Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 18 - Pelted by Drawing Pins.

Day 18 Morning

I'd slept much better on the night of Day 17, which meant I woke up on Day 18 in a better mood. I was still tired, I'd woken up a few times during the night with rib pain but waking up a few times is far better than being awake all night! My target for the day was to get to Inverness or just beyond as that would leave me a good chance of finishing after another three days pushing which would be 21 days and a whole week ahead of schedule. Looking at the map over breakfast to check the route and where we thought might be a good place for lunch and where we might need to book a campsite. Whilst looking at the map it suddenly clicked why Inverness had its name, I like to think that I'd fairly bright and pick things up quite quickly. I have to admit that I didn't even know that Inverness was near Loch Ness until I was looking at the map that morning! I'd been noticing  places with the 'Inver' and 'Firth' prefix anytime we got close to the coast in Scotland. The penny finally dropped that an Inver was an estuary or river mouth and a Firth was a narrow area of sea between two bits of land. So Inverness was where the River Ness which runs through Loch Ness meets the sea. I'm not sure if Ed already knew that but he humoured me as I told him my discovery anyway.

Getting underway on day 18!

  We were going to be on the A9 all day again which made us all a little nervous especially getting closer to Inverness. The A9 was a really busy road. We were pretty sure all the traffic must have been heading to Inverness as there is nothing much north of the city in terms of built up areas. When we got going on our push I was actually surprised how quiet it was.

Quiet A9 climb during the morning push.

I had a nice start to the day with a one and a half mile downhill, the Scottish tarmac was vibrating the chair like mad so instead of pushing to try and get a fast speed I decided to put weight on my handlebars which helps keep the front wheel on the ground and allows the chair to work properly. I didn't want to be fighting for speed in the first mile of the push. Despite not even pushing my wheels the descent had gotten me over 30mph which is always a nice figure to see on the speedo.
After that initial drop I was then climbing for 15 tough miles. Ant seemed to have a new confidence in shouting me on. He was brilliant all morning, I'm not sure what had made the change, maybe it was just learning from Ed but I think maybe he was just feeling more confident we would both get to the finish line. If we did make the finish Ant would have cycled around 350 miles which is not easy from someone who really isn't sporty.

On another climb

  The long climb was followed by a nice 5 mile long downhill section that was broken by only one short flat and one half mile climb. The long downhill took me past the tiny village of Tomatin which is home to a famous distillery of the same name. Its an odd little place, surrounded by beautiful but rugged hills and mountains but Tomatin sits in a picturesque green valley, it looks like the grasslands of the south of England not the Scottish Highlands! Two bridges cross the valley, an old railway bridge and a modern road bridge. The views were great from the  road bridge.

The green valley at Tomatin

I wanted to have a geek fest over the views with Ed and Ant but unfortunately I'd just dropped them both on the long descent and they didn't catch me up until I was working my way through the undulating climbs over the next mile or so. We were soon back in rugged countryside and passing pine plantations near Loch Moy.

Just keep pushing.

Ed being special.

  I decided to stop for lunch at almost 26 miles so 3 miles over my target for the morning, I was happy with that in the Highlands as I thought going too far over target up there would be a bit difficult with all of the hills. I was 10 miles from Inverness so I might be able to get myself 5 miles past my target by evening time. As we didn't have anything other than beans on toast on the lunch front I opted for cereal instead. There was no way I was going to be able to stomach more beans!
 My dad got chatting to some old guy in the layby about his antique bike that Ed was riding, he kept coming back and knocking on the motorhome window to start yet another conversation with dad. Ant, Ed and I were in stiches laughing at my dad being stalked by the most boring man on earth, he was a right Norris Cole wannabe. I didn't rescue my dad though, it'll teach him not to talk to strangers in laybys! haha!

Lunch Break.

Day 18 Morning Stats

Miles: 25.9
Time: 2:27:39
Average Moving Speed: 10.5mph
Top Speed: 35.7mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 14 - 9:28
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 20 - 2:29
Total Ascent: 1026ft
Average Heart Rate: 143bpm
Max Heart Rate: 160bpm

Day 18 Morning Progress Maps

Day 18 Afternoon

I had made sure dad had the shopping list before we set off on the afternoon push in the sunshine. We had looked on the map for the closest retail park and given dad instructions to head to it as early as possible so he would be back with us before too long. Ed and Ant put extra supplies in their bags so we could perform minor repairs without the motorhome if we needed to. We then got on our way to Inverness.
The afternoon push started with a cracking downhill on normal tarmac for a change! I hit 44.7mph which is my fastest ever speed in my wheelchair. I left Ant and Ed trailing behind me. Ed had a go at sticking with me for maybe a quarter mile, Ant didn't bother trying, he already knew his legs wouldn't go fast enough. There was a big climb after 2.5 miles so Ed was soon back on my tail. It took Ant a good 3 or 4 minutes to catch us but we could see him in the distance gaining on us. I may have worked a little bit harder on the climb to keep Ant chasing us, I'm cruel like that! I think it's the coach in me that likes making people put effort in!

A nice wide berth from a tanker!

