Do you fancy a longer run?

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 repsonse or the fact that my feet were like blocks of ice and my mind was in a pub somewhere sitting next to a open log fire. What ever 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, cycle from Lands End to John O’Groates, end to end of Great Britain!

Now let me 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 annouced a vacancy for the newsletter editor; thats right I agreed. Next weeks club run, some one 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 in to 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 few, in fact he completed the double!) and fellow cyclist Rob from LifeCycleUK are planning on completing this route in 5 days. This whilst not a record or any where close to the 47hour currently set, it is about half the time that most people set aside for this. It means that we will have to complete around 175miles 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 till we reach the higlands of Scotland. Up till 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. Despite the fact that Lucy is firmly against the idea I think I’m going to need a new bike; just for the event, I don’t want to 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.