-km bike ride and a 42.2-km marathon.

She wrote on her vision board in September that she was going to bike across Canada, but didn’t have any details in place until after she finished the race. That certainly changed.

She bought her hybrid Specialized Roubaix bike a week before she left, and had only ridden a few kilometres on it before she departed from Peggy’s Cove on April 27. Her plan is to go for a swim in Vancouver on her 30th birthday on June 14.

If the concept of a Kennedy crossing the country for a good cause sounds vaguely familiar, you have an excellent memory.

Her uncle Sheldon rollerbladed from east to west in 1998, leaving St. John’s, N.L., on May 30 and arrived in Vancouver on Nov. 7. He raised around $3 million for his foundation’s planned ranch retreat in Radium, B.C. for victims of abuse, but because he fell short of his $15-million goal, he donated the funds to the Canadian Red Cross.

“Obviously having my uncle rollerblade across 30 years ago when he was 29 was kind of the timeline of it,” Kennedy said. “I’m 29 now so I wanted to do it at the same age he was, and jumping into the water on my 30th birthday.”

But the ride goes well beyond that. She wanted to make the ride meaningful for others too.

“There have been a couple of times in the past couple months where I’ve witnessed people lose their health really quickly,” Kennedy said. “It’s kind of sparked this movement for wanting to move my body because I can and the privilege of being able to do that.”

Happily, she hasn’t made the trip alone.

She been accompanied by her father Troy, who played with the Brandon Wheat Kings for parts of three seasons in the late 1980s. He is off work recuperating from bunion surgery, so his recovery dovetailed nicely with her adventure.

He said as children grow up, parents don’t get to know them quite as well because they are out on their own.

The last month has been very different, because he’s been with his daughter every day. While he knew she was mentally tough, he’s been impressed by her fortitude.

“On this journey, seeing what we have to do and some of the grinds that we have to put in, every day is different,” Troy said. “Every day you could be going into the wind or have mountains in front of you or snow on the ground. We’ve had a few days where it was zero degrees, hands are cold, feet are cold.

“I’m just like ‘You know what, if you want come in and warm up and take an hour or warm up for 10 minutes, do whatever you’ve got to do.’

“To see her grind it out and go through all that and be so determined to get it done is incredible. It makes you very, very proud as a parent to see how she pushes herself.”

Along with companionship, Troy has helped her with bike maintenance. Incredibly, she’s suffered just three flats, while the RV has had two.

“It’s been really fun because obviously you don’t get to do many things like this with your family,” Kennedy said of having her dad with her. “It’s a different dynamic. It’s been navigating living together again. Sometimes when I get off the bike I just don’t want to talk and we have our own routines and our own lives.

“He’s helped so much. I would not want to be in his position, sitting in the car going 25 kilometres an hour across the entire country listening to hazard lights. I must respect what he’s doing and I don’t know if I would want to trade places with him.”

She noted the roads have been really good, with the worst pavement so far coming in Manitoba. They had rain on 18 of the 25 days, and two snow days.

Physically, she said her body began to adapt to the work load in the second week. After a few fun days at the start, reality began to set in on the grind ahead.

Any endurance athlete knows the toll on the body is sometimes accompanied by a more insidious mental toll. While it’s a physical activity, the brain steps in at times and wants it to stop.

“The mindset has been the biggest challenge for me,” Kennedy said. “I have a pretty powerful mindset but when you’re sitting on a bike for seven hours a day, it can be tough to occupy your mind. If you are even slightly thinking negative thoughts and you’re in that space for a long period of time, it can really be damaging.

“I’ve had a couple of rough days where I sensed my mind going to more negative thoughts and feelings and I have to pull over and ground myself so I don’t let that spiral and take over. It’s a long day when you’re in negative thoughts.”

Most notably, she ran into that phenomenon on day six back in New Brunswick, which was easily her worst.

“I was so close to quitting,” Kennedy said. “I was thinking ‘How am I going to tell everyone that I can’t do this?’ My mind and my body were physically broken. I told myself ”You can quit, but you can’t quit today. You have to push through one more day.’

“Now we’re here. That was the worst day on the road, and every single day I’ve compared it to that. If I can get through day six mentally, I can get through anything.”

While she has to average 176.6 kilometres a day to get to Vancouver in time, the duo actually plans around their next stop beforehand based on the location of the next town. That means some days, especially early on, she rode 140 kilometres but she’s since eclipsed 200 in a day.

It didn’t hurt that she’s had some powerful motivation on the last stretch.

“Getting through Beausejour, I was sobbing,” Kennedy said. “It was the most incredible feeling. I knew it was going to be special but there were so many emotions seeing familiar faces and coming into Winnipeg and seeing my friends and felt like home. Home is where the heart is so true and that was first real experience I’ve had with that. There is just nothing like it.

“The support from the local community is just so insane. I’m so excited to go through Brandon and see more familiar faces. There is just nothing like the hometown support.

“It’s poetic that we’re halfway and that’s the hometown stretch. It was everything I needed in this moment to get me through the next half.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com