 It didn't take long to conquer the climb and get my self going down the amazing hill that leads in to Inverness, again I dropped the lads pretty quickly. My speed was building up well, I was tucked down low to make me nice and aero dynamic. I crept up to 42mph and had lots more hill left to gain more speed, I was easily on for 50mph before the bottom, I was loving it. Then a tosser in one of those Hymer motorhomes from the 70's that look like a giant VW camper but with tiny wheels pulled out in front of me. The most annoying part of it was that he pulled up to the edge of the layby, stopped, looked straight at me and then decided to pull out on me. If he hadn't stopped and just carried on driving there wouldn't have been a problem, he would have accelerated and got away from me. His acceleration from a stationary position was nowhere near fast enough to pull out when he did. I managed to slow enough not to hit him but I got close enough to tell him what I thought of his driving skills. Slowing down so quickly had torn a big chunk of rubber out of my gloves. A 50mph opportunity well and truly ruined.
Not long after it was the junction that dad needed to take to go shopping. I was now pushing on the hard shoulder so I didn't need shielding by the motorhome anymore. I pointed at the road sign and the exit and tried waving him off the dual carriageway but he was having none of it and carried on driving with me. I managed to get the message to him that he had to leave at the next junction or we would not have any food for dinner. At this junction he did leave but I was worried now because he would have to find his own way to a retail park and not follow the directions we had given him for the previous junction. The A9 was almost gridlocked at Inverness, it's basically a motorway but it didn't feel too dangerous because we were on the hard shoulder and the cars were only moving about 10mph.
We crossed over the Moray Firth on a bridge with some serious views and then the hard shoulder disappeared on the Black Isle. Some of the drivers shouted abuse out of their car windows at us here. I think they were frustrated with being sat in the road works traffic for so long.

The bridge over Moray Firth

Whilst climbing over the Black Isle it got really cold and started to rain. I could have done with stopping here but dad wasn't back yet so I just kept going. I had another belting downhill to tackle to get onto the bridge to leave the Black Isle by crossing the Cromarty Firth. This downhill wasn't fun, the rain was hurting my face as I was descending at 40mph again. It felt like I was being pelted with drawing pins, My hands and forearms were so cold they were hurting. I was also worried about Ed and Ant and how they were feeling. You could never have guessed it was the first day of July, it felt like November. Ed Caught me up when I was just leaving the bridge but Ant wasn't even in sight now. It took a long time for him to get back to us.

The Cromarty Firth Bridge

The busy, wet A9.

 I really wanted to stop so when we crossed the bridge Ed phoned my dad to see where he had got to. He was stuck in traffic. I was struggling because of the cold so sitting and waiting in wet clothes wasn't really an option. I'd already done 21 miles when I left the Black Isle. That was 48 for the day. The A9 was hugging the coast now we were back on the mainland do it was much flatter, another 40 minutes later it had dried up so I warmed up slightly and managed to work my was back to a respectable speed. After clocking 32 miles for the afternoon push I was ready to find a layby to wait for my dad but we were in a huge area of road works and we didn't find anywhere suitable to stop until over 35 miles.

Not looking too bad to say we'd pushed and cycled 61 miles.

 Ed phoned my dad again to find out where he was and direct him to where we had stopped. It took him another 20 minutes to finally get to our finish line I'd done 61 miles! I couldn't quite believe it. Part of me wanted to phone all those trustees at 'that' meeting where they had spoken to me like I was an idiot for thinking I could push 33 miles in a day. I wanted them to know just how wrong they were! I hadn't gone out that day with the idea of pushing anywhere near that far but circumstances had almost forced me into it. I was just happy my body was capable of doing that even with two broken ribs! If I had a good day on day 19 It might be possible I could finish on day 20, just a few hours earlier I had been hoping I could manage to get it done in 21 days.
There was fruit and veg in the motorhome!!! At last something healthy to eat. We had pasta with a tomato and herb sauce with mince beef, peppers, onions and mushrooms thrown in to bulk it up a bit. I was so happy to eat!

Day 18 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 35.62
Time: 3:01:17
Average Moving Speed: 11.8mph
Top Speed: 44.7mph (Fastest yet)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 16 - 11:07
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 1:24
Total Ascent: 1175ft
Average Heart Rate: 141bpm
Max Heart Rate: 161bpm

Day 18 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 61.52

Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 15 - Two Pounds Mhairi, Two Pounds!

Day 15 Morning

I had a cracking sleep at Helen and Ru's house, it felt good to be in a proper bed and my ribs hadn't hurt half as much that night, maybe because I'd managed to get in a position that didn't involved being wedged against the motorhome bathroom wall! Helen made us all Bacon rolls for breakfast! what a star! After a cracking brew we posed for photos and then left for the start.

Ant, Myself with Bonnie, Helen, Ru and dad after our bacon rolls.

 Yet again dad was sporting his fetching 1990's black Ron Hill traksters - slightly better than his blue ones, he was wanting to cycle with me again. I didn't bother arguing this time, there's no point once he has an idea in his head. We started our day just south of a village called Forth - I'm not sure if its named after the River Forth or not but we were heading towards the Firth of Forth and I was really looking forward to crossing it. Crossing the Firth of Forth would put me further north than I had ever been in Scotland. I'd wrote in my diary that the village of Forth was quite ugly but that the scenery was lovely. I think that was probably a bit harsh, there were lots of building covered in a really drab looking grey pebbledash covering. There were also lots of grey council houses - that was something I had noticed right the way through Scotland so far. The houses weren't scruffy, the village centre and other surrounding villages weren't dirty. They weren't ugly they were just different to the chocolate box cottages of Devon and Cornwall. The rugged countryside was some of the best we had seen up until this point.

We started at one of the few painted houses around.

A lively scene

 I loved the first few miles of this push, I was losing the altitude I had gained during day 14's big climb. We'd driven along the route on the way to the start line from Helen and Ru's house. I knew that every single one of the steep descents was followed by a climb. This meant I could finally let rip on some steep drops. I dropped Ant on the very first one, dad used to be a good club level cyclist so he managed to get back to me on two or three of the climbs after the fast descents but I managed to drop him too after the biggest one. Dropping cyclists is one of my favourite things to do, it shouldn't happen when they have gears and we don't. When you do drop a cyclist you feel good and anyone with a sporty dad knows beating them is a real buzz, however old and crocked they are! I was having great fun, especially when I hit 40.9mph.

