For some unearthly reason I seem to have said ‘yes’ to riding in the Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 on Sunday 2nd August. I think it was because watching Mark complete the course over the past couple of years and his incredulity when I said I thought maybe I could do it, has turned pride into an inevitable fall!
As the name suggests I will be cycling 100 miles. Whilst maybe not a challenge to those sporting freaks among you for a couch potato who would be more suitable getting involved in a ‘how many episodes of a DVD boxset can you watch in one sitting’ sportive this is going to be my ‘Everest’. I haven’t done a sponsored charity event since I was aged 10 when everyone else was doing lengths of the swimming pool and I was on widths with a float because I still hadn’t learnt how to swim. Sad I know and I can tell you that my cycling isn’t much better now than my swimming was then.
I have already started training, as not to seems foolhardy. There have been several issues with saddles which thankfully have been resolved. Nick at Pewsey Velo has sorted me out with a fab bike, I’ve bought the lycra padded shorts, the skin tight top for aerodynamics and energy gels to keep me going. Now it’s just the case of sitting in a saddle and moving my legs for 8 hours – this might not be so easy to sort out but I’m going to give it my best and it would help if I knew that I had your support.
I'm raising money for The Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, a charity securing the homes of the elderly and vulnerable in our community against house crime and domestic abuse.
I promise this is a once in lifetime plea for sponsorship – you will never hear from me again. I am paying the costs of the ride so every penny donated will go to the charity’s output. I know there are literally hundreds of similar appeals so please use this as an excuse to give to an excellent charity that you might not have heard of rather than sponsor my mid-life crisis challenge!!
