{"id":190022,"date":"2025-10-04T19:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:28:09","slug":"couldnt-find-the-exit-cyclist-rides-300-km-in-torontos-high-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190022\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Couldn\u2019t find the exit\u2019: Cyclist rides 300 km in Toronto\u2019s High Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Think you did a long ride this week? Well, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strava.com\/athletes\/60700584?oq=llam\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dragon Llama<\/a> \u2014 whose real name is Derek S. \u2014 has shown that sometimes an epic ride can happen in a small space: 330 km in just over nine hours, all on a circuit in Toronto\u2019s High Park. The loop, which has been the site of plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/cyclists-on-trial-for-speeding-in-high-park-while-road-violence-escalates-in-toronto\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">controversy over the past few years, is just under 2 km long.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one of the few places where a rider can safely do laps in the busy city. But Derek S. definitely made use of those laps \u2014 because there were a lot of them!<\/p>\n<p>9 hours on the same circuit<\/p>\n<p>Why did he do it? In his words, he hopes to inspire others. He\u2019s a full-time photographer and self-proclaimed cycling enthusiast. Clearly, he\u2019s earned that title.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately, the idea stemmed from a curiosity about how far I could push my limits,\u201d he said. \u201cTwo years ago, I completed a 200 km ride in Dunnville, Ont., which was a beautiful and somewhat leisurely ride. It was a slower pace and we stopped every 20 to 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that by the end he was fatigued, but knew he could push further.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, I toyed with the idea of doing 300 km and kept talking about it,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore I knew it, the season was done. I felt a bit of disappointment in being a \u2018big talker\u2019 without taking action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he certainly changed that. Derek said that High Park has always been one of his favourite training grounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s where I\u2019ve reached a lot of my PRs in speed, pace, and distance,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like my own therapy loop \u2014 my happy place. Ultimately, this was a challenge to myself and the principle of doing what you said you\u2019d do. With the weather changing and the season coming to an end, I just put my head down and did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chapeau to an epic ride!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Think you did a long ride this week? Well, Dragon Llama \u2014 whose real name is Derek S.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,52324,82,59069,3302],"class_list":{"0":"post-190022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-high-park","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-strava","14":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}