Here's mine which I did for the club, sorry about the grammar and spelling 🙄
London Edinburgh London ride report 2017
Kath. "I think you might have shingles "
Me "What's that"
Kath "Ask Paula when you see here later to be sure"
Paula " Yep that's defo shingles get to the doctor and make sure he gives you the big horse pills "
Not idea preparation for my main goal of the year , but the doctor gave me the horse pills as he clearly new not to mess with Paula 😉 and did not section me when I told him what I was doing in less than two weeks time but then he rock climbs so is as bad as us lot 👍
Off with Kath down to the start on the Saturday to get signed on the a early night ready for the 5 am start slightly nervous how my body would behave as I had only rode one 20 mile bike check in the previous two weeks , but I had finished the antivirals on the Wednesday and they seemed to have done there job.
Sunday 4am set off to ride from the travel lodge to the start in light rain.
Probably 100 people in group A all seemed keen to crack on with it.
Set off at a good speed everyone sticking together a bit of talking going on , I tried to stay near the front out of any trouble but out of the wind as we had a cross head all the way one day one , the pace got quicker as we reached the first control at St Ives so the field got more strung out I was in the first group to arrive but got held up when my Brevet card did not electronically sink so lost a few riders.
100k done set off to Spaulding teamed up with a chap called Luke from Sheffield, it's a small world as he had ridden Transcontinental in 2013 ( finishing 17th) and new a friend of mine who had done the race the same year finishing just in front of him .
We were joined by about another 6 riders all foreign and due to the wind we were strung out echelons all across the fenland roads. I was very careful at this point as some of the riders were a bit hap hazard and the worst happened as a chap from Canada touched wheels hit the kerb and ended up on his head gashing his arm and leg thankfully he said he was ok to continue so I had words with the others and tired to sort the train out into two lines instead of one which worked better to a fashion but certainly not up to a captain Dave's C ride std.
Arrived at Spaulding grabbed a bit of food from the well maned control and set off with a few others to Louth .
Now I remember riding with the same group to Louth but I must have needed a bit more of food here than some of the others as I was on my own here till the other side of the Humber bridge where i caught back up to the Canadian Fred who said he was going off a bit and the others were a bit fast for him.
We rode together to Pocklington and the Thirsk where I left Fred and carried on alone but was starting to feel very fatigued and after a few hours had to mentally make piece with myself that a was struggling and if I continued much further was likely to do myself more harm than good so I resolved myself to meeting up with kath at the travel lodge at scotch corner 2 miles off route and getting some sleep and trying to recover.
Kath was stopping there a couple of nights just in case it all went belly up and I became ill or the shingles came back.
280 miles done which was 70 less than I had hoped but I was in a nice bed washed and changed and was off before 4am the next day feeling a lot better.
Next it was Barnard Castle for a brief stop the up and over Yad moss down to Alston and across to Brampton I was on my own all this time but as I'm was feeling even more grumpy than normal this was probably for the best .
Bit of food at Brampton where I saw Chris Crossland and off up the road to Gretna and up to Moffat cross/slight head all the way , bit of a stop and food again and the big climb from here and a long descent to Edinburgh where for the only time on the ride it was tail wind all the way 🙃🙃💨💨.
Another quick stop where a nice chap cleaned and oiled my chain 👍 and back out and into a cross or block head wind , on the way Innerleithen I caught up with another 8 riders or so and we then road together to the next control at Eskdalemuir .
It was about 9-30 by this time and we decided to ride together back down to Brampton as there is safety in numbers at night so we headed out .
I was starting to go off by now but had been feeling much better all day and was feeling nothing like as bad as the day before.
We arrived at Brampton at about 12-30 to be told that all the beds and floors space was taken 😳😳 Chris Crossland phone ahead to Alston which was about another 40k away to see if there was room there but that was full too 😢😢but he found me a bit of floor space (thanks Chris) but due to it being a hard wooden floor by a door I just lay there for 2 to 3 hours resting as mentally and physically I did not feel I could have ridden over Yad moss and the 80 odd k it would have been back to Barnard Castle.
