The BIG Cycle Challenge: 08/20/13

Unbelievably – Day 9 and still going!

Well we all woke up in Keswick after a good night out. Some too good a night as there was music and dancing at the local pub, but not us! Early to bed for the Marshalls, we know what we’ve got to do in the morning!

The morning brief was clear, big hills in the morning getting out of the Lake District, then lunch then a long drag into Scotland. Yippee…

The first half of the day was in fact fine, beatutiful scenery, legs feeling good, great conversation with the rest of the group, lots of comments about ‘doesn’t this feel like Devon?’ and subsequent conversations about ‘just how far we’d all come since then’ in many different ways not just in mileage terms. We’d all learnt about just how much you can achieve if you dig deep and just how deep you can dig at times when you need to.

The hills climbed up to common near Caldbek where we felt like we were on the top of the world, before a 8 mile downhill section as we ran in towards Carlisle as we had exhausted the Lake District hills. Cycling in this way has changed our perspective some what (I can feel another metaphor of life coming on!) we used to think the Lake District was quite big, we cycled into it yesterday and half way through it and today we’ve cycled out the other end and really haven’t even started the day’s run. 80 miles seems very doable in a day now and day after day for that matter and boy can you cover a lot of ground if you keep that up.

We stopped at the lunch halt at Gretna Green. Gretna is a small town just over the border in Scotland, and is famous because Scottish law has traditionally been less strict about marriage than in England, so young couples used to travel there to get married when say parents objected…

So we made it to Scotland! This was the second milestone, the first one being getting to Monmouth on day 4 after getting out of Devon and Cornwall. England we have run out of, and there is only one more country to go! However, it is still a long way and still a few more hills.}

Allen one of our group reports that we have already done 520 miles, (out of 1051) and have burnt close to 40,000 calories each! Now you are probably thinking that we’re going to come back wafer thin, unfortunately we’ve probably consumed about 80,000 calories from the snack van alone!

After lunch there was a westerly wind - just enough to make it hard work. The roads are really rough and pitted in Scotland, quite noticeable when you cross the border and that makes it hard work. Scotland learn how to repair your roads!!!!!

The afternoon drag was hard work, very hard work. Team Marshall was bringing up the rear, and Andy was cycling with us to keep us going. Not very inspiring countryside to start with and a recorded 75 miles felt even longer. It is true what they say about country mile being longer than normal miles. We found lots of opportunities to rest and distract ourselves from the pain of sitting on a saddle that is regularly getting hammered up into your nether regions by pothole after pothole. So we ended up taking lots of breaks, talking to local cows, helping caterpillars cross the road safely, in fact any opportunity to stop…

We got in around 6pm, the last in as usual. Nice B&B quick shower and off into town for a bit to eat which we had all ordered a few days ago, although felt like a month ago! This tour really is a way to make a 14 day holiday feel like a month! However we’re optimistic, we’re in Scotland, we’ve made it this far (even though we’ve only just over half way – depressing…) but only the top bit of Great Britain to do. Then we can stop as we run out of land.

Oh for those of you who are wondering about my relationship with the sat nav, well I can report no unauthorised activities or shutdowns happened today, in fact she (we call her Vira now) has done well and saved us on many occasions. She has started to point out petrol stations for me, and whilst I appreciate the intentin behind this effort, seems a little unnecessary onsidering we’re on a bike. However I appreciate the effort to buil back our relationship and look forwad to what irrelevant information she might pointed out tomorrow. Perhaps local dentists or taxidermists?

Both Michaela and I appreciate everyone’s good wishes and encouragement, they really make a difference and keep them coming we need them. We are not finding this easy (unlike the other member of our team which I won’t mention, the one who has to pump up his tyres each morning as they have mysteriously gone down over night) and your support is really helping. We have a couple of people out to see us in Glasgow tomorrow (Tuesday) and are looking forward to that.

Anyway, got to go, got some pedaling to do.

the early morning briefing