Tucked in nice and low ready for a descent.

When we got to the bit where on the advice of Helen and Ru we needing to go straight ahead to avoid a gorge on the route we planned there was a sign up saying the bridge was closed. So we had no option other than heading to the gorge we'd been warned was too steep. The positive spin on this detour was that it took us right past Helen and Ru's house. It took us a while to get there but when I did Helen and Ru had gathered some neighbours and brought them out to cheer me on. Ed must have phoned them to let them know we were coming past. It seemed a nice way to thank them; to let them see me in action - even if it wasn't actually our decision to do a fly past.

The next thing on my mind was this gorge we were heading for. I'd been told it was very steep and winding both down to the bottom and then climbing up the other side. It didn't take long before we spotted the signposts saying Avon Gorge, it wasn't the Avon Gorge near Bristol (thought I'd let Nick know for when he reads this). On my way in to the Gorge I had to keep the brakes on to stop me building up speed and missing the nasty bends. Even with the brakes on I struggled to keep my speed down. Just as I reached the bottom and turned the final downward corner, Bang! My back right tyre popped. 140psi escaping from the tyre makes quite a loud noise. Ed came past in the motorhome, He must have known something was wrong, he slowed down and  wound the window down. We told him and he said he would find a place to stop asap. The road through the gorge was narrow so there was nowhere for him to stop until he got out of the other side. I sent dad ahead to ride to Ed and help him get my spare wheels ready and of course to put the kettle on. Ant stayed with me as I crawled out of the Gorge with the flat. I held traffic up quite badly, it was busier than usual with everyone following the same diversion as us. Two artic trucks struggled to get past. I was going as fast as I could with that flat tyre. Eventually I reached the top, one of the truck drivers had spotted the motorhome and all the spares scattered around. He'd parked up to go and make a donation and wish me luck. I'd been panicking thinking I was pissing everyone off by holding them up. That was proof of me over thinking things. That said, the work Dave from The Academy Of The Sporting Mind had got me through this little mishap. I'd expected to get a lot of damaged tyres on the trip but this was my first one at way over 500 miles, not bad going. It did happen in the worst place possible but I handled it without having a massive meltdown!
I finished the morning by crossing the Firth of Forth on the Clackmannanshire Bridge. It was stunning! There were cracking views up and down the firth and straight ahead of us the Ben Cleuch mountain, still with snow on top. Seeing a tiny bit of snow on the mountain with made it hit home just how far I'd travelled. Two weeks earlier I'd been looking at peoples gardens being extremely jealous of all the exotic plants in the gardens which would have just died if I'd been silly enough to put them in my garden at home.

Clackmannanshire Bridge, not my photo but you get the idea!

I'd now got myself further north than ever before in Scotland. I'd covered 33 miles, a whole day's worth of miles in just the morning session. I was made up with myself. It was day 15 and rather than being the wrecked shell of a human that Brian had suggested I would be if I attempted 33 miles a day I had just done 33 miles in one push. I was obviously tired and my ribs were sore but I certainly wasn't embarrassing anybody with how useless I was like the scenario that had been talked about at that meeting.
We stopped for lunch just after the bridge in what has to be one of the most scenic laybys in the country - We'd visited quite a few of them by this stage so I feel well qualified to say that! We weren't far from Stirling or Bannockburn and as a massive history geek I could feel my Scots blood stirring. It would have been great to go and visit some of the places so pivotal in Scottish history but I had a world record to break so we had lunch instead. Again, it's another area I want to go back to.

Day 15 Morning Stats

Miles: 33.56
Time: 2:50:55
Average Moving Speed: 11.8mph
Top Speed: 40.9mph (fastest yet)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 21 - 11:12
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 8 - 1:57 (fastest ever)
Total Ascent: 1219ft
Average Heart Rate: 138bpm
Max Heart Rate: 158bpm

Day 15 Morning Progress Maps

Day 15 Afternoon

Ed and I checked the map during lunch, mainly to reassure me that we weren't heading for the bloody great lump of rock the road was aiming straight at! Luckily we didn't have to break out the ice axe just yet. We were keeping to a road that passed between the mountains and the Firth of Forth heading for somewhere called The Crook of Devon, this was another one of those times I missed Nick, I wanted to hear his views on passing through The Crook of Devon and the Avon Gorge.... in Scotland - I imagined him saying something like "Can they not think of their own names up here?".

Thankfully we were heading around the mountains not over them!

 The afternoon was another damp one, I was struggling to with getting my gloves to stick on my wet push rims. I still had my spare wheels on the chair as we hadn't changed the popped tyre at lunchtime. We hadn't modified the spare wheel's push rims with tape for extra grip in the wet like we had done with my best wheels. After 10 miles I'd lost a lot of speed due to the slipping but also the bearings in my spare wheels were old and stiff. I decided to stop and change the tyre on my best wheels so I could use them to squeeze an extra few miles from the day. With leaving in a hurry at the start of the challenge my spare tyres only got delivered the day before we left for Cornwall. Normally I would blow a new tyre up to stretch it so it would be easier to put on, I hadn't had time to do that this time. Getting a tub tyre on a carbon disk wheel is a nightmare. Ed and Ant hadn't even seen it done before let alone  tried to do it. Dad and I both have a hereditary condition with our hands that stops our grip being quite as strong as it should be and alters the way our fingers moved. There wasn't enough room for all four of us to wrestle the tyre in to place so Ant resumed his role of tea maid, He was very skilled at it after all! Ed, Dad and I worked up a proper sweat trying to get the tub on, I don't think Ed believed how hard it was to change them up until that point! You end up with blisters on your thumbs, bruises on your fingers and hands and pouring in sweat. I'd already told Ed about getting a puncture in a race, you have to change the tyre yourself and without taking the wheel off the chair. Many wheelchair athletes choose to push home slowly instead of trying to change the tyre. Quite often your arms are too tired to get a tyre on by yourself, especially if you are new and inexperienced. You also have to deal with the spectators trying to help you. They mean well and they have no idea that if you accept help you will be disqualified from the race. People just don't listen when you ask them not to help you, especially when you are struggling and you need help. The frustration of not being able to accept the help you need, the panic that chairs are going to come streaming past and the fact you are pissed off that all your training has gone to waste as there is now no chance of breaking a PB all adds up to wheelchair athletes looking like arseholes telling people trying to help to go away. After beating the tub tyre in to submission and finally getting it on my wheel I think Ed had a much better understanding of how frustrating punctures in races are.

