Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 19 - A Big Fat Black One.

Day 19 Morning

After 61 miles you would have thought I would sleep like a baby. I very nearly did sleep like an actual baby, waking up every few hours balling my eyes out! I didn't cry but bloody hell my ribs were letting me know that 61 miles wasn't their favourite thing to do. My legs were protesting too. I still have almost normal feeling and some use of my legs which puts me at a disadvantage in wheelchair athletics. My legs weigh more than other athlete's legs and they hurt after a while in the chair - they are tucked up in an aerodynamic position, not a position designed for comfort.
After the alarms went off and everyone got their morning jobs done Ed and I sat down with the maps, we knew with a 61 mile push on day 18 I had a chance of finishing on day 20. The problem was throughout the challenge each time I had pushed a tough or a long push I had then struggled the next day to get much further than my 33 mile target. I was still 90 miles from John O'Groats. We'd been tipped off by a few different people that there were two very steep hills climbing out of gorges at Berriedale and Helmsdale which were around 40 miles from John O'Groats. We both felt like I would need to get them out of the way on Day 19 because starting on two very steep hills on day 20 would make it very tough for me to finish that day.
Getting these two climbs completed would need me to push past the 50 mile marker on Day 19, a tough ask after completing 61 miles the day before. I knew those final climbs were going to be tough after 50 miles of pushing.
I did have a carrot dangled in front of me to get off to a good start, I'd been offered a free lunch at the Royal Marine Hotel in Brora.... 30 miles away from my start point! The carrot of free food couldn't have come at a better time. I set off with the firm target of getting to Brora for lunch.

A traditional before picture

Ready to go!

The first 5 miles of the day's push were undulating but nothing to worry about, I made pretty good progress. I even delt with the first hill at 5 miles pretty well, much better than I had coped the morning after a big day so far in the challenge. Towards the top of the Hill we passed a village called Tain, I asked dad to drive through to see if there was a vets that could remove Bonnie's tick. Ant, Ed and I stayed on the A9 and dropped down the steep hill towards Dornoch Firth Bridge, again I dropped the lads on the downhill. On the way over the Bridge I just couldn't believe the beauty of the place. It's so stunning it has its own facebook fan page! Unfortunately I didn't have anybody with me to get any photos of me crossing the bridge. We'd been passing signposts for Bonar Bridge, Ed seemed very interested in the place - I did wonder if he'd took Ant on a detour just to get a comedy photo for facebook. As with the journey the whole way I didn't want to set up a photo of me on the bridge, all the action shots were as it happened so I just kept pushing.

Dornoch Firth

Stunning!

There were a big group of cyclists on a layby on the bridge getting ready to set off and I got a big cheer as I passed by. There was a big old climb as I came off the bridge and headed for loch fleet. On this stretch of the journey I somehow found myself in the centre of a vintage tractor rally! There were lots of photographers out and every now and then a 50 year old plus tractor came trundling past. Pretty odd, but I guess they thought the same about me!

Holding up some traffic on the way to Brora

After 20 miles we pulled over for a brew in a Layby. The group of cyclists I passed earlier pulled in just a few moments later. They were also on a Lands End John O'Groats record bid. One of their group was in his 70's and aiming for and age group record. They said they had followed my progress all the way from Bristol and had hoped to pass me somewhere. That's why I had got such a big cheer from them on the bridge. It was nice to know people involved in a completely different sport to me were following what I was doing and were impressed by it. We wished each other luck and they got on their way.
 I was starting to feel the previous days Mileage when I got back on the coast road at Golspie there were two short but nasty hills between there and Brora but the call of a free pint and free food kept me going. In true Lancashire style I love 'owt fer nowt'! We made our way to the Royal Marine Hotel, I think we all felt a bit out of place in a swanky hotel in our sweaty kit! It took us a while to find our way through the hotel to the restaurant but once there the manager came across and offered us anything from the menu. I fancied a pint, steak and followed it with apple crumble and custard - the best custard I have ever tasted. I was made up with my free lunch!

A tad under dressed lads?

Being a fool in the hotel.

Day 19 Morning Stats

Miles: 28.90
Time: 2:44:05
Average Moving Speed: 10.6mph
Top Speed: 31.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 24 - 10:31
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 18 - 2:37
Total Ascent: 1167ft
Average Heart Rate: 137bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 19 Morning Progress Maps

Day 19 Afternoon

 After lunch we posed for photos with the manager and then got on our way again.

The top custard man in the UK.

