50 Miles.....

5o chuffin' miles!!!! In the blazing sun!!! On my own!! Well almost there were about 1000 other people taking part, but that's not the point! Emily had hurt her foot the night before (drunk, dancing, stepped on her cat Mickey's scratching post! a likely tale!) But undeterred by the loneliness (are you weeping yet?) I set off. Rider number 215 through the start post at 10.00am Sun 8th June.

You'd have thought they'd have started us off gently, but no.. straight into Newbold Hill!! Excellent, a hill, my favourite . We headed out of Rugby towards Pailton, where the route split (oh, I forgot to say there were actually 3 routes; the 10 mile Tootle, 26 mile marathon & 50 mile marathon), the marshall waved us to turn right for the 50 miles straight into? Yep a bloody great hill!!! Someone was definitely having a laugh and it wasn't me!

The first check point was about halfway round the course at The Shilton Arms, a pub! how cruel. Here I bumped into, not literally, my executive manager from Cummins, Dave Barker & his daughter Sophie. I spotted him as I came into the car park and started praying that I wouldn't fall off as I stopped. I didn't, hurrah! Had my card punched, a cup of squash and set off again towards Brinklow.

The 26 & 50mile routes merged at Brinklow and pandemonium reigned for the next 5 miles or so the 'cycle in single file' request went completely out the window. There were 2, 3 and even 4 abreast, but it was just a case of head down, arse up and get by them. The road out to the next check point at 'The Royal Oak' at Brandon, yet another pub! was a single track country road with the most enormous, long hill I've done to date. A lot of people had got off to walk up by this stage but I battled on, my thighs and lungs were fit to burst, but it was all worth it at the top because there was an absolutely belting descent!!

At Brandon there were people finishing, as this was two start/finish event. Medals were being doled out and people were wheeling their bikes off to the pub for a well deserved beer, but not me. I still had about 8 miles to go.

The next section of the ride was a little bizarre to say the least. It went over some cattle grids and through a farmyard!! By this point I was beginning to think I'd gone the wrong way as there were no other cyclists in view, anywhere! Even the cows were looking at me gone out. Especially when I asked them if they'd seen any one else on two wheels go by! But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, or at least a marshall at the end of the road in a hi-vis vest, last check point 400m, finishing post 4 miles! Hurrah!! The lady at the check point told me where to go (in the nicest possible fashion) and just threw in at the end that there just happened to be one large hill. Are you ahead of me yet? Do you know which one it was? Remember the belting descent I spoke about above? Yep, we'd done a loop and had to go back up. I could have cried! But gritted my teeth and got up it. From there on it was pretty straightforward, thank god.

I did suffer with a touch of road rage thanks to some young lad who was 'pulling wheelies' on his MTB right in front of me. I shouted 'Oi! Stop being such a twat! If you come off, I'll hurt you more than the road will, coz I'm going to ride straight over you!!!!!' He made some comment about me being a moody bitch and rode off.

Just a few miles later the finish line was a wonderful sight! Newbold School Playground, I got my medal and I felt such a sense of achievement. 50 miles in 3 hrs 13 mins. I was elated. Even more so the next day when I discovered that my boss and his daughter who are 'seasoned' cyclists finished just 13 mins ahead of me!!!

So that's the furthest I've done in one ride so far, half the distance of the first day of 'Paris for Bust'!! What have I let myself in for...........................