Day 12+... actually I've lost count

Oct 15th, 11:07: Sorry it's late. It's now, what, 3 weeks since we finished and already it seems so long ago I can scarcely believe any of it ever happened. If I hadn't been presented two days ago with photos from the start and finish I could easily dismiss the whole thing as the diseased imaginings of a disturbed mind. Luckily then, it would seem that that remains unproven.
Thanks are due to Carol & the rest of Skill for their support of us and the kind words we blackmailed them into putting on the blog for us. It's amazing what you can convince people to say for the thick end of £70,000 (just kidding!).
So, what were the best bits of the whole thing then? Well, actually finishing, obviously, but along the way there were a lot of laughs, a lot of frustration, a few bits of stupidity, some warm & fuzzy moments and some thoroughly cold damp and miserable ones. I've no idea how to organise these moments into a coherent list so I'll just fire out the best & worst bits as I see them, in the order they occur to me....

Funniest quotes (brace yourselves people)

• "I didn't know they had kangaroos in Scotland" - so said Carl upon seing a large, dead hare at the side of the road. To be fair, I've since found out that there is, in fact, a sizeable population of wild wallabies in Scotland, but I'm fairly sure this particular bit of roadkill wasn't one of them. And it's fun to laugh at Carl.
• "Does anyone want to smell my box? It's disgusting" - Becks, having been tasked with cleaning out a coolbox which had turned a bit whiffy.
• "I don't want the grass tickling my clit" - Jenny explaining why she wouldn't pee beside the road no matter how desperate she was.

High points (and I don't necessarily mean geographically)

• Beating Shap Fell. This hill has a fearsome reputation and I honestly don't think anyone really expected to get over it without walking - for all my outward determination and excitement at having a crack at it, I must confess I was cacking myself on the inside. Not literally.
• Beating Berriedale. Especially as it was double sneaky and pretended to be finished when it wasn't.
• Reaching John o'Groats.
• In fact, actually starting from Land's End - it was always an ambitious project and again I think it's time to confess I never really expected it to happen at all.
• The overwhelming support we've been shown by everyone, even complete strangers who donated money at various Travelodges etc. I may take to hanging out at these places in a sponsorship t-shirt and claiming to be doing something for charity, clearly there's good money to be scammed here.
• Passing a roadsign sent by a higher power warning that Frustration Causes Accidents, on the day that constant stops and delays were causing me to get proper stroppy. You couldn't script that stuff.

Low points

• Youth hostels.
• Hideous lashing rain and vicious sidewinds on days 8 & 10. Admittedly it did reach a point where we were all so cold & wet it was actually funny, but getting to that point was miserable.
• Youth hostels. Yep, they were that bad I feel I have to mention them twice.
• Throwing a strop, chucking my helmet away then realising I'd lost my bluetooth. And realising I was being a moron.
• Realising Veljko's shorts had turned transparent when riding behind him. I haven't slept since.
• Youth hostels.

Full list of mechanical challenges (you'll be amazed how short this is):

• 3 punctures.
• 2 tyre changes.
• 2 gear realignments (FOC courtesy of Halfords in Shrewsbury).
• 2 brake checks.
• 1 seat adjustment (clutching at straws now).
• 2 handlebar tape reapplications.

Most spectacular crash award

• Mark, for piling into (and denting) his own car on an otherwise deserted road. Genius.

Second most spectacular crash award

• Andy, for braking suddenly and without warning and thereby causing a pile-up behind him whilst managing not to be involved in it himself. And then trying to deny his guilt.
• In joint second is the potentially near-fatal crash we almost avoided on the way back, when some idiot narrowly missed a head-on with Clare, Veljko, Andy & myself in Mark's Merc and ended up just taking out the driver's door mirror instead. Mark, who was in Jenny's car behind, later revealed he thought we'd had it for a moment. I missed it.

Most important items to take with you award (when did this turn into an awards ceremony?)