At the first hill just after 3 miles I was already struggling, I'd eaten too much and had a cheeky pint, my stomach wasn't best pleased with me. From mile 3 to 11 I managed to keep it ticking over, I didn't feel great though and just as we got to Helmsdale we had rain so it was time for a brew.

Some flat!

Helmsdale.

I was hoping that the rain would blow over but it didn't so after half an hour or so I had to get back out in the rain before I started to cease up. In the first few hundred metres the main rubber pad on my gloves came off. I tried a set of soft gloves instead but my hands were too battered to put any useful effort through them in soft gloves so another few hundred meters down the road I had to put my damaged hard gloves back on and Ed Gaffer taped them together. Yet another few hundred meters down the road we had to stop again, the tape was too tight so we needed to loosen them.
The 5km climbing out of Helmsdale was awful, it took me over an hour, my PB is just under 12 minutes.

A Hill

This hill was a nightmare, luckily there was plenty to look at as I climbed it. Including a memorial for the Highland Clearance victims. I found myself a bit choked by it, statues of a family being forced from their home. Ant and Ed hadn't heard of the clearance so giving them a geek fest history lesson passed some time. When we finally got to the top we celebrated big hill number one being conquered by having a brew. Dad was already in a layby with a family who had stopped to have a chat as they had seen me a number of times last few days. The dad of the family warned me about the second climb, he said it was very steep and had some bad bends on it.

Memorial

The family that stopped to chat.

I decided to set off before long as it was getting quite late. There was a smaller hill between Helmsdale and Berriedale and that was hard enough. We decided to phone the campsite to check if there was a time we needed to be there by but we were told not to worry. So on we went, down to just a few feet above sea level before tackling a bitch of a hill.

More rain on its way!

  On many parts of the hill I struggled to keep moving forward, Ed had to keep catching me from rolling back down the hill. Ant was fantastic at keeping me motivated. Dad shouted me on from wherever he could. I'd tried edging my way forward just using the tyres on not the push rims to give me more leverage but with the gaffer tape on the gloves it wasn't as effective as it was in Cornwall. I resorted to zigzagging across the road and back again. It was such a slow way to move forward but it was the best thing I could think of so Ant and Ed were checking for traffic and when it was safe I was cutting across the road and back again, inching my way forward.

Hated this hill.

 I was knackered, the closest to tears I had been on the trip. I was falling asleep and absolutely goosed. It was starting to get towards twilight and there was an invasion of slugs onto the road. It was a strange sight hundreds of slugs crossing the road. Ed then came out with one of those lines where you really had to be there for. I still giggle about it now. My best gay mate suddenly said
"do you know, its been years since I've seen a big fat black one!"
Just to clarify, he was talking about the slugs. There was a moment of silence after he said it, almost as if all three of us were waiting to see who'd be the child first. Then all three of us were in hysterics, I was crying so much I couldn't see where I was going, I even bloody dribbled! Ed was performing his ridiculously loud laugh at the top of his voice, Ant was struggling for breath, we were all like a group of high teenagers! We eventually calmed down and carried on climbing but every few minutes one of us started giggling and we'd all end up in hysterics again. It made it even more difficult to climb, crying with laugher at the end of 110 miles in two days whilst having two broken ribs hurts like hell! That mile climbing out of Berriedale took me 42 minutes, probably the slowest mile of my life.

Knackered.

When I finally got to the top of the hill I Wanted to get out of my chair as fast as possible so at the first semi safe place I could get in the motorhome I did. I'd done what I needed to do, I still had 40 miles to do on Day 20 but barring anything going wrong I should get to John O'Groats.
  The campsite for the last night was a bit shit, it was the back garden on a house on the main road. It was the first campsite that charged us on the whole challenge and it was the worst site too. The owner was rude to Ed, she'd also left snotty notes around the shower block. "Remove shoes, I don't clean for fun" and "This door is here for a reason: Close It!".
I'd got quite used to doing my short video interviews by now but it took so many attempts to get this one out. I kept forgetting where I had been and I kept giggling about black slugs. Myself and Ed were stood outside filming it and we were getting eaten alive by the famous Scottish Midge! I was in that much pain with my ribs I couldn't even sit in my day chair to film it!

