The Increasing Madness of a Middle Aged Man with a Bicycle.
When I was a kid I used to love cycling.
I had a 5 gear Sun Solo road bike and a Mongoose BMX for less serious and more dangerous rides. They were used regularly until someone broke into my parent's garage and stole them when I was about 15.
Now, at 15 I was more interested in other things...girls and guitars. So, my insurance payout was spent on a shiny new electric guitar and amplifier, which would be a much better way to get girls than a new bike.
To be honest, I think I was right!
Cut to 20 years later. I have a beautiful wife (the guitar helped with that, as did the leather trousers and wolf slippers combo - don't ask!), 4 dogs, 3 cats, significantly less hair and the beginnings of a rather fine belly.
It was a result of my wife getting a new bike a few years ago, to commute the few miles into work, that rekindled some kind of flame inside me, A long lost yearning to be out on two wheels with only the efforts of my body propelling me along the country lanes around Somerset. But the flame remained barely alight until the devastating death of my mother-in-law from a heart attack, cruelly just after she had turned the corner in her recovery from lung cancer.
My father-in-law (the most decent man you could wish to meet) gave us some money from an insurance policy and I decided to spend mine on a shiny new road bike. The moment I got on the saddle the flame was set to high and my body remembered the pleasure I'd experienced over 20 years ago.
Through a scheme at work I was accepted to be a mentor with the Outward Bound Trust and had to raise £750 to pay for my participation so I decided to do a sponsored cycle ride. Most of my colleagues and the bosses worked in Milton Keynes, so I reasoned that I should cycle from my office in Avonmouth to their office, where I could get them to give me cash for my efforts. A few months later I had lost a stone in weight and rode 111miles in just over 8 hours raising over £800! My beautiful wife thought I was mad!
I loved it! The idea of cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats (LEJoG) started to form in my mind, quietly and without me being conscious of it. It burrowed and gnawed away in there until I developed severe knee pain towards the end of a cold ride home from Bristol one October weekend and I was unable to even pedal to the end of the road for the next couple of months. As I recovered from that injury an old recurring problem returned with a vengeance and I was referred to hospital for an operation which had me out of the saddle for another few months!
The worst thing was that cycling had become my release, my way to let go of the stresses of the week, my way to keep fit and enjoy myself at the same time. I was not a happy bunny and found myself increasingly losing my cycling mojo, even when I was able to get back in the saddle.
But the idea of LEJoG had taken root and started to push it's way out of the dark recesses of my man-brain and into my conscious thoughts. I blame a doctor friend of mine for the final decision to commit. I'd mentioned it to him and we had started to discuss doing it together. Questions of route, support vehicles and dates had been asked but nothing concrete was decided, it was more us daring each other to do something about it. The catalyst for the final decision was my visit to The Cycle Show in London where I picked up Action Medical Research's UK End 2 End brochure and left my email address with them. The final nail came with an email advising me that the £200 registration fee had been reduced to only £100. I found their brochure, saw the support services and backup they were offering and found myself typing their address into Firefox. Moment's later my beautiful wife was again questioning my sanity as I told her what I'd done.
As I type, my doctor friend has not joined me in this challenge, but I'm still working on him!
And so, here we are. I've got to get myself fit to cycle 1000 miles in 9 days at the end of May 2011, as well as raise over £2000 for the privilege.
The scale of the challenge is starting to sink in now.
There's nothing you can do to help me get fit, but if you'd like to support my fundraising you can donate money HERE.
Thanks,
Gareth
I had a 5 gear Sun Solo road bike and a Mongoose BMX for less serious and more dangerous rides. They were used regularly until someone broke into my parent's garage and stole them when I was about 15.
Now, at 15 I was more interested in other things...girls and guitars. So, my insurance payout was spent on a shiny new electric guitar and amplifier, which would be a much better way to get girls than a new bike.
To be honest, I think I was right!
Cut to 20 years later. I have a beautiful wife (the guitar helped with that, as did the leather trousers and wolf slippers combo - don't ask!), 4 dogs, 3 cats, significantly less hair and the beginnings of a rather fine belly.
It was a result of my wife getting a new bike a few years ago, to commute the few miles into work, that rekindled some kind of flame inside me, A long lost yearning to be out on two wheels with only the efforts of my body propelling me along the country lanes around Somerset. But the flame remained barely alight until the devastating death of my mother-in-law from a heart attack, cruelly just after she had turned the corner in her recovery from lung cancer.
My father-in-law (the most decent man you could wish to meet) gave us some money from an insurance policy and I decided to spend mine on a shiny new road bike. The moment I got on the saddle the flame was set to high and my body remembered the pleasure I'd experienced over 20 years ago.
Through a scheme at work I was accepted to be a mentor with the Outward Bound Trust and had to raise £750 to pay for my participation so I decided to do a sponsored cycle ride. Most of my colleagues and the bosses worked in Milton Keynes, so I reasoned that I should cycle from my office in Avonmouth to their office, where I could get them to give me cash for my efforts. A few months later I had lost a stone in weight and rode 111miles in just over 8 hours raising over £800! My beautiful wife thought I was mad!
I loved it! The idea of cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats (LEJoG) started to form in my mind, quietly and without me being conscious of it. It burrowed and gnawed away in there until I developed severe knee pain towards the end of a cold ride home from Bristol one October weekend and I was unable to even pedal to the end of the road for the next couple of months. As I recovered from that injury an old recurring problem returned with a vengeance and I was referred to hospital for an operation which had me out of the saddle for another few months!
The worst thing was that cycling had become my release, my way to let go of the stresses of the week, my way to keep fit and enjoy myself at the same time. I was not a happy bunny and found myself increasingly losing my cycling mojo, even when I was able to get back in the saddle.
But the idea of LEJoG had taken root and started to push it's way out of the dark recesses of my man-brain and into my conscious thoughts. I blame a doctor friend of mine for the final decision to commit. I'd mentioned it to him and we had started to discuss doing it together. Questions of route, support vehicles and dates had been asked but nothing concrete was decided, it was more us daring each other to do something about it. The catalyst for the final decision was my visit to The Cycle Show in London where I picked up Action Medical Research's UK End 2 End brochure and left my email address with them. The final nail came with an email advising me that the £200 registration fee had been reduced to only £100. I found their brochure, saw the support services and backup they were offering and found myself typing their address into Firefox. Moment's later my beautiful wife was again questioning my sanity as I told her what I'd done.
As I type, my doctor friend has not joined me in this challenge, but I'm still working on him!
And so, here we are. I've got to get myself fit to cycle 1000 miles in 9 days at the end of May 2011, as well as raise over £2000 for the privilege.
The scale of the challenge is starting to sink in now.
There's nothing you can do to help me get fit, but if you'd like to support my fundraising you can donate money HERE.
Thanks,
Gareth
