London to Brighton

Sunday 20th June 2010

Morning of the ride and I'm very nervous, up at 5am to have me porridge and get me drinks, energy bar ready and put the bikes on the car. I have allowed two bottles for the bike which is 1250ml and one Go bar for the ride which I'm praying is correct, we will see. Pint of water before I leave as well, that should take me to about 10 miles until I need to use the ones on my bike.

Andrew turns up on time, being dropped off by his misses in a dashing pink dressing gown, cheers me up no ends.

Off we go, I decide to drive to Clapham as Lisa (wife) is already worried about getting to Brighton from Clapham. The whole journey we see a couple of others going to the ride, we did see loads of people with 'Night Ride' bibs on though, really must find out what event that is?

We stop about 1 miles from Clapham to sort the bikes and get ready and I'm already dying for a wee (this happens when I'm really nervous), Lisa takes a couple of pic's of then we set off to the start line. Riding across the common all I could think of is that they could have swept the paths as there is glass and all sorts on it, Andrew then thinks he has something stuck in his tyre, we stop and hope for the best, he hasn't thank god.

Now waiting at the 07:00 gate and it's only 06:30 and getting colder, lady comes by stamping the start cards and says it shouldn't be that long now. Time has come and we are off, not as busy as i thought, until we get round the corner, bugger there are hundreds of cyclists and I have no idea why I was surprised!

Getting out of London was a nightmare, stopping at all the round abouts and red lights, I look down at the Garmin and we have done 6 miles in 45 minutes, my heart goes and I think this is going to be horrible if it's like this all the way but it started to clear after about 10 miles.

Whoever says that the London to Brighton is easy is a liar, there are 5+ hills and although you have the bonus of going down the other side it doesn't help the climb, some of the hills are steep but some are also very long and to be honest I don't know what's worse.

About 15 miles in we come to a complete stand still as someone has had an accident going down a hill, we are now gridlocked (see picture), we sit here for about 25 minutes and then we start to move off again, it takes about a mile to sort itself out and we are good again.

I come across five or six accidents and the St John's team looked as they have their jobs cut out of them. I think most of the accidents was people being to fast and not paying attention to other riders close to them, it is very important to allow others to get past if they need to otherwise you have people taking risks.

I lost Andrew for about an hour but even though he wasn't next to me I knew he believed I could finish this ride with no problems, even when we got to the top of some of the hills which I know wasn't a problem for him he said a few times 'well done mate', I was pleased he was there and I wouldn't have wanted to ride with anyone else.

For the rest of the ride it was good, a few flats and down hills but then I was approaching the dreaded Ditchling Beacon which I have heard is a nightmare and will most likely have to walk up.

I was surprised and pleased that I could see Andrew in the distance waiting for me at about the 40 miles mark, as I passed I said 'had a nice rest' and his reply was 'to bloody long and you took your time', not the best thing to say for my efforts but it did make me laugh, as we was approaching Ditchling Beacon I said that he should go on as I didn't feel I was going to be able to ride the hill and he reluctantly agreed, I only had to ride 4 miles on the other side to the finish.

Ditchling Beacon was a killer, seeing Andrew riding up this showed me that I should put so much more in my hill climbing. I didn't really manage to ride any of it, so I decided to walk up. Walking in cycling shoes isn't the best idea as I kept slipping so off comes the shoes and now I'm walking in my socks, as I get to the top there are hundreds of people on the floor resting but I thought I'd carry on and get to the finish line.

On the final 4 mile's it was really emotional as I started to think about my dad as it was fathers day after all and it could have been my son without a dad if I didn't change my life style, I found this to be a fantastic achievement for me to complete this with the problems I have had in the past but am overjoyed that I did.

On the final hill I did think it was funny that the speed camera was covered because as I passed I was going 45 mph, then I hit the straight into Brighton.

The last stretch was amazing, some how I had managed end up being the only one riding on the finishing straight and with everyone cheering the whole ride was worth it and seeing my wife waiting for me as well was amazing.

After getting my ticket stamped to say Finish and getting a well done kiss off the wife the first thing Andrew done was shake my hand and say well done, he will never know how much that meant and I my have forgiven him now for the event that we shall not mention haha
Finished in 4:02

Thank you Lisa for taking me and Andrew and all the encouragement you gave.

Thanks Andrew for all your support and help



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday before the ride

Saturday 19th June 2010 - Day before ride

I have had a horrible cough now for about 3 days, not dry or any other stupid term the chemist asks but bloody irritating, why do I get it now when I have the ride to worry about and this on top makes it worse.