Day 19 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 21.84
Time: 3:19:41
Average Moving Speed: 6.6mph
Top Speed: 36.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 21 - 41:53 (By far the slowest of the challenge)
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 10 - 2:21
Total Ascent: 1905ft (OOOOOOOOuch!!!)
Average Heart Rate: 135bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 19 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 50.74

Lands End to John O'Groats Day 2

Day 2 Morning
The alarms went off at 07:30 on day two, I hadn't had a good sleep at all as the aches of pushing 38.5 miles on day 1 had kept me up all night. I moved the curtain to see it was a wet day which made me extremely nervous. I have never been good at pushing in the wet, I'm still learning technique and getting my gloves to stick to the push rims whilst wet is something I struggle with. The morning routine on day 2 was a little faster as we all knew our roles from the day before, Nick was slow to get up (I think he was as tired as I was bless him) but we were ready earlier than on day 1. It helped that we decided to push from the campsite, it was only 1km from the point I finished day one at and it would be faster to get ready at the campsite. We said our goodbyes to the staff, thanked them for our free pitch and the weather had brightened up slightly so I got on my way. I'd woken up with a slight pain on the inside of my elbow but that soon eased. A downhill start ended with the climb in to Truro, what a beautiful place it is, somewhere I would like to go back and visit! The rain started whilst I was in Truro and that made the going really tough, once through Truro there was no flat ground. I was slipping on long dragging climbs and struggling on the steep descents which aren't easy in a wheelchair with a brake so useless at stopping the chair most athletes just grab the wheels to slow it down.

The weather and aches and pains were eased slightly by truck drivers encouraging me by beeping and stopping to clap, a bus driver opening his doors as he overtook me to shout me on and lots and lots of car passengers cheering for me. I was getting so much support I was starting to worry my cover would be blown by people posting on social media. I must have looked like I needed help as people were really enthusiastic with their encouragement!

Day 2 Elevation Chart. No Flat!

I needed a few stops on the hills to try and dry my gloves and get some grip but after 22miles I was spent for the morning, there was a serious rain shower going on and I could see I had a mammoth climb to come so I pulled in to a layby for lunch. I don't think Nick was going to complain about stopping, he was as cold, wet and tired as I was. I got in the van and got stripped off and into some dry clothes as fast as possible trying to get warm again. Ed had made us cheese sandwiches whilst I had been climbing up the last drag at a snails pace.
 Whilst eating lunch I facebooked the dream team at home and asked them to search for a freebie campsite for the night as we still had nowhere to stay. Natalie, Elouise and Michael were on the case during their lunch breaks at work and it was Elouise that came up with the goods on day 2; Siblyback Watersports Centre offered us a free pitch.

Day 2 Morning Stats
Miles: 22.38
Time: 2:54:06
Average Moving Speed: 8.2mph
Top Speed: 38.9mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile twenty one; 15:00
Fastest Mile Split: Mile two; 2:29
Total Ascent: 1487ft
Average Heart Rate: 152bpm
Max Heart Rate: 182bpm
Day 2 Morning Progress Maps

