The Coast to Coast in a Day 2014 cycle ride is now just under 6 months away. Gulp. So far it’s always been a case of it being “next year” and a long way off. Now we’re in 2014, I can’t kid myself anymore and there’s serious training to be done.
News from Open Adventure
Open Adventure are the organisers of this event and they have a no-nonsense approach in their newsletters etc. A few days ago we all had this pop up in our in-boxes:
Do the distance – this event is a bitch to pull out of. So when you are at the start line you need to be confident that you can make the finish. It gets messy if you decide to can it half way, could involve a very long wait or a cycle to a train station (of which there are very few in the Dales).
With that in mind and that there are 100’s of people who would love your place, if you request a refund in January we won’t levy the admin fee and you will get all of your money back.
Last year only 5 people pulled out – 2 because they didn’t have front lights and it got dark, 1 who only ever intended going as far as Kendal, 1 taken to hospital from too much caffine! and another with a terminal bike mechanical – that was out of over 500 finishers!. So when you start expect to see the finish..
For my friends….
There are seven of us signed up; we all know each other through being members of the same church. Regular blog readers will have seen brief mentions of most so far – Jeremy, Josh, Paul, Phil, Robin and I have cycled with each at least once before. That’s fun and it’s true to say we are all at different stages and levels of fitness, not to mention our ages going from teens to fifties. There’s another of our friends who is due to start training anytime now.
We are getting together on Wednesday to discuss some of the practicalities on the day, making sure we are all in the right place at the right time and so on. We also need a “team photo” although we’re not quite a team.
It’s interesting as our different personalities and gifts are showing themselves through this challenge. Paul, as an example, has a natural talent for numbers – trends, graphs, tables, percentages and so on. This is showing itself as the man who has been looking at training schedules and producing complex graphs about the power needed to climb certain gradients. Most of us are still finding this a bit baffling and just as well Paul is also blessed with having considerable patience as we all catch up with him on these things.
For myself….
Sometimes I still ask myself why I have committed to such a crazy bike ride – 150 miles and 4,500 metres climbing in one day. Am I insane? No, just bonkers according to Rachel. I still have my doubts from time to time and yet I cannot wait to really get going. Already I can feel my cycling legs are improving on the hills and I am certainly motivated to press on. I enjoy the challenge! It will be an interesting journey if nothing else and I think my our friendships will continue to develop with each other even further.
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