Date: Wednesday 3rd Sept - Day One

5.00 A.M!! I didn't even know there were two 5 o'clocks in the day!! What the hell was going on!!! Somehow, we dragged ourselves from our pits, grunted at each other, yawned & farted etc etc. Got dressed and went down to breakfast. Food at 5.30 in the morning!! What an awful thought. We had to eat something because we were cycling approx 95 miles that day, but food at 5.30 in the morning? That's just wrong! Dave (Bison) commented on the disco ball in the dining room, said he thought it was a nice touch to have it revolving at breakfast!! Just managed a cup of tea & to eat a bowl of cereal & a slice of toast, my stomach was objecting to being invaded at that time of day!

We sat with two girls, Sally a hairdresser from Ipswich & Jo, her client. Apparently Sally had done the Vietnam to Cambodia Cycle ride last year, and she was doing this one for an orphanage in Cambodia. She asked her client ‘Jo’ to come with her (I’ll tell you more about this later). And she said yes!! Fool!! Then we met the Legendary Stanley Saunders (we are not worthy). What a lovely man. The next hour was a bit of a blur. Labelling bags, getting suited and booted, or should I say greased and lycra’d, packed the bags, dumped them on the luggage van and went to retrieve our trusty steeds from the bike room. Everyone was in an excited mood on the Heath. Met a few more people we’d spoken to on the DA forum Tricia Dennison & the lovely Mark Wharton. We were briefed by Jim Young, who was our trip leader, to follow the ORANGE arrows which were placed at 1 mile intervals all the way to the Eiffel Tower!! If you went more than a mile without seeing one, you’d gone wrong! Simple enough! And then we were off! Only 95 miles to do………

It was a little bunched up to start off with then gradually we all started to spread out, the first hill we came too was a long slow climb and Jo, Sally’s client slowed up because she was having problems with her gears, and Sally slowed up to support her friend, whom she asked to accompany her on this trip, did she hell!!! She was off like a shot leaving her friend to sort herself out! By the way Sally was cycling in a pair of bright pink Crocs!! She said she’d hurt her foot and couldn’t wear shoes. 300 miles in Crocs? Sounds like Em’s little faux pas with the Fit Flops at Oxford!

Anyway, everything was going swimingly, or should that be cyclingly, our first big hill was just before the water stop at 26ish miles. What a bleeder that was! It was horrid, long slow climb, a real test. But we did it! At each water stop there were bananas, apples, cereal bars, fruit squash & of course, water. These were a welcome break from pedalling, didn't stop too long, just long enough to chat with Ox & Bison, & Stan the Man, then it was offski, lunch was at 45 miles.

We took in the beautiful countryside of the North Downs and were clipping along nicely when one of our fellow riders passed us and said two words that put fear and dread into our very souls..... DODDINGTON HILL!!!! Everyone on the ride knew about it. Some had even tried it before and failed, surely it couldn't be that bad!! Oh it wasn't, it was much worse!!!! We walked it and even that hurt! I think everyone walked it at some point. It went on for ever & ever amen! Then to add insult to injury, about 2 miles from lunch I had a puncture! Bugger! Still, one of us is trained in changing tubes, and it's not Em!! We arrived at lunch, which was in Doddington Village Hall, we had a very welcome cup of tea, then food, and lots of it!! Pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, cheese, ham. Yum yum. Then off again, next water stop at 70 miles (I think).

The Kent countryside is lovely, loads of orchards too, couldn't quite reach the apples though, or we'd have done a bit of scrumping. By now the bottom was getting a little numb and the legs a tad weary, but being the troopers we are, it was ever onwards. The water stop was on a lovely village green, but we were now aware that water & lunch stops meant hills!! Either before or after. The latter was correct in this case. A rather cheeky 'little' climb, but we managed it none the less and then it was 15 miles to Dover. Hoorah!

As we approached Dover a man was standing by his car in a lay by and as we went by he wished us good luck which we thought was lovely, we later found out it was Mark W's Dad. He'd come to get picture of him en-route.

Dover was a very welcome sight! The 'White' cliffs (a little grey if you ask me) heralding the start of the Channel. We were delayed by 90 minutes because Sea France were down by one boat, apparently one of them had backed into the dock the day before!! fills you with confidence!!! Anyway we eventually boarded and rushed to the restaurant where we devoured lasagne, chips and coke. Was it nice? I don't know, it didn't even touch the sides!