Day 2 Afternoon
It had rained right through our lunch break, I'd been sat looking out of the motorhome window at the hill I would be starting the afternoon push on. There was no way I could've got up it at the end of the morning push and I wasn't confident that just over an hours rest and a couple of cheese butties would get me up what I could see ahead of me. Thank god that I couldn't see the full extent of the hill that I was about to tackle, if I'd of checked google maps I think I might have hidden under the bed and refused to come out! I summed whatever positivity I could find and tried to gee Nick up to get ready, that lasted all of 15 seconds. For some stupid reason I talked myself into putting my wet clothes back on as I would be wet again within a few minutes anyway. That silly choice meant that I was already cold before I'd even got sat in the chair and ready to go.
The push started with a 100m roll back down the hill as Nick had pushed me to the motorhome just before lunch and that is obviously against the rules. Nobody would have known if I didn't redo that short bit of the course but as much as I knew I was going to struggle on the climb I wanted to do it under my own steam, that was the entire point of the challenge. Straight away my gloves were slipping on the push rims, it took a good 6 or 7 minutes to get the 100m back to the Motorhome still parked in the layby where we had had lunch. The hill was a complete bastard, I tried three sets of gloves but they were sodden within 5 minutes of changing them. At one point I got the lads to swap my disk wheels for my quads. Quad wheels are carbon fibre the same as the solid disk wheels but they have four wide, blade-like, spokes with open space between them. I thought if I put them on then I could grip one of the spokes and use that to turn the wheel rather than the push rims. I didn't get very far at all before I realised the quads were dangerous. My grip kept slipping and my hand was going through the gap between the spokes and as the chair rolled backwards my hand and wrist was getting trapped between the wheel and the chair frame. It hurt a lot! So the lads quickly changed the wheels back to disks.
Nick was walking behind as I inched forwards, he was wearing a camera on his helmet to give a view of me in my chair and to prove I wasn't getting any help. All he could do was stop me rolling too far back down this arsehole of a hill. I was literally turning my wheel a quarter of a turn and then rolling back almost as far as I'd gone forward before nick would ram his bike's front wheel into the back of the chair to stop me rolling off. It must have been so frustrating for him watching me and not being able to actually help me move forward. I wasn't being good company either, I was rhyming off every swear word I knew in every combination I could think of. At one point I got so angry after running over my own hand I started leathering my wheels with my fists and doing a half growl, half shout thing at the top of my voice! I was furious that I wasn't moving anywhere near walking speed. The first mile of the afternoon push took me over one and a half hours to complete, that's more that 15 minutes slower than the world record for a marathon in a wheelchair! I was cold, wet, tired, angry, frustrated and not in a good frame of mind. This was only day 2 and I was struggling big time. In that first mile I had climbed 450ft, in my running days I had done plenty of fell races that weren't that steep!
 Both of the lads were great with me on that hill, they kept me going by being positive whilst I was having a melt down. Over one and a half hours climbing had taken a lot out of me both mentally and physically. I was running on empty I managed another two small hills and then a decent downhill but when I met the next hill I'd had enough. I climbed it for 15 minutes but I was so exhausted I was falling asleep in my chair, I had nothing left at all. I called it a day after just 5 miles on the afternoon push. Those 5 miles took almost two and a half hours and they most certainly were not fun!
I hadn't met my daily target mileage and even though the total for the two days together was still on target I felt like I'd failed that day. I thought that if I felt that bad on day 2 there was very little chance of making it to John O'Groats. Was day 2 the beginning of the end? Ed made a phone call to our mate Danny during the drive to the campsite, I can't remember what it was about but I remember Danny asking how I was doing and Ed answering with "he's had a tough day but he's keeping his spirits up." I thought to myself I'm in a foul mood and have been most of the day, I wonder if that is a pre arranged code for "he's doing shite, I think we will be driving home soon". Haha!
When we got to Siblyback Watersports Centre all three of us were blown away by the beauty of the place. The campsite was completely empty so we chose a pitch right next to the lake. The only problem was I didn't have the energy to get up the campsite to the shower block, Nick had to push me! I was meant to be pushing the length of the country and I couldn't manage the length of the campsite! After my shower Nick helped me back to the motorhome and we were met with the news that we had forgotten to pack the pans in our rush to get on the road two days earlier so our only choice of food from what we had with us was toast, microwaved beans and grilled bacon. Not the most nutritious food but needs must! Nick was happy though, he'd heard of toast, beans and bacon so he was confident we weren't trying to poison him unlike day 1's Couscous-gate!
I was in bed and snoozing by 8pm, before the lads went to bed Ed did some more route planning and Nick added lots of small bits of tape to my push rims to try and give me more grip. At least the campsite was silent that night with it being so remote.

Our motorhome at the beautiful Siblyback lake. Click for larger image.

Day 2 Afternoon Stats
Miles: 4.98
Time: 2:23:47
Average Moving Speed: 6.1mph
Top Speed: 35.2mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile one; 1:36:34 (yes over an hour and a half for one mile!)
Fastest Mile Split: Mile four; 6:54
Total Ascent: 722ft
Average Heart Rate: 139bpm
Max Heart Rate: 166bpm

