We had a belated party for Heather's 60th on Saturday. Heather has run the North Cumbria/Durham control on 5 occasions. My Dad and step-Mum had helped at her control in 2001, 2005 and 2009. Our friend Jim had volunteered at Brampton in 2013 and 2017.
Sonya Crawford ran the Edinburgh control in 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013, her husband Colin had helped her out there on many occasions.
My mate Dave had helped film in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017.
Heather and I got involved as we'd ridden PBP 1999, and Heather's mother lives in Thorne. That meant that Heather could liaise with Bernard Mawson when she was in Thorne, which was frequently, as she visited Grantham for work. She currently has responsibility for woods in Cumbria, so can visit Brampton as a adjunct to work, which is handy as it's 100 miles away.
Out of all those people with LEL connections at the party, I was the only one to have ridden LEL, twice from Thorne, and once from Lee Valley hostel. Colin and Sonya had checked the route from Edinburgh to Thorne in 2009.
The Southern section of the route up to 2009 used a lot of the remnants of various manifestations of the 'The Great North Road', which is what suggests the idea of London Edinburgh London. Bernard Mawson made use of those sections of road on his other rides. The A1 North of Newcastle is the main East coast road artery, and the A68 is fairly busy, which is what dictates Yad Moss on LEL.
Our first serious filming was in 2005, and we got interviews with Italian, German, French, Japanese, Dutch, Belgian, Russian, US and Canadian riders, with others visible.
The international aspect of LEL is the best bit, but there were still remnants of the pre-2009 arrangements, which were more convenient for riders from the North and Scotland. As volunteers tend to be recruited from friends and family of riders, those volunteers will tend to come from abroad.