Westville teen to cycle 160km for CHOC

WESTVILLE teen, Lauren Varty, has ridden in each edition of the 100 Miles of Nowhere cycling fundraiser and is excited to jump back onto her static bike and cover the 160 kilometres on Friday, 24 June.

Lauren is currently pursuing her dream of becoming a vet and is in her first year doing a BSc at the University of Pretoria. She was also instrumental in establishing The Cows in KwaZulu-Natal, a group of passionate athletes who take part in popular endurance sporting events to raise funds and awareness for Childhood Haematology and Oncology Clinics (CHOC).

She will return home for the varsity holidays and will ride the 160 kilometres at the Westville branch of the Cadence Cycle Performance Centres, one of five in KZN being used for the fundraiser. With a target set for R250 000, Lauren said she was both excited and humbled by what started on a much smaller scale in 2011.

“I was only fourteen at the time,” she said. “We had just joined The Cows after the 94.7 Cycle tour, and we decided to do a version of the 100 Miles of Nowhere that was run by American blogger, The Fat Cyclist.

“We had to break it up into four 40-kilometres sections to make sure I could handle it. Eight of us first did 40 kilometres in five-kilometre laps on the Durban beachfront, then we went to Hillcrest and did 1.5-kilometre laps, then to a cul-de-suc where we did a hundred 400-metre laps, and finally we did 40 kilometres on indoor trainers at Rose Owen’s house,” she recalled.

Despite her full schedule of school commitments, the former St Mary’s pupil has done every one of the 100 Miles of Nowhere rides since then, she even squeezed it into her matric year in 2015. “It was just before our matric trials exams. Luckily I prioritised my time wisely and got through both of them okay,” said Lauren.

Last year, Lauren and her mother, Iris, rode the full 160-kilometre ride on static bikes in the oversized furry suits that The Cows have become famous for, making the already arduous ride a lot tougher. “Sure it was tough. But in the bigger scheme of things, what we were going through was nowhere near as tough as what the kids battling cancer have to go through every day. The ride in the furry cow suit will take us anything between five and seven hours. It is really hot, but it is mostly a mental challenge,” she said.

As a teenager determined to make a difference to the charity that she stumbled on in 2011, she is in awe at how the 100 Miles of Nowhere project has grown in such a short space of time. “I heard that the target of R250 000 has been set for the ride this year. To be able to aim at a figure like that, and to know that it is now happening nationally at all eight Cadence centres, is really humbling,” said Lauren.

Entries are limited at each of the Cadence centres and are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis by booking on the event website, www.100milesofnowhere.co.za.