I checked me bike over and oiled the chain and done a quick once over before the ride.

I finally found my spare bottle cage in the utility room were my wife swears she didn't put it, this is a relief as I was worrying that the one bottle would not be anywhere near enough for the ride and I didn't want to take a bag, so one less thing to worry about.

I spoke to Andrew and arranged to pick his bike up so it would be really on the top of the car for when he arrives in the morning, result as it is at his mum's which is just up the road and as I haven't seen his parents for a while I thought it would be a good chance to catch up.

Bike collected and catchup done.

Nice Ride

12th June 2010

Today me and Andrew (best friend) decide to go for a ride

I get to Andrews to pick him up at 08:00 and he answers the door in his pants saying that he was up but fell "back to sleep", so i go in and wait for him to get ready, as I'm waiting he points out that he has got his triathlon suit and i should check it out, this is where the jealousy kicks in that he's doing his first on the 27th June and I'm desperate to complete one, it is a bit of a dream at the moment but i will get there.

Now he's ready and we are back to mine we set off, we decided to ride to Earl's court in London as I think it's about 20 miles from my house so in all we would do a 40 mile ride, a bit of a big ride as this would be the furthest I would have ridden in one go and the week before we complete the London to Brighton Ride ride and to be honest I have been worried if i would be able to complete it in the time i have given myself - 4 hours.

We set off and the first 4 miles is always the hardest for me for some reason and I dread it every ride, we get on the A1306 which isn't a very busy road but has some mean pot holes, we then join the A13 which is a very busy A road, we always ride in the road for the first couple of miles as even though there is a cycle path all the way into London this first bit is so full for rubbish, glass and anything that would give you a punture.

What happen to the nice weather we was meant to have today, instead of sun we had strong wind which we was riding into, this is usual as the wind is normally coming from the east but today from the west, not a good start but at least the wind would be behind us for the way home.

We get into London and there is hardly any traffic which is a result so we breeze through Tower Hill, Parliament and Battersea and get onto the last straight to Earls Court, traffic is at a stand still, we do a right and head home as at this point the Garmin says 20.1 miles.

One the way back through London there is heavy traffic and we get caught at what seems like every set of traffic lights, but we solider on, slowly.

We get to the A13 and the bloody wind has turned and the sun is blazing, wind in the face all the way home, just my luck.

Get home in one piece and Garmin is displaying 40.64 miles in 2:50 with a moving time of 2:37, very pleased i made it and not to tired either.

Bring on London to Brighton

First blog

Hello,

I have meaning to start a blog for a long time but have only just got round to it now, not a good start I know but I have to start somewhere.

I have been over weight for a long time and now I'm just sorting it out, well over due I know but they do say better late then never.

I have always wanted to do some sort of sporting event but have never had the drive to do it until just over 2 years ago when I started to have pains in my chest, neck and arms when my blood pressure was high.

So after going dizzy and passing out my wife insisted that I go to the doctor, so off I go and see the Dr who then refers me to a specialist who the wants to run some tests, outcome not good, he says that I have suffered a minor heart attack!! I'm 29 at this point and scared out of my wits.

Now I have been booked into have a angiogram, not nice but let's get on with it, I'm lucky enough to have a good job with private health care so it all moves on quick, from referral to angiogram takes about 4 weeks.

Angiogram comes back clear so now the Doctor wants a word about my life style.

I should tell you know that I have never smoked and haven't drunk alcohol for around 9 years so the cause of me being over weights pure greed and I will be the first to admit it.

Now with a heart scare and a wife and son to think of I believe it is time to do something about it.

I weighed myself while on holiday and was shocked to see that I was 238lbs , I know their are thousands of others worse off, but this me and need to sort It out, when I say sort it out it did take me 18 months to take it seriously.

What do I do now? Well I have always enjoyed cycling so why not start doing this, I then took part in the Uk government cycle to work scheme to get a new road bike and best of all it is 0% over 12 months and tax free.

I have my bike and have started riding.

All going well so far but am getting frustrated that I can't track how I'm improving so my wonderful wife buys me a Garmin 705 for my birthday and it's worth it's weight in gold.

Right nearly up to the present date, am riding a lot 2-3 times a week, weather permitting and now have just started to run.

My goal is to do a triathlon by May 2011

I now weight 220lbs and feel good - lost 18lbs since I started doing it properly about 8 weeks ago.