Longboat Key cyclist rides for a greater cause

Cyclist Kim Galway knows every bump in the sidewalk along the length of Longboat Key — that she’ll always find puddles at Whitney Beach after the rain and to watch a particularly tricky spot at Windward Bay. 

She’ll keep getting to know them for at least another year. 

Galway is cycling to stay in shape for the completion of her documentary, “Victory Journey,” in which she cycles the 1,000-plus mile WWII deployment route of her grandfather George Blackburn through Europe. She got started, but the documentary’s end was delayed by the pandemic. 

“Victory Journey” is the incarnation of a promise Galway made to her grandfather, a Canadian forward observation officer, as he was dying. A reporter before the war, afterwards he had written three books about his experiences of war and did not want the lessons and sacrifices of the era to ever be forgotten. 

“I said to him at the time, ‘Bumpa, I know how much these books mean to you, and what you are trying to do with them, and I promise you that I will do all I can to help carry the messages within them to the future generations,’” Galway said. “At the time, I didn't know what that would look like.”

Galway, 53, was not a cyclist before beginning work on “Victory Journey,” though the idea of the documentary has been alive for years. When the idea became more real, she knew she would soon have to get out of her comfort zone after recovering from a battle with vertigo. 

“I went to the gym for six weeks, I got a stationary bike with the intention that I'm going to get out one day and find the courage to do two wheels again,” Galway said. 

She got a secondhand bike and began building up the miles — first 25, then 30, then 40 miles at a time, starting at the tip of Anna Maria Island, going all the way down Longboat to Lido and back again. With about 100 miles a week, she’s put over 2,500 on her bike since March 2019. Galway spends many of her days on Longboat Key with a bike, whether it’s trekking down the length of key, tuning up at Backyard Bike Shop or grabbing water at Harry’s or Whitney’s. 

“I’m so lucky to have these 40 miles at my disposal,” Galway said. 

The idea with “Victory Journey” was to ride the 1,000 miles through Europe, doing interviews along the way, and finish the journey at the 75th anniversary celebration of VE Day in early May. Galway and her crew arrived Feb. 25. Right in time for the pandemic. 

“Almost as soon as we arrived, we jumped into a whole other world,” Galway said. 

They did what they could, pulling together a surprising amount of the pre-planned interviews and zipping through as many miles as possible. Galway stayed with her project as long as she could, but ultimately, “Victory Journey” came to a halt on March 28 after nearly 250 miles. 

“There were times on my bike where I was able to smell the earth that I knew my grandfather would smell when it was wet or cold,” Galway said. “I was really privileged, at least for that 250 miles, to feel as connected to that soil as I was and in the silence as a contrast to the sounds of gunfire and bombs and explosions that he would have had to endure. It was an almost spiritual experience for me.”

Galway hopes to pick it back up in 2021 and ideally line up the completion with the rescheduled celebrations of VE Day. Until then, she’s happy to keep cycling Longboat Key to keep her strength up. 

“I looked back at it longingly when I was on European soil because It's a lot more difficult riding there,” Galway said.