Total Daily Mileage: 27.36

Day 2 Afternoon Progress Maps

Lands End to John O'Groats Day 1

Day 1 Morning.
This was it, the day had arrived, 10 weeks earlier than expected. No long distance training that would be any use to the challenge, no support vehicle with flashing lights to keep me safe, no horde of cyclists to keep me company, no send off party. Just the motorhome, two of my best mates, Bonnie the dog and some good luck messages from the handful of people that got me to the start line to give me any chance of pulling this off.
 We woke up at about 08:00 to start getting ready. It was a bit of a struggle on that first morning to try and work out who was doing each job. We hadn't had a dry run with having the date change and we were one person short of my ideal plan of having 2 drivers one for the motorhome and one for the support vehicle which I'd planned to have drive behind me wherever possible. That was an extra pair of hands missing, a pair of hands which would have been very handy for all the small tasks in the mornings. Making breakfast, taping my hands, mixing supplements and hydration powders, sorting out GoPro cameras, learning route prompts, lots of little jobs.
  On day 1 I had a chocolate protein porridge for breakfast, again something else I would have liked to trial before the challenge itself, I love porridge (I have Scottish blood - loving porridge is part of the DNA) but this stuff was foul. I shovelled it down anyway as I knew I would be needing every last drop of energy. Nick isn't a fan of breakfast, well Nick isn't a fan of food full stop, but to be fair to him he had been listening to my nagging him on the drive down that he would need to force himself to eat breakfast. He hadn't cycled more than 15 miles before and he was about to cycle 33miles a day each day until we crossed the Scottish border. I was worried he wouldn't make it and I desperately needed him to as he was my only support rider - I had no other options.
 Once we'd finished all the prep we could at the campsite we made our way to Lands End. We arrived to find 20 or so cyclists nervously getting ready to start their own  journey. A few said hello but nothing more than that, I think they were all shitting themselves. I felt oddly at ease with the whole thing, there was a little bit of stress whilst trying to show Ed and Nick how my race chair was put together but once that was done I was fine. Lands End is a bit commercial, it has a huge carpark and gift shops, cafes, the last house, the last hotel, etc etc. It took us a few moments to find the famous sign post and when we did find it I was shocked to see a fence around it, a kiosk and a charge of £10 to pose for your photo next to the sign! Nick stumped up the cash and we all posed for the photos, Bonnie included!

Photos done, final check of the two video cameras and away we went at 10:05AM. It was a bright sunny day but not too hot, pretty much perfect for pushing in. The plan to reach my 33 miles per day was split into 20 to 23 miles each morning and 10 to 13 miles in the afternoon to finish off the daily mileage quota. The first 5 miles were relatively flat, a few small inclines and declines but nothing to worry about. Me and Nick hadn't practiced pushing and cycling together before and there were a few teething problems, mainly Nick not being able to cycle in a straight line and getting too close to my hands or trying to fit into spaces that weren't there. Also at 5 miles in I needed to stop to remove the camera from my helmet as the added weight was giving me neck ache, I mounted it on the chair instead as I didn't want a slight ache to turn into an injury in a few hundred miles time. No major problems, just things that could have been sorted before setting off if we had been able to stick to the time frame we wanted to.
We headed straight to Penzance as planned but at 8.7 miles myself and Ed decided that the A30 was a no-go. There were heavy road works the night before during our journey down, there is no hard shoulder on what is in essence a motorway and there were no cycling signs up. We'd quickly plotted another route through the west country and asked Natalie, one of the chosen few volunteers at home, to check if she could find a flatter route than we had. Whilst we waited for news on alternative routes I carried on pushing, making great progress as the route had become mainly downhill at this point. Penzance was beautiful but the traffic was a nightmare. It didn't really hold me up but the Motorhome got stuck in it. At 12.7 miles in I decided to stop to refuel with an energy bar and refill our drinks, we were making really great progress so a quick break was well deserved. We stopped on the coast road and I posed for photos with Saint Michael's Mount in the background before we headed off again.

 From Saint Michael's we had 5 miles almost continuous uphill to Ashton, followed by a couple of very fast downhill miles, including a mile I covered in 2:00min, to finish the morning a one mile uphill section which got me to the outskirts of Helston where we parked up for lunch having ticked off 22.5miles.
 As soon as I finished my push I ate a MyProtein protein flapjack and had a recovery drink. Ed cheffed up some couscous for lunch, it tasted great and was filling so I was happy. Nick looked at us like we were trying to poison him! Bless him, he tried his best to eat it. He was really excited about what we had done that morning, he'd already gone further than ever before. He kept telling Ed how fast I was going downhill and how he was struggling to keep up with me. It was great to see him excited but we needed to save energy so as soon as we had eaten we had a nap.