We started to pass lots of tree plantations.

 Tyre changed I managed to get my good wheels back on my chair with the push rims taped up, after our brew we got back out on the road. My speed was now much better, we pushed through The Crook of Devon and headed for Loch Leven. I think the damp had got to Dad and Ant, they were both pretty quiet again.

Causing a mini stampede was fun, I could feel the vibrations they caused! Beautiful Cooos!

To try and stop myself switching off I was doing sums in my head, I do this in races to take my mind off how much things are hurting or how far I have left to go. I try and work out my finishing time or what speed I need to push at to get a certain finishing time. Paula Radcliffe used to count to 100 when running to take her mind off the running itself. I'd spoken to Dave my sports psychologist about this and he said if it was a tool I found worked for me to go ahead and use it. On this push I couldn't predict finishing times as I didn't have a set finishing point so I started working out how far I thought I could go and what distance would give me some nice numbers for the day. I settled on going for 20 miles in this push, that would mean 53 miles for the day which seemed to sit right as I was pushing for The 53 Foundation. It would also mean a total of 100 miles over the last two days. That's what I aimed for and that's what I achieved, maybe it wasn't just the rain that had quietened Ant and dad down again maybe they were just knackered!

Ant looking proud of his 100 miles in 2 days, me looking knackered!

 We headed for yet another free campsite, Gallowhill Campsite was in the fields around a very old farmhouse. It had breath taking views in every direction, views that worried me for the next day as it seemed like there were mountains in every direction. We weren't much above sea level at this campsite so I knew we'd be climbing on Day 16. Ed went inside the farmhouse which doubled up as reception to ask them where to hook up for the night (the motorhome you mucky lot). He came out crying laughing. Apparently Grandma of the family was sat at her antique desk working the reception, Ed had told her who we were and she had called one of her grandsons to come and take us to the pitch. Granddad had overheard Ed thanking her for the free pitch and jumped right in to the stereotypical Scottish tight arse role. In a thick Scottish accent he'd shouted through from the other room

"Two pounds Mhairi, two pounds. They can have a free spot but get two pounds off them for the electric!"

Obviously Ed wasn't going to argue over two quid so he paid it and then the grandson arrived to take us to the pitch. Ed told us the story on the way, him and dad had some sort of competition in thick Scottish accents over who could ask Mhairi to charge people for the most ridiculous things.

"fifty pence Mhairi, fifty pence. They can have a free pitch but get fifty pence for the air they will breath! see you jimmy!"

More and more ridiculous! The grandson made sure we were ok with the pitch and pointed us in the direction of the showers and other facilities and then shot off on his quad bike. We were still giggling like school kids over granddads Scottishness when the grandson reappeared with the two pounds, clearly he'd been back to the farm and heard from granddad that he'd got a couple of quid out of the cheeky English buggers wanting a free pitch. He was really embarrassed by it bless him, we said we didn't mind and we'd had a joke about it. He threw a bit of change in the collection bucket, wished me good luck for the rest of the journey, apologised again and shot off on his quad.

Gallowhills Campsite.

I went for a shower, entered the cubical, stripped off, then couldn't work out how it switched on until I spotted a notice that said coin operated, place coins in correct slot near the door. The door in question wasn't the cubicle door it was the door of the male changing rooms, I had to bloody crawl past the showers, past the changing areas, past the sinks and past the toilets to put 50p in the slot. I had to make the journey twice more during my shower! You can imagine the comments when I got back to the motorhome and told everyone the shower had cost £1.50! We were all in stiches laughing at how Granddad had found a way to get a bit more money out of his campers. The site was lovely though and I'd have no second thoughts about going back and paying full, even with all the extras it would be a cheap place to stay.

For the rest of the evening dad and Ed would randomly shout out 'two pounds Mhairi, two pounds'

Day 15 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 19.85
Time: 2:03:39
Average Moving Speed: 9.5mph
Top Speed: 25.7mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 8 - 8:54
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 14 - 4:00
Total Ascent: 949ft
Average Heart Rate: 140bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 15 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 53.41

Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 14 - Hearts of Gold.

Day 14 Morning

Day 14 morning was very different to the others, Dad was up before the alarms went off, he walked Bonnie and had the kettle on before the alarms woke Ed, Ant and I. We got through the morning routine quite quickly and made our way to the start. At the start line we were quick off the mark, dad has had my wheelchair in bit dozens of times so he was quick to get it set up and ready to go. Ant packed a rucksack with the Myprotein products to keep me fuelled up during the day. I left the motorhome to see my dad in kit ready to ride. I wasn't comfortable with him riding with his back in the state it was. I didn't want him to be in pain, if he couldn't carry on we'd be a man down for the rest of the journey. I told him I wasn't happy with him pushing himself and damaging his back even more. I also told him if his back went we wouldn't have time to take him to hospital so he'd need to pay for his own taxi. We'd pick him up on the way back from John O'Groats. A bit of tough love. He was still adamant he was joining in.