• Lisa, Clare and Jenny. End of.

I'm sure there's lots more meaningless, inane drivel I could add - best places to stay, maybe? - and perhaps I will. It'd be nice to think of reasons to keep this going.

Keith

Day 12+4 Update from Skill

It was really great to see the LEJOG blog spring back to life today and find out a bit more about the preparation and equipment needed to arrange such a mammoth adventure. It was especially good for those of us who work for Skill because e-mail in the London office has gone down and we have been unable to share the good news and acheivement of the LEJOG team with our supporters who have been following the trip via our web site.

I write knowing that the LEJOG team are back together tonight celebrating their success by partying the night away. Thank you Claire, Lex and the rest of the 'party crew' for arranging this much deserved reunion especially as this is possibly the last time that the whole team will be together for the next year or so because Becks will be heading off to work with 'Build Africa' very soon. Congratulations to Becks for being selected by The Vodafone Foundation to work with her chosen charity for the next twelve months. We hope you enjoy your next fundraising challenge as much as LEJOG!

But what next........

For Skill there is the knowledge of the generous donation being made by the Vodafone LEJOG team through the corporate and personal sponsorship that the team have collected and the fundraising events that have been held to support this venture. The fact that this donation will be match funded by the Vodafone Foundation means that every single penny that the team have raised will be doubled and Skill will be able to help twice as many disabled students to make individual choices as to their futures. And with the myriad of changes being introduced to the education system in this country this really is more important than ever before.


Our policy team are working tirelessly to inform Government of the changes that need to be made to this legislation to protect the rights of
disabled students. The Information team continues to answer queries received by e-mail, text and phone from disabled students and the November conference will provide workshops and training on a whole range of issues for professionals working and supporting disabled students.

And for the Vodafone LEJOG team - only they can answer that but I really hope they will continue to blog occasionally as they reflect upon their 12 days spent in the saddle (and behind the wheel of the cars and van) and maybe share their vision for the next great adventure!

Thank you team LEJOG from all of us at Skill. You are, without doubt, the best!

Carol :)

Day 12+4 - Back To Reality

Sept 29, 09:19: Back by popular demand....

It's now 4 days since we finished, and I'm sitting at my desk in the office and currently being paid to work instead of blogging, which is a worry because I know full well that a couple of people quite high up in the Vodafone chain of command will see this and probably want a 'car park chat' with me shortly thereafter - so, Tom, Terry, I apologise, it won't happen again and the voices made me do it...

I thought I'd share some random bits of info and misty-eyed reminiscences about the 12 days spent in the saddle with 9 people I didn't initially know very well and can now regard as, er, people I have met (that's a joke, love you all really. Mostly).

Maybe, for the benefit of anyone stumbling across this via Google and considering doing a LEJOG ride, some equipment and supplies info might be useful. None of us are professional cyclists, and as alluded to in earlier posts, before this whole thing started some of us weren't any kind of cyclist at all - though there's no truth to the rumour I'm just about to start that Mark actually began the trip on stabilisers.

Mark's bike is a Boardman Performance Hybrid Bike Pro, which is exclusive to Halfords. At £799 it is, I believe, the most expensive machine out of all the bikes used, so it just goes to show you don't need to have really professional gear to do this

Carl was riding another Boardman, a 'Road Bike Comp', and that's £650 worth. Becks used a Carrera Subway (£330), the only mountain bike of the bunch (which at various times we all thought was the smarter option). Eddie rode a 2008 Giant SCR4 (no longer available, but was I think about £400), I had a 2008 Giant SCR1.5 (again, not available now but retailed at £600), and then there was Andy & Veljko. They were both a bit special, for different reasons.