Whilst at the port we were given Hi-Vis vests as they said the light 'would be fading' when we got to Calais. Ha Ha Ha!! It was pitch black! We had to cycle, in convoy, behind a land rover, on the wrong side of the road, to our hotel. Not funny. It was about 5 miles and not enjoyable at all. The saving grace was it was a lovely hotel, Holiday Inn, very comfy beds, and a hot bath to soak in. We had a hot chocolate, fell into bed, chatted for a little while about the days activities and the prospect of another day in the saddle and fell into a very welcome sleep. Day One - London to Calais - Done....

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...........................

My first OFFICIAL fall...........

Sorry........

I've been a bit lax in posting recently, but that doesn’t mean I have been sitting around doing nothing!! Far from it.

I’ve had my first official fall. Hurrah!!!! Yes I know, why celebrate a fall, and what makes it official? Well, apparently (according to Dr Grant Phillips) you can’t call yourself a cyclist until you’ve had 3 falls and an official fall is a) done at speed & b) you loose skin. And I did both! I also banged my right tit, which is also what I felt too as I quickly leapt up from the ground checking to see if anyone had witnessed it and listening for sniggers behind garden walls!!! I had a humdinger of a bruise appear as well, but that’s all gone now. So no harm done there.

The weather has been a little against me over the last couple of weeks. It’s been bloody awful in fact. However I did manage to get out last week between downpours, whilst we were on holiday from work. I clocked up 94 miles!! In fact on Saturday I did my furthest distance so far, 45 miles!

On Monday I went round Draycote Water three times which is 15 miles total. Got dive bombed by the ‘golden plovers’ (impressed that I know my ornithology eh?) that seemed to think I was some sort of threat!! I went out on Martin’s MTB as it had been so wet and I wasn’t sure what the road surface would be like there. It was really nice actually. Do you know, I’ve lived round here, give or take 10 years, all my life and this was my first visit there!!

On Weds, I did 34 miles; it was a gorgeous day so I went out in the morning, early ’ish’, well I was on holiday! I went to Dunchurch/Southam/Priors Marston/Hellidon/Staverton/Badby. I had a really scary experience going down Braunston Hill though. I was overtaken by a speeding lorry, which was so close I could have touched it and it almost sucked me underneath it! I must admit after I had gesticulated furiously at the driver (I’ll bet he wasn’t even looking), I had a little weep it frightened me that much! Anyway during the ride, I was passed by a couple of fellow cyclist. They came by me going up a hill like I was standing still!!! They shouted ‘Morning’; I simply opened & closed my mouth! I wimped out on Priors Marston Hill though! Got halfway up and thought, sod it! I’ve since spoken to my dear friend Bex who’s recently started going out on her MTB with her husband Neil and they got all the way up that same hill on Saturday. I’m now utterly ashamed of myself. However, in my defence there are not so many gears on ‘The Beast’ so it is harder work!

So on Saturday it was longer distance ride day. I’d set my sights at cracking 40 miles, especially as Em had done 46 the other week. We’re very competitive you know. In fact we’ll probably be fighting on the approach to the Eiffel Tower to see who crosses the line first! Remember Em, ‘AGE BEFORE BEAUTY’!!! Anyway, I digress; I went to Dunchurch/ Princethorpe/Leamington/Southam/Staverton/Home. 45 miles in 3 ¼ hours. Bloody hell, I was knackered!! 3 horrible hills, but on the whole not a bad ride. I really don’t like this loneliness though. When I got home, because I hadn’t been talking, but I had been breathing so hard my voice had cracked!! Martin thought it was great! But it soon came back with lubrication!

Anyway this week amongst other things I’m taking part in the 50 mile ride at Rugby for Leukemia. Em & Grant MAY be coming but I doubt it somehow especially as it’s Emily belated birthday BBQ on Sat!!

Ah well, me on my lonesome again……………………

Happy Birthday Frogspawn!!!

Em's birthday is 23rd May so to mark the occasion I'm sending her an appropriate card!! (from MoonPig of course!!)

I'm getting into the swing of this

So, if Emily (http://emilyeldershawlondon2paris.blogspot.com/) thinks she looks bad in Lycra, she ain't seen nothing yet!! I look horrendous, like a large Michelin tyre!

We went out for our first joint training ride last Weds, it was OK!. Got a severe attack of the palpitations, but they didn't last long. Had a swig of water a minutes rest and away we went again. We did eight miles, and then did the same again on Thurs, I went out on my own Fri and again Sun. I think I've finally got motivated.

I used Martin's mountain bike on Sunday and it makes mine seem like a ton weight, I was also dreading using his 'thin' saddle, but to be perfectly honest, it was even better than my big wide gel one. I got a new pair of cycling shoes too. They were fantastic!

Just gotta start stepping up the distance now. Probably up to 15-17 next, then 20 +, and so on. Gradual increase, nothing mad.