My new cyclist Ant

Ant was looking very nervous, he isn't sporty at all so I guess he had no idea what to expect from the day. He was going to take Nick's roll of filming me from behind to prove I wasn't getting any help. Elouise had lent him her bike, whilst adjusting the seat dad broke a flimsy little clip. We did replace it when we got home but with nothing on us that could replace or repair it we had to use lots of gaffer tape to hold the seat up. It didn't add much time to the morning routine, we started fairly early. The morning push was really tough. I climbed for over 18 miles, it was so much harder than Shap. I had a nasty headwind so I was forced to try and keep my head as low as possible to make me more aerodynamic. The horrible Scottish tarmac was shaking me all over and making my back hurt as I fought to keep my chair in a straight line.

The road looks smooth but it wasn't!

 I found the morning push really hard, I was missing Nick, dad and Ant were very quiet. With them having to cycle behind me I couldn't see them, after such a lively day on day 13 this was a bit of a comedown. The hill that I was on was a long dragging one but as soon as I saw mountains in the distance I was pretty sure we were heading straight at them! They looked stunning but I didn't want to have a closer look.

Heading for the hills!

The Scottish tarmac, the hill and the headwind were killing my speed, my average speed was way down on day 13 and the same conditions were robbing me of a break from pushing on the downhills and flats. It turned one down hill what would have been 35mph without pushing into a crappy headwind in to a 20mph downhill where I was needing to push to keep the chair moving. I even got out of the chair at one point to check if my wheels were rubbing on the side of the chair or maybe my wheel bearings had gone, I thought there must have been a reason other than the hill, the tarmac and the wind that was making me so slow. The chair was fine so I just had to get on with the push and grind out what mileage I could that morning. I managed 23.07 before boredom and the conditions finished me off.. We stopped for lunch in another layby, whilst Dad and Ant sorted out the bikes and chair, Ed asked how the morning had been with the new cyclists. I was really honest and said that for large parts of the push it felt like I was on my own, with them being behind me I couldn't see them and as they weren't talking I couldn't hear them. I had really missed Nick wittering on like he'd lost his marbles and the way he would take the piss out of me whilst trying to motivate me on the steeper hills. Ed said he'd have a word with them, I told him to do it gently as I didn't want to sound ungrateful for the help. I just needed to hear that there were people with me.

The grey shows the morning hill, the blue line represents my speed

Knackered and bored after the morning push.

Day 14 Morning Stats

Miles: 23.07
Time: 2:43:26
Average Moving Speed: 8.5mph (slowest for a while)
Top Speed: 20.0mph (slowest of the trip)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 17 - 12:31
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 5:15
Total Ascent: 1033ft
Average Heart Rate: 138bmp
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 14 Morning Progress Maps

Day 14 Afternoon

After lunch I again tried to get dad to stay in the motorhome but he wasn't having any of it. During the afternoon push we reached the mountains I'd been looking at all morning. The route through them wasn't flat at all but it was better than I had been expecting. We met the River Clyde and followed its path through the hills. Even on a grey day when I was missing my best pal and the gaggle of cyclists I'd had the previous day the area was beautiful all be it in a rugged way.

Heading north.

Dad and Ant did a little bit better at keeping talking to me and getting me motivated on all the hills. We had a conversation about the place names we were passing and how they sounded like something from Lord Of The Rings or Game Of Thrones. We passed by Elvanfoot, Quothquan, Biggar Bridge, Eastshield, Ravenstruther and Crookedboat. Each time we passed a road sign we were looking for the oddest place name and having a giggle, I was trying to imagine what Nick would make of the place names. Probably something like 'someone was taking the piss when they made up these names'!
  The hills and mountains seemed to be sheltering me from the worst of the wind that had made the morning so difficult, I did keep getting the odd gust which meant my lower back having to work quite hard to keep the chair straight. I managed to grind out almost 24 miles which was the first time my afternoon push was further than my morning push.

A bit of sun.

We then made our way to Helen and Ru's house, we'd been offered home cooked food, a bath and a bed for the night. Helen was my boss's sister in law but I had never met her or even spoken to her but I knew she would be lovely as Liz, my boss's with and the whole family that I had met so far were really kind and caring people. The house was maybe a 5 mile drive from where we had finished I made sure dad knew not to talk politics or anything else he could start an argument over, he promised to behave. When we got to the house Ed went and knocked on the door to ask where to park and Helen said to bring the motorhome on to the driveway. The gate was pretty narrow for such a large motorhome, I was worried Ed was going to hit a gatepost, What a great start that would have been! He managed to get the motorhome on the drive without any damage, I should have more faith!
  Inside Helen got the solid fuel fire roaring and brought a tea tray through for us, I was in my element! A brew and a fire in a lovely house! Helen had organised for her sister in law also called Helen to come and give me a massage. It wasn't long before massage Helen had arrived, she set up her massage table and began working on my back, we spoke about the challenge and how I'd only had one massage up until this point, one massage in over 500 miles! I was so glad to be getting a second massage done, especially with my lower back having to do so much work in the wind that day. We spoke about our experiences of working in massage and running our own little businesses. Helen's company Massage Therapy By Helen was quite similar to my own. Whilst 'massage' Helen was working on all of my niggles 'home owner' Helen was in the kitchen cooking our dinner. What total luxury this was! I'd got used to making do in the motorhome not being pampered! After the massage I even had time for a long hot soak in the bath before dinner was served.
 For dinner we had homemade cottage pie and home grown veg including chard which I love. For pudding we had home grown and homemade rhubarb pie, my favourite, rhubarb is the greatest. I loved chatting with Helen and Ru, we spoke about all sorts of things. They had even had a look at my route onwards and thought I was going to find a gorge the next day difficult and said that I should head for a bridge instead. As local knowledge had served me so well up until now we decided to take their advice, out came the map! We spoke about classic and vintage cars, Helen and Ru had one and my dad used to drive classics. We spoke about gardening and growing your own, travelling, work, global warming - all sorts of things! We got on the subject of the broken clip on the bike Elouise had lent to Ant; Ru thought he might have something in the garage that might fit so him and dad went to look at the car and find a jubilee clip in the garage. Ru didn't have a spare jubilee clip that would fit but remembered there was one on the car that would do the job. He took it off the car and put it on the bike. These people had let us into their home, made us brews, got me a massage, let me have a soak in their bath, fed us and now taken parts off their beloved old car to give to me! Hearts of gold!
  As the company was so good and the conversation flowing I think this was probably the night I was up the latest on the whole trip but I did have a big cosy bed to sleep in! Dad took the other spare bed and Ed and Ant stayed in the motorhome with Bonnie. Helen even volunteered to get up early in the morning to make us breakfast. What an absolute star!

