So following on from my' Quarter of a Century' post I continued my birthday weekend by participating in the epic Ride London cycle.
Saturday we had to officially register and had the chance to last minute panic buy anything we may need for the dreaded looming day at the expo!
Registration was super speedy and the queue for my slot only had 3 people in it, ideal! So I picked up my bag with race details; numbers, safety pins, locations and emergency contact details and went for an explore to see how many freebees I could pick up.
Mum and Dad visited their charity Spinal Research (you can sponsor them here) and were impressed to see their name on the wall at their stand and they gladly took part in a selfie. I forgot to mention this was after Dad went absolutely mental in the official shop, I'm not going to tell you how much he splurged on cycle gear because frankly it's embarrassing! It was like watching a kid in a toy shop, but he did 'treat' mum to a new bike pump and me another water bottle. He sure knows how to spoil us!
We then obviously signed the wall, I signed in the second '0' in green can you see?
We picked up a goody bag as did Nath who wasn't even participating! Lots of gels, protein bars, breakfast shakes and other bits of bobs! We also spotted Kelly Holmes who looked great by the way and watched a bit of the people doing bike tricks before heading on our way ready for a carbolicious dinner, last minute bike prep and an early night! Not before we got a photo in the booth obviously!
This was our route!
Yeah 100 miles they said, did they mention that the drop off point was 5 miles from the start? No definitely not, or the fact we had to cycle at the end to the train station! Anyway there was really no turning back now!
Nath dropped us off but I made sure he stuck to his boyfriend duties and took a couple of obligatory squad photos before he heading on his way!
Once we arrived at the Olympic Park (not a bad place to start) we all split up into different coloured zones, Diane and I were in the same colour but I was F and she was G so I snuck into her section. The plan was to meet at Sheen Gate (gate to Richmond Park) a good 18 miles in, there was no way I was lone cycling this thing for this long, not what I signed up for!
The first 18 miles to Sheen Gate went quicker than I thought, I was cycling so fast (desperately trying to keep up with Di) that I didn't even see the mile markets. Also the great London sights were difficult to ignore and it was awesome to have no cars to worry about only the 'MAMILs' which Di told me stood for 'Middle Aged Men in Lycra' a.k.a Dad and Mark! Basically all the gear (including removable sleeves - cringe) and 100% no idea. We zoomed past Canary Wharf, Tower of London, Southbank and the London Eye, the London Pride factory and finally we had arrived at our decided meeting location.
Mark beat us to in and we just had to wait for Mum and Dad to join us, so I tucked into some Cadbury's chocolate for a quick energy boost! When they finally joined us we headed on our way towards the dreaded Surrey Hills to take on Leith and Box Hill! Yuck!
Unfortunately it wasn't long before we came to a halt around 38 miles! I checked my little Ride London app which tracked our location and we still had a heck of a long way to go and so i text Nath to find out if he knew why we had stopped and to also let him know we weren't just going incredibly slowly and he told me that there had been a huge crash! A guy in front of us had come off his bike and hit a tree, you may think this sounds ridiculous but believe you me cycling is blooming dangerous especially when the MAMILs are about and trying to top each other's speed down the hills!
Luckily the weather was great and so were the views and it gave us the chance not only to fuel up and hydrate but also plenty of time to contemplate the distance and hills we had yet to cover - taxi anyone?
We had a few more delays throughout the next few hours and then we found out there would a diversion. This was because we were one of the latest start times and there was a cut off point of 5.30pm to cross the finish line. How disappointing would it have been to almost do 100miles and not get the medal and Mars Bar at the end!
Our diversion meant we missed out on Leith Hill I'm not sure whether this was a good thing or not but we still had to conquer Box Hill. I was expecting a very steep, short but winding hill but no that would have been easy, it was long and winding with a gradual increase in incline and it doesn't help when the road was congested with others and some cyclist stopped in the middle of the road, doesn't really help your momentum.
Cycling through Wimbledon and Kingston on the final straight were great, there was so much support with so many people lining the street cheering us on and pushing us to the end.
I seperated from the rents and Mark and Di as we were running out of time due to delays and I didn't want to miss out on the cut of point plus I was started to feel pretty tired. So I pedalled as fast as my little legs could pedal past Westminster and all the sights I normally run past on my way to work only definitely quicker than my running. And next thing I knew I entered the Mall for the real final straight and it was maybe the best part with so many people there to help us get to the end.
Finally I made it!!! Spot Buckingham Palace in the background, not a bad place to finish a gruelling 100 miles.
And not long after everyone else arrived!
And the medal wasn't bad either...
It was time for a well deserved victory drink before heading home to crash and burn before work on Monday!
Think I'll give my cycling career a break for a few weeks (spoiler I've registered for next year, determined to conquer for Leith Hill)! Hope this encourages some of you to enter the ballot for next year!
Final shout out to Nath for baking me a birthday cake for the first time for my return.
Xoxo
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