Andy's bike, which you will recall he has an unnatural and frankly disturbing affection for, is a Trek of indeterminate age & model. Affectionately known as 'The Dirty Princess', it's a lightweight road race machine, which will cover you in a film of oil if you get within 8 feet of it, hence the name. Veljko's bike is a handbuilt Fausto Coppi (no, I've never heard of them either), or at least the frame is, and whilst it's clearly fairly old it has a lot of more modern components hanging off it which probably makes it unique. God only knows what it's worth. The gearing suggests it's been built for speed, which is odd because the man in the saddle appears to be built for comfort - though you'd have to ask Andy about that because he was the one sharing a double bed with the big lad.

Other essentials on the trip: Padded shorts, padded bike tights (for the colder days), helmets, plenty of base layers / jerseys / wind & rainproof jackets all made of decent wicking materials (no cotton!), Sudocrem (you'll thank me for it), enough flapjacks, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and cocktail sausages to sink a country (preferably France), and an unlimited supply of Marlboro Lights, though admittedly these were only an essential for Mark. You'd also be well advised to find yourself 3 women with inexhaustible patience to look after you and rise above the urge to throttle you when you have the inevitable diva moments, such as finding the banana you've been handed is just slightly too green for your liking or curved the wrong way.

That's not a complete list by any means - we also had GPS, lots of spare tyres, innertubes, lights & batteries etc - but there's really too much stuff to list here. Which is why we also had an enormous van and two cars to carry all our junk in. In fact, if you are considering a LEJOG ride, my advice would be to forget it, it's too much of a logistical headache.

Just kidding.

Keith

PS: Misty-eyed reminiscences in the next post, I really should do some work now. Ho hum

Day 12 - it's all over....

Sept 25th, 20:18: Well, that's that then.

Nice early start today – for once we actually left pretty much when we said we would. Before that though, a cracking breakfast at the Golspie B&B we stayed at last night. I was treated, again, to my own room and had had a fantastic night’s kip (the 2 pints of scrumpy with last night’s meal might’ve helped).

And at 08:45, we were off. The weather was glorious, all blue skies & sunshine; not particularly what you’d expect from this part of Scotland at this time of the year. Our pace was good and then we hit Berriedale.

This was the large hill Mark has been talking about for the last couple of days. And, a bit like Shap, it turned out to be a lot of fuss over nothing. Everyone managed to get up it – even Eddie with his dodgy knee – and once over the top we stopped for a coffee break.

Unfortunately, once we set off again, a second hill snuck up out of nowhere in particular and plonked itself in the road. It wasn’t as long as the previous one but has a vicious little hairpin bend in it, the apex of which was virtually a cliff face, albeit only a five foot high one. Ouch. But again, everyone rose to the challenge and there were no walkers.

From there it was plain sailing – we were joined about 20 miles from the end by both Becks & John from Skill, and eventually rocked up at John o’Groats a smidgeon after 15:00. And that was it. There’s nothing there to speak of, so after the photos we grabbed a coffee and bundled the bikes and ourselves back into the van & cars to head back to Inverness (which saves about 120 miles of driving tomorrow)

Final stats:
Distance: 69.91 miles
Ave speed: 15.35 mph
Ride time: 4h 33m 15s
Max speed: 49.77 mph (fab and fecking scary downhill!!!)

Keith

Day 12 - Golspie to John o'Groats

Sept 25, 06:56: Just wanted to post a quick update before we start The Last Day. It's weird, it's come around so quickly I can hardly believe this is the final day and tomorrow there'll be no cycling.

Today's route continues along the A9, pretty much all the way to the end. I'm a bit scared by it, if I'm honest (and I do try to be), because Mark's been banging on about a massive hill on the way near Berriedale. The hill itself doesn't scare me; what does is the possibility of it defeating me when I haven't walked a single part of this route so far. It would be hideous to have to walk a hill on the last day...

Actually I don't think it'll come to that, even if it is steeper than Shap (but mercifully shorter). Everyones fitness has improved so much over the last 12 days that I can't imagine anyone failing to cycle up it. I'm equally sure we'll all be running on pure adrenaline and will have a tail wind so I reckon that'll be enough!