Day 14 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 23.82
Time: 2:23:17
Average Moving Speed: 10.0mph
Top Speed: 24.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 23 - 8:22
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 5 - 4:09
Total Ascent: 1100ft
Average Heart Rate: 139bpm
Max Heart Rate: 161bpm

Day 14 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 46.89

Well That Wasn't The Plan!

It's now a year since my world record attempt and things have started to settle down again so it seems a good time to write about the experience, the build-up and the aftermath! Today I am going to blog about the build-up to the challenge and the reasons around the sudden date change and over the next 20 days I will type up my diary from the challenge itself a day at a time.

Originally the plan had been to set off in early August and finish on the 7th September - the day of the Rio Paralympic Opening Ceremony. This had been the plan for well over a year and I'd made as much progress as possible with organising the challenge but I'd been hindered in that by my former club. My former coach, JA, had told me in early 2015, that the club would give me their full backing and provide all the spares I would need for the challenge. I was told the same thing by the club president, DW, who added I should "Do what you need to do to make your dream happen". I asked if I could have Camilla, a former club committee member as my project manager and again was told to do what I needed to do to make it happen. There had been a bit of a fall out at the club over the previous weeks but I wasn't sure what the details were as I wasn't part of the 'in crowd' so I never really got given any updates of the day to day things at the club. I had spoken to DW at the 2015 Great Manchester Run and offered to travel to London to act as a mediator in a meeting to try and sort things out between the warring parties. I was told everything was ok and not to worry so I left it at that. Anyway, two weeks after I had been given the go ahead to have Camilla involved I received a phone call from DW telling me it had been decided that I now couldn't have her involved and it was down to me to tell her. I really didn't appreciate that, I'd asked permission, was given the permission but then had it removed and been told I was the one that had to deliver the bad news. Camilla is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to organising things, she’d planned to drive for the full trip and do all the cooking so it was a big blow being told I now couldn't have her on board.

I was then summoned down to London to one of the Charity's Trustee's meetings so "we can discuss how the charity and trustees can help you". Great, we seemed to be getting somewhere - or so I thought! The first meeting was cancelled because JA and DW couldn't make it. Two months later I was asked to attend the next meeting, JA and DW weren't present again so it made the point of cancelling the first meeting a tad questionable. I went into the meeting expecting it to be about how they could help me so I was in a great mood and really excited about making this challenge a success and raising lots of money for the charity which was set up to support the club. As we entered the building where the meeting was to take place the owner of the building, charity Trustee and one of the biggest sponsors of the club Paul Clark gave me a funny look and pulled the chairman of the trustees out of the room to "have a quick word". It was obvious at the time the quick word was about me but I later learned he was checking if I was safe to talk to or if I was on "Team Camilla". This is a man who runs a multi-million pound business not a 13 year old girl in the playground.

Once everyone arrived we sat through the most boring hour imaginable listening to an insurance expert chatting about all the ins and outs of the club’s cover. When the insurance man left the room Paul stood up and announced he would have to go too as he didn't want to miss a football match on the TV. I'm not easily offended but I did think what a cheeky bastard, giving me a summons to go down and talk through my plans with them, a round trip of 11 hours driving and he didn't even have the decency to listen to what I had to say. When I did get to speak to the remaining Trustees I was really shocked by their attitude towards me. I was planning on pushing my wheelchair 900 miles to raise money for their charity but from the response I got you'd have thought I was planning on shitting on their car bonnets. They started by having a go at me about inviting Camilla to be involved, when I pointed out that I’d been told this was ok by both JA and DW they seemed a bit shocked. I even offered to show them all the exact text conversation if they wanted to see it. They then moaned about the lack of time left to organise things - they would have had absolutely nothing to organise if they left me alone with the team I had put together. It was their choice to make me sack Camilla, it was their choice to make me wait to go and see them and I had been putting plans in place for 18months. After we passed that discussion I was then attacked by one trustee in particular, Brian he was nasty and aggressive:

"We'd like a doctor's note to say you are fit enough to take this on"

"What if you fail and people want their money back"

"Is it legal?"

"What if you fail? It'll make the club look bad"

"If you get ill and injured it'll look bad on us"

"If you don't finish it could harm JA and DW's reputation."

"What if you spend more than you make in donations."

“How flexible is the 28 days? Can you keep going if you fall behind?”

“Is your body and your health up to this?”

“What makes you think you can do this when you haven’t done anything like it before?”