Day 1 Morning Stats
Miles: 22.5
Time: 2:09:41
Average Moving Speed: 10.9mph
Top Speed: 39.5mph
Slowest Mile Split: 22nd mile; 11:54
Fastest Mile Split: 21st mile; 2:00
Total Ascent: 1566ft
Average Heart Rate: 161bpm
Max Heart Rate: 187bpm

Day 1 Morning Progress Maps

Day 1 Afternoon
 The afternoon push didn't go quite as well as the morning push. I felt really groggy after my nap and mustn't have listened to Ed's route description properly, I got slightly in front of the motorhome and took a wrong turn inside the first mile. It took me down a steep hill and I then had to climb back out of the valley I had gotten myself into. Ouch! Instead of roughly 400m on the flat I did almost a mile, half of it climbing a hill steeper than I'd ever climbed in my chair before that point. The next 7 miles were mainly uphill with some really steep parts, even steeper than the detour I had accidentally taken. It was very slow going but Nick kept my spirits up my constantly chunnering on, singing and well, just being Nick. Ed was bunny hopping us in the motorhome beeping as he passed then pulling in down the road, getting witnesses to sign that they had seen me and cheering as we passed him. I kept my mind off the climbing by looking in peoples gardens - I'm a massive garden geek and I was jealous of all the plants the southern softies can grow in their gardens. I felt like a wildling south of the wall! I was so slow in places that I had to let go of my push rims and just grab the tyres an do quarter turns, it gave me more leverage so it kept me going but only just!

 At 8.5 miles I finally got a long down hill which took me to Penryn and my daily milage total but as there was just a small uphill before another long descent I decided to carry on pushing. Ed decided to shoot off to a campsite he had spotted on the route to ask if they would put us up for free. At mile 14 I'd had enough and wanted to stop, I'd got to a big hill and had nothing left. Ed hadn't yet got back from the campsite so I got Nick to phone him and tell him I was goosed whilst I used the time to grind out a few more metres. This is when the extra support vehicle would have come into its own, I was shattered, all of a sudden I got cold and I started to shiver even though it was still a fairly warm day. I had already pushed 36miles that day so I was over target, it was further than I had been in one day before but I just wanted to stop. Another mile and a half later, not far from Truro, we got to a descent but I was so shattered I decided it was dangerous. I couldn't concentrate enough to go down a fast decent so I turned off the road and into a park.. down a very steep narrow lane where I struggled to stop and ended up in the long grass! It was a tree lined lane so there was no sun and I started to get seriously cold. I got Nick to wrap me in a foil blanket and run back up to the road to direct Ed in. It honestly felt like an hour waiting, feeling like utter shite, it was probably no more than 5min. I was saying something like "Come on Ed, Come on Ed, Come on Ed" over and over again whilst waiting for him. Its a good job nobody came down the lane - I'd of been off to the local psychiatric unit if anybody had heard!
 When Ed did arrive him and Nick had to almost lift me into the motorhome, Ed sorted out my chair whilst Nick got me the recovery drinks that I needed and then we were on our way to the campsite. To say they hadn't practiced the end of push routine they were really slick, I think it helped being in an 8 birth motorhome blocking a single track lane. Added urgency! The owners of Carnon Downs Caravan Park had given us a pitch for free, as we pulled in to the site the owner let us know that there would be a fish and chip van on site within the hour that was top quality. We were all shattered so decided to go for the chippy tea rather than start cooking. We parked up and the lads hooked the motorhome up and I headed off to the disabled shower, except I spotted a mahoooosive bath in the room next door so I crawled into that room dragged my chair in behind me and had a long well earned soak. When I got back to the motorhome Ed and I had a good look at the next days new route and we sent Nick to the Chip Van for tea. 15min later I got a call from Nick telling me the fish were £13.60 each, he thought we should have sausage instead. I did say I thought he had got it wrong but he was adamant he hadn't. Ed went to check he had enough money on him and it turned out somehow Nick had read '£' as '1' haha the bloody numpty, I can just imagine everyone else in the queue giggling at this young lad was telling everyone how expensive the fish was. A bloody £ looks nothing like a 1! Haha! It really tickled me. Our £3.60 fish and chips were every bit as good as the campsite owner had said!
  fish and chips shovelled down and then I went to bed. I don't think the lads were far behind me that first night. 38.5 miles in the bank 5 ahead of schedule at the end of day one! Good Work! The only thing that would have made the day better would have been being able to share it with people other than the very small group I'd put together to organise the last minute changes in just five days. The team sent lots of messages of encouragement but it wasn't the same as sharing it far and wide.


Day 1 Afternoon Stats
Miles: 16
Time: 2:11:00
Average Moving Speed: 7.7mph
Top Speed: 34.6mph
Slowest Mile Split: 16th mile; 17:37 (Ouch!!!!!)
Fastest Mile Split: 12th mile; 2:48
Total Ascent: 1,373ft
Average Heart Rate: 149bpm
Max Heart Rate: 173bpm

Total Daily Mileage: 38.5

Day 1 Afternoon Progress Maps