Time for breakfast now - we aim to be away by 08:30 so that we arrive at The End nice & early for photos etc., before the 2-hour drive back to Inverness where we're staying tonight. At least that'll give me time to blog...

Keith

Day 11 - Aviemore to Golspie

Sept 24, 22:27: An apology. It seems some of you actually missed yesterdays post and have asked why there wasn't one - I'm sorry! As explained in my previous post however (see below), I was unable to publish anything because I couldn't get connected and so now I'm having a late night to catch up. I had no idea anyone would even bother reading.

So, today then. Well, after the huge relief of vacating the last undiscovered Nazi concentration camp at Aviemore (I really didn't like it), we actually managed to get away at a sensible time today - 09:30, which is about an hour earlier than usual. From there the five of us (Becks & Eddie still out at this point, leaving Mark, Carl, Andy, Veljko & myself) made really good time and rocked up in Inverness at 12:05. We would have made it at 12:00 but I misinterpreted a signal from Clare in the Merc and subsequently missed a turning (bugger). The stop was right outside the local Halfords, so inevitably some of us took the opportunity to stock up on all the wrong stuff.

An hour later we cracked on again, and enjoyed some fabulous roads along the east coast (ish) and over numerous bridges spanning various firths (Beaully, Cromarty, Dornoch). The weather was fine (some might almost say warm, particularly the locals I'd imagine) and once past Invergordon, where we stopped for lunch and for the first time had a chance to chat to other members of the Scottish arm of Skill, the wind was again on our backs for a while and we zipped along like people with Deep Heat in our shorts. Becks rejoined us at that point and completed the last 30 miles of the day, stopping only occasionally to break up a fight between her waterproofs and the rear wheel of her bike.

Along the way we got honked at by a lot of angry motorists (some punk kid actually waved his fist at us out of his window while shouting abuse, but didn't appear willing to pull over and discuss it), waved at by a few random carfuls, and even recognised by a bunch of cyclists who'd passed us as we had lunch on Sunday and who, depressingly, appeared to be on their way back down from John o'Groats.

We're now in Golspie, just 72 miles south of The End (I feel it warrants capitalisation), in yet another lovely B&B which is an astonishing contrast to the hellhole we were in last night. I'm quite content actually, despite the group being told at the local restaurant that they'd have to be quiet while the local golf club held their meeting there. Bloody cheek!

Stats:
Distance: 81.41 miles
Ride time: 5h 19m
Ave moving speed: 15.31 mph
Max speed: 38.59 mph (there was a fantastic hill coming down into Inverness!!)

Last day tomorrow!

Keith

Day 11 - Another update from Skill.........

Those of you who have been avid LEJOG blog followers will have probably noticed a lack of updates from the LEJOG team over the last two days. Was it that the backup crews fears have finally been realised and the riders really have vanished into thin air........ or was it just that after 11 days of cycling, the team were very tired and could not connect to the internet to post their latest update? Having seen Keiths latest post, I now know it was the latter.

So 'Day 11'. Eleven days of hard peddalling - up hill and down dale, in sunshine and in rain. An idea that started in a performance review between Becks and Mark 12 months ago, has come to fruition and will finish tomorrow when the LEJOG team cross the finish line and head towards the photo kiosk to get a picture at John O'Groats to pair with the one from Lands End - momentoes to share with children, grand children (and even great grand children) as the story about this great adventure is shared (and embellished?) for many years to come. I only wish I could be with them to share this joyous moment!

One thing that will never change is the effort that the whole team (riders, backup crew and those others who have helped along the way) have put into this journey not only to raise money for Skill but to bring an awareness of Skill to a much wider audience. This they have done with outstanding commitment and dedication and in doing this they have made a real difference to the lives of the disabled students Skill supports.


Good luck for tomorrow everyone - may your roads be flat and puncture free!!

Carol :-)