On and on and on he went basically telling me I was shit and wouldn't make the finish line in 28 days. It was awful, I knew I had a couple of allies in the room but both were too timid to stick up for me so I took a massive bashing! I think they had misunderstood the situation. I wasn't there to ask their permission to follow my dreams - who are they to tell me which challenges I can and can't do? I was there to tell them that I was doing it, I was doing it at the time I had been planning on for 18 months and I was going to complete it in the time I wanted to. The things I was there to ask from the charity was if they wanted the sponsorship I raised or not? and if they did were they going to help organise the event? The meeting ended with me on the verge of tears and with one of the trustees, Tania, saying she would think about helping to organise it and she would give me a call in a couple of days once she had decided if she could help or not. Myself and one of the junior athlete's mums who was also there to talk about fundraising were asked to leave the room whilst the trustees spoke about something confidential and she could not believe how they had spoken to me and how rude they had been.

The next day I drove home from London, tired and angry. Angry at the fact I was trying to do something positive to help the charity out but I'd been left in no uncertain terms that they didn't think I was capable and they were less than interested in helping make the journey any easier for me. Obviously they didn't have any problem with taking the sponsorship money. Once home I put together a group of people to help organise things for me, thinking that when Tania got in touch I could impress her with what had already been done. I had completely the opposite reaction from these people, I asked a few people if they would help - they all agreed but more impressively I had a lot of people come to me asking me if they could help. I gave out jobs to people and we cracked on with it. I started getting radio interviews where, despite the way the trustees treated me, I sang the praises of the charity. Tania who was supposed to phone in a few days took a few weeks to get back to me but she did say she wanted to be involved with the challenge.

The next few months consisted of what I am now 99% sure was a two-pronged attempt to get me not to start my challenge. On one front I had Tania stalling at every opportunity, I lost count of the number of times a phone call finished with "I'll call you on Thursday at 6PM with an answer.". When she actually meant "I'll call you a week on Thursday at 10PM without an answer.". The rest of the team that we assembled were waiting on information that only somebody from the club or charity could give us. Marketing and media people couldn't do what they needed to do without links for sponsorship, kit couldn't be ordered without the logos, text giving numbers were needed, lots and lots of 5 minute jobs needed to be done by Tania or someone at the club/charity to allow the rest of the team to get on with the real work.

 At the same time, I had JA's friend Sue constantly sniping at everything I did and taking every opportunity she could find to knock my confidence. I ran the club's Facebook page and had taken the likes from 700 when I took over to 1900 in just a few months but nothing I did was good enough for her. I was constantly getting snotty texts, phone calls and emails asking why this or that hadn't been posted, the reason was always the same either I was not told about it or I was at work and couldn't just drop everything and put a post on Facebook right at that second. She would also be constantly mentioning how unfit I was and how far I was behind where I should be. All of the ‘In-crowd’ completely stopped supporting the Facebook page around the same time, obviously on team orders. One of the worst times was during a family meal I’d been sent four texts, three emails and had three phone calls telling me to post something on the club's Facebook immediately. Even after I’d explained I was in a restaurant for an important family anniversary they wouldn’t wait for an hour and I ended up sat in my car in the car park composing a post not about the club but about an athlete who has a paid PR person running his own Facebook athlete page dedicated to his achievements; which is never updated. I’m sure this was all aimed at making me feel unwanted and to knock my confidence for the challenge.

In March I wasn't invited to the Lisbon Half Marathon, a race JA has close ties with and a race I had been invited to 7 times in a row. It became obvious that it was no coincidence that I wasn't invited when slower athletes from my club appeared on photos at the race and then they, the coaches, some volunteer cyclists and Sue travelled south after the race for warm weather training. Warm weather training after the Lisbon race had actually been something I suggested the previous year as a good pre track season boost for the club. I’d spoken to Sue on four occasions the week before she went to Portugal, I had spoken to several of the athletes involved too and not one of them mentioned the fact they were going. Who doesn't mention the fact they are going abroad to do a race and then go warm weather training in the next few days when you are talking to somebody about racing and training? Definitely team orders again. I was upset and hurt by it, JA was supposed to be my coach – I hadn’t had any training programme from her since she found her new favourites 18 months earlier but she was still supposed to be looking out for me. The athletes involved were supposed to be my team mates, more than that, they were supposed to be my friends.

Even after all of this I was still aiming to do my challenge and raise money for this charity, looking back I should have taken the hint and jumped ship but I didn’t. Like a goofy Labrador I just kept trying harder and harder to please them.

Eventually Tania decided to travel north to meet with myself and Carly, the lady I had coordinating the volunteers up here. I paid for afternoon tea at a nice local country café for everyone and the meeting started ok but ended with Carly and Tania having a slanging match over the table. It was both highly embarrassing and extremely entertaining. The snobbish, southern, rich tory girl versus the common as muck, northern, skint, Jeremy Corbyn groupie. One with a disabled daughter, the other with an incurable lung disease. Both trying to play ‘Top Trumps’ with how difficult their lives were. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. This was my dream and I had two gobshites going at it in a fancy café with everyone looking. Even my dad, who is the master at saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place was sat there shocked into silence. The meeting/verbal MMA match resulted in Carly pulling out of the organising group, which caused more delays whilst I got everything back from her and replied to emails she’d been ignoring. Thankfully my dad and a good friend Elouise stepped up and took on more work organising.

All of this fannying around had got us to June. 11 weeks to go and not much sorted for the trip, I’d been inspired by some friends who had run an ultramarathon the day before to try a long push. I did 30 hilly miles in Rossendale, in very hot conditions with no food or water with me. Doing this training session was key to giving me the confidence to deal with what was to happen next. I had never pushed more than a marathon before that day and I had never pushed more than 22 miles in Rossendale with it being so hilly. I seemed to cope with the mileage really well, so well that I felt fine to go out that night on a date. It wasn’t our first date but I was still on best behaviour – I’d been single for nine years at that point and although it was early days I was smitten. Whilst on the date my phone rang in my pocket, I felt bad that I hadn’t switched it off like I normally would on a date. I went to take my phone out of my pocket and switch it off but I accidentally answered the call. I noticed it was Tania and as calls from her were like hens’ teeth I decided to excuse myself and take a quick call.

