This post marks a number of milestones. I have now ridden well over 2000 miles training for my L2P challenge which has taken me 102 rides to achieve and – scarily – I have just noted we now have under 50 days until we set off for Paris.
Life is busy and I know these last 50 days will fly by and the increased activity on the Team 100 Facebook page – questions, concerns, assurance – is testament to the fact that our challenge will soon be on us. A few of us within the Hospice team know members of another group who have just completed the challenge for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and their reports of hills, more hills, rain, pain and physical breakdowns have brought into sharp focus – if any of us had doubted it- the scale of the challenge we face.
No one thought it would be easy. We are trying to raise a substantial amount of money for the Hospice and we therefore hope that people will recognise our effort and reward us accordingly and with no disrespect intended this is a not a cake bake!
Trying to be as prepared as possible I managed to get my bike on the car for a trip down to Cornwall last week. For those readers who may have missed my earlier posts the combination of Cornwall and a bike means pain to me. In 2013 I cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats and the first two days in the hilly Cornish lanes nearly killed the challenge before it had truly begun. Suffolk has nothing that can compare or prepare you for hills that just don’t stop – and it seems that our 95 mile trip to Dover on our first day – through the Kent Downs (or should they be called ups!) will be equally as tough.
Our holiday cottage was on a hill, the village we stayed in was in a valley and all ways out were up! On one ride the hill was so long, and I was cycling so slowly, a bird of prey was hovering above me I’m sure thinking that I was fair game for his morning snack. However I made it back without becoming buzzard breakfast and to be honest the hills were, due to the training I’ve done, far more manageable than on my last visit which neatly brings me back to my first point. I have now cycled over 2000 miles training for this trip and those miles – and the ones over the next 47 days will get me through all the trials and difficulties ahead, and when it gets really tough I will know that we are doing it for great cause.