The Pros and Cons of cycling Coast to Coast

You might have seen I am toying with the idea of doing the C2C in 2014.  That is the 150 mile route involving 4,500ft of ascend / descending.  It seems a terribly daunting thing to do but I can’t put the idea down; every time I ride my bike I start thinking about it.  So I thought I’d blog about it and see if it helps me work through the decision.  If you have done it, or are thinking about it, please leave a comment and help me along, pleeeeaaase?

The Pros

• A sense of achievement, satisfying
• Something to look back on and think “I actually did that!”.  You see, I don’t want to have too many regrets when I’m a grumpy 100 year old bloke wishing I had done things while I had the chance
• Stunning scenery
• I have a year to prepare
• I have the right bike already (Thorn Audax – steel frame – not the lightest bike but comfortable and with great handling)
• I enjoy a challenge
• My friend Jeremy is likely to do it and therefore a nearby training partner, coach, motivator etc
• I like cycling, especially in different places
• I have a turbo trainer for clocking up miles when the winter weather is too bad outside
• I ran a marathon in May and achieved a satisfying time, so why not aim for a different challenge in 2014?
• Plenty of other 40 and 50 year olds appear to have done it
• It’s only a day.  I can’t devote time or money to do LEJOG or anything like that

The Cons

• I have never ridden 150 miles in a day before; how do I know I could do it?
• What happens if I can’t?  Who rescues me from the middle of the route?
• Impact on my family as I’ll need to clock up lots of miles in training
• Rachel says “bonkers doesn’t even start to describe it”
• According to Jeremy (who is already bonkers, in the nicest of ways) says it is 100ft of ascent per mile.  Furthermore it is 25 times a local hilly ride and still short by 2,500ft.  Phew.
• Jeremy is umpteen times fitter than me right now, 10+ years younger and will leave me behind on the first hill.  That’ll be the last I’ll see of him before the finish line.  By the time I wobble across the line, he will have spent ages chatting to people, had a shower, a three course meal and written a book about it
• While I have a decent bike, I need to buy some more cycle clothing (£ouch) and no doubt some other bits for my bike – tyres and so on
• Logistics looks a bit of a challenge
• I will be 52 years and 6 months old by then.  Surely this age is “getting on a bit” for this?
• The weather could be really horrible in northern England – even in the end of June.  That would make it even more difficult

In my mind, I’m leaning towards doing it.  I’d be really pleased to hear from anyone who has done this or are thinking of doing it in 2014.  Please leave me a comment or use the Contact tab above.  Thanks in advance.

Here’s the link to the event’s website – click here for Open Cycling