Tania had phoned to tell me the three sponsors she had managed to find so far were pulling out because somebody else was going to do the challenge before me. That somebody else happened to be Justin, a lad I considered to be my best friend at the club. Oddly he is the chairman of the club and he had planned on stealing my challenge to raise money for his own charity – not the one connected to the club he was chairman of! Tania went on to accuse me of stealing Justin’s idea and trying to do it in secret! What a ridiculous thing to say when I’d been asking the charity and the club for help for well over 18months. She then suggested I did a different challenge at a different time. I honestly wanted to stick my fist through a door but I was sat in front of my date trying to be all respectable. I didn't even swear - bloody miracle! I ended the conversation by saying I was very disappointed in Justin, JA, DW and the club in general and that the phone call had confirmed that they had been undermining everything I had been planning. I told her I would have to consider my future at the club but in reality I had already decided enough was enough. I just about managed to hold it together for the rest of the date but my mind was working overtime.

Everybody at the club knew what I was planning and they had all known for well over a year so there is no chance people hadn’t mentioned it to the chairman! Also, I suspect Tania was helping Justin by giving him my route and logistics – I don’t believe he had suddenly organised this challenge at this time just out of the blue. He was aiming to scupper my plans.

I got home at just gone midnight after the date and there was no way I was going to sleep, I started planning my next move. I was awake all night doing sums to see what options I had the funds for. I text my good friend Ed the next morning once I had a skeleton of a plan. Ed is very switched on and knows me well enough to tell me to shut the fuck up if I am talking bollocks. He was angry about what the club had done to me but he was working. I went to see him that evening and we discussed everything I had planned, he agreed with me and came up with some cracking ideas to help make it happen. That’s it we were off, I was going to Lands End in 6 days time. I could have cried when he said he was going to drive the first two weeks of the trip with me. He was telling his bosses that he was taking the time off work. I didn’t yet have a vehicle to drive but I planned on getting a tow bar fitted to my car and buying a caravan if I needed to. There was so much to organise and not enough time to do it. I hadn’t done the training I had planned and there was no time to do it. I didn’t have the spares I needed, no volunteers, nowhere to stay each night, no food or supplements …. etc etc.

The next day I let a very small group of people know what was happening and that it needed to be kept secret. I wanted to set off and do the first 5 days in secret in case Justin decided to try and chase me down. I knew I could trust these people 100% all of them helped to get things ready. I chose a new charity to support, The 53 Foundation, who help disabled people get active. Dave and Amy from The 53 Foundation were really keen on the challenge and gave off such positive vibes – a welcome change from months and months of negativity from the original charity/club. I phoned Camilla and apologised for the way I had treated her, I asked her to be involved and she jumped at the chance and her advice was going to be valuable to me. Elouise took joint control of organising the group with myself, she was to take the reins fully when I was on my way and I have no idea if the challenge would have happened without her. My dad and sister worked hard helping me with the route, ordering spares, trying to get sponsors and logistics. Other friends worked on gathering PR and media contacts ready to go, campsite details and lots of other things that needed to be done. With 4 days to go my dad turned up at my house to say he’d been offered a motorhome as sponsorship, I could have kissed him. Then I realised he hadn’t told them we now needed it in 4 days not in 10 weeks and he hadn’t told them we needed a six berth to get the right number of beds. I’m not brilliant at asking for things but I phoned the motorhome company and explained what had happened and they seemed to like the idea of backing the underdog. We had a nervous wait whilst they tried to move things around to give me what I needed but in the end Marquis Leisure did us proud. We also got MyProtein on board, bags of supplements and kit for myself and my support riders. Talking of support riders my friend Nick had decided to take unpaid leave from work also for the first two weeks which was a massive boost for me.

With a couple of sleeps to go my house looked like a bombsite, there was spares, kit, food, medical supplies, clothes and more stored in my tiny bungalow but the team had done it. We were ready to go and collect the motorhome. The morning before I was due to start the challenge Ed, Nick, Dad and I drove to Preston to pick up the Motorhome. The guys at Marquis showed us all how everything worked but there was a lot to take in! It was nice to see Ed and Nick seemed to click, they hadn’t met before and are very different people. Once we drove back to my house we packed the camper full of the supplies. It took a long time to get everything in, the original plan was to take a car too but with the time change some of our support drivers could no longer make it. Cramming a month’s worth of supplies, spares and kit plus 3 wheelchairs and a bike into a motorhome was tough but we managed it in the end!

As Ed, Nick, my dog Bonnie and I set off on the journey south the nerves really kicked in. I was about to set off and push a wheelchair the length of the UK, without the training or the preparation I needed or the volunteers, cyclists, massage therapists, meals and campsites I planned to have along the route. I was in a Motorhome with two of the best mates a bloke could ask for who had both took unpaid leave to help me chase my dream. I was so nervous that I would let down Ed, Nick and the other people who had helped get me on my way. I just kept reading a quote over and over again on my phone “It’s better to try and fail than fail to try and wonder what if”. I didn’t tell the lads how nervous I was, we just kept chatting and driving and driving and driving... When we got to Summerset I assumed we were nearly there! How wrong was I? The West Country goes on and on and on, I was starting to realise just how far this challenge was going to be. It took around 8 hours to get there. We arrived at the campsite after it had closed so we just parked up in the dark and got some kip ready for the big day in the morning.