Was the question I was asked this morning on my weekly club run.
As we cycled through the wet and gritty Suffolk countryside being beaten by a chilled wind, Dave leant across and asked this ill-fated question.
"How far?" I ask, thinking he wanted to put the hammer down again and zoom off at stupid speeds to get the blood pumping.
"End to end?" was the reply.
It might have been the cold had slowed down my reaction/thinking response or the fact that my feet were like blocks of ice and my mind was in a pub somewhere sitting next to an open log fire. Whatever the reason, I did not grasp his answer; thinking he meant something about the end of the B1115 (local road to us).
After a little time, it sunk in, I gave him a double take and realised he was serious, cycling from Lands End to John O'Groates, end to end of Great Britain!
Now, allow me to explain a bit about me on a bike.
I love cycling and love the feeling of just propelling yourself along and seeing parts of the world you normally miss in a car. The other thing, more critical this time, is that I have a problem saying the word ‘NO’ when on a bike. I joined the local Sudbury cycle club and within a couple of days ended up on my first club runs (just a Sunday morning ride out and about) I then ended up at the AGM for the club, where they announced a vacancy for the newsletter editor; that's right I agreed. Next week's club run, someone said about an upcoming hill climb event; guess what it happened again, since then, I’ve also said yes to riding some time trials and even going into some other local club events in the new year.
Anyway, back to today, I’m cycling along and Dave ask’s this question, before I can engage my brain and think about this for too long, my mouth opens and the word 'yes’ just pops out.
"Great, good to hear, it will be a quick one" Dave informs me, now this has me thinking, quick what do you mean. It turns out that Dave and his cousin; Harry have done this a couple of times before (Harry, quite a fewin fact, he completed the double!) and fellow cyclist Rob from LifeCycleUK intend to complete this route in 5 days. This, whilst not a record or anywhere close to the 47 hours currently set, it is about half the time that most people set aside for this. It means that we will have to complete around 175 miles a day. To be honest, this figure does not shock me, my longest on record so far was 87 in one sitting, and then I still went on, but what bothers me is doing that for the 5 days on the trot. Doing that milage in one day is fine if you know you can sit down for the next and just chill out, but going to bed knowing you will have to do that all over again the following morning is something else. Needless to say, I remained firm on my 'yes’ and so my 'End to End’ challenge will begin.
The event is still in the planning stages, and you never know what might happen, but if all goes to plan, we will set off from the south beginning of June and ride our hearts out until we reach the Highlands of Scotland. Until then, I think I better start looking into some serious training and 'sorting out’ of my fitness, I know these others are some great riders and I would not want to be the one to let the side down. Even though Lucy is firmly against the idea, I believe I will need a new bike; just for the event, I would rather not look like a novice. Don’t think I stand much hope there!
I think deep down I’m really looking forward to this and hope it all works out, until then, I keep posting any info I get about it, really drag this out.