Got up before 4 am to find a massive que for food so grabbed a banana and headed off into the dark and the climb up to Alston I could not find the control here which was not mandatory so headed off up Yad moss but was out of food 🙄
Now this is what makes cycling/Audax so great , I caught up a chap who let me have two mini mars bars on the climb from his magic bar bag I will be eternally grateful for this act of kindness.
Anyway I dropped him on the descent and never saw him again 🙄sorry .
In my defence I have posted my thanks to him on the Yacf forum
Barnard Castle reached shower breakfast and had caught up with Luke from day one so we rode on together pick up another rider on the route back to Thirsk and briefly met up with Kath again .
Now it's funny what can drive you mad 😡 but apart from Andy T I have a particular loathing for(and we won't mention teachers either) noisy freehubs and this French guy had one as loud as a Hope freehub I just new somewhere along the line these Frenches would send/do something to try and derail me . I really wanted to kill him after 30k I mean really 👀👀🔫.
Got to Thirsk and thankfully me and Luke were in and out before him I was still feeling good probably better than Luke at this stage so spent more time on the front.
Pocklington reached again and it would now be a long 100k back over the Humber bridge to Louth but fortunately I had arranged to meet kath on the far side of the bridge to stock up with supplies and change over to a new charged light .
20k before the bridge the sleep deprivation kicked in and I start feeling cold and was shaking ,I told Luke to crack on and get anything he needed from kath but he stopped with me and sat on the front .
Kath saved my life by meeting us we both had some milkshakes and I got in the car to sleep while Luke pressed on .
40 mins later I was awake bit of food and coffee and I was back on the road feeling much better, the bodies can do some amazing things.
Power on to Louth were I was in and out quickly enough to rejoin Luke on the long 100k leg into the wind to Spaulding this would be mainly in the dark as it was 9-30 when we left Louth .
I was ok for the first 2 to 3 hours , I mean everything hurt (we won't talk about the nappy rash 🙈) but again I was probably feeling better than Luke.
But the last hour mentality and physically I was not enjoying my lot but Luke dragged me to the control where he said he was carrying on and I thanked him and needed some sleep/rest.
It was 12-30 I had been on the road since before 4am .
Up and off again before 4am it was off back to St Ives 80k 30 mph block head winds gusting in the fens 🙄.
Now all I will say about this is you know your getting into a really bad place when you start singing Swedish house mafia to yourself and you can't sing and don't know the words 🙈🔫
Made it to St Ives caught up with some more riders including Yasmin Muller who is going for the women's lands end to John record at the end of the month, I left the control before them having had 2nd breakfast and it was 80k to the last control before the finish via Cambridge I was not in any shape to appreciate the buildings in Cambridge the roads were so bad and my ass so sore it was beyond me about 50k into the 80 I stopped at a Petrol station to eat half a tube of pringles stuff the rest in a pocket had a mars bar but still 10 k further had completely gone pop and was sat down in a bus shelter whimpering by text to Kath (what my dad from Yorkshire would think if he finds out I dare to think) . I had a proper proper talk to myself and got back on the bike (which really did not help coz I had to sit on that fookin saddle again )😉
Dragged myself 20k to the control probably the worst 20k of my life.
I was going to have a sleep but the helpers made me two cups of tea (3sugars😳) and a bacon and egg sandwich and I perked up a bit , had another talk to myself about Yorkshire and my dad and its only 50k to the finish man up etc you get the idea and I set off .
Last leg was not so bad more sheltered from the wind more up and down finished 1-20 pm 80 hours 20 mins .
I'm not sure but I was in the first 15 back if I'm honest although I said I wanted to get under 80 hours I was hoping to get nearer 70 .
First back was67 hours I think and I now know I could not do that he's definitely special .
Luke must have had some food when I went to bed and decided he too needed sleep and he came in two hours after me I would probably have waited for him if I had known.
Well that's it I'm sore ruined mentally and physically but with bits still attached , I could have gone faster with full support at each control and a motorhome to grab some sleep in , but it's a bit of a learning curve, will I do another , well I'm not sure ... maybe.
Not unhappy given the lead up and anyone who finishes its a great achievement.
Thanks for all the support and Thanks to Kath ug
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