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 9 - The History Lesson

Day 9 Morning
Both Ant and Nick were slow to get out of their pits again on Day 9 and with me next to useless because of my rib pain I couldn't help Ed get things ready. I was struggling getting the footage downloaded from the cameras because the table was still full of spares, luggage and racing kit. The tables couldn't be cleared because the stuff was put on the beds during the day and Ant and Nick were still in the bloody beds. Ed and myself kept making a lot of noise and throwing hints to get them up but they took their time. When they eventually got up I told Nick he'd have to set his alarm 25 min earlier than the rest of us in the morning and Ant would have to get up when Ed got up and not 20 minutes after. Nick had a strop about me asking him to get up earlier when Ant was late up too. The difference was that Ant was running round shifting the kit where as Nick's getting up was him leaving his bed, to sit on my bed whilst he rolled a fag, then go out and smoke his fag whilst the rest of us got on with the work, he'd then come back in to his breakfast on the table waiting for him. It was our first bit of agro. The younger two were shattered so struggling to get up, I was sleep deprived, in pain and suffering from my med withdrawal like every morning. I was being a grumpy sod but I've been brought up to make sure the work is done before I sort myself out and I've never thought that smokers should be treated differently. I've always thought its a strange habit anyway, let's get some dead leaves. wrap them in paper, set fire to it and then suck it. Who thought of that?
   I'm not very tactful at the best of times, you might have noticed whilst reading my blog, but when I'm in pain I can be a bit of an arsehole. That said, I'd say the same again. We didn't get to the start on the A49 in Shrewsbury until gone 10:00AM, The day I pushed my biggest total I was in my chair and pushing before 8:30AM so we'd all let things slip.

I'm looking really tired in the pre push pic.

Once on our way we were back chatting normally again, I get on really well with Nick so we can be pretty honest with each other and it just blows over. We passed through an place called Battlefield just after setting off which was pretty apt with my morning rant. I was battling pain again on this push it was pretty bad and the same as the previous day I had to pull over for more pain relief at the 6 mile point. The pain killers I am on are very strong, they give you the good ones when you have a tumour made of bone playing havoc with your pelvis. The downside to having very strong painkillers is I had to stop pushing, get out the chair and eat something whenever I took one. So we had a brew and some toast, popped a pill, and got on our way again.

A59 times.

We were travelling through some lovely countryside, there were hills but they weren't steep or too high, it was good pushing. I didn't know it at the time but we came within 1 mile of the Welsh border. If I'd have known I would most definitely popped over the border just to say I'd visited all three countries on our little island. ... I say little, it felt like a bloody big island so far on the challenge and I wasn't even half way yet! Not long after our close encounter with the Welsh I needed to stop again. We were near a place called Whitchurch. This time I thought if we put some more foam under my knees to raise them up it might cause another part of my rib cage to bang on my knees rather than my broken ribs. Anything was worth a go at this point. I guess it did work to some extent but I'd also eased back on the effort and was enjoying the views and chatting to Nick rather than stressing about my speed.

Me and my shadow!

Once I'd passed the Marathon mark in 2:25 I decided we would stop in the next suitable place so Nick spoke to Ant and Ed and asked them to pull in at the next layby they found. The layby was only half a mile away but they already had the deckchairs out and the kettle on when Nick and I got there. Although a marathon is a lot further than I had originally planned to do in the mornings it was less than I had been doing for a good few days. I still had the thought that I needed to catch a couple of days back to make sure Nick made it to Scotland for the reasons I explained in an earlier blog. I knew I couldn't push myself much harder at the moment because if the ribs got worse it risked me not finishing. I felt like I was on a tightrope walk, too many miles and I'd fall off on the injury side and too few miles and I fall off on the no haggis for Nick side.

Nick attempting to take off!

Day 9 Morning Stats

Miles: 26.74
Time: 2:28:06
Average Moving Speed: 10.8mph
Top Speed: 31.2mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 6 - 9:17
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 22 - 3:29
Total Ascent: 986ft
Average Heart Rate: 137bpm
Max Heart Rate: 160bpm

Day 9 Morning Progress Maps

Day 9 Afternoon

Shortly after lunch we passed over the border into Cheshire, I was very close to home now. It felt strange to be in a county that I hear about on my local news reports. It seemed a bit surreal. The west country had taken what seemed like an age but just a few days after leaving Bristol I was making great progress up the country.

Nice gaff like.

Me being a tit outside a pretty little cottage.

Whilst still on the A49 we passed a town called Tiverton, Nick recognised the name from the Tiverton we had passed in Devon. He asked me why people would call two separate towns the same name. History geek Gotts came out and told him it was pretty unlikely the people that settled in both areas had ever visited the other area when the towns were founded and that the name probably means something in a language older than English. I told him that the 'ton' bit meant town so whatever the start of the word meant probably described something that was in both locations. I could tell from the look on his face that I'd just completely confused him. I was waiting for it, I knew without doubt the response was going to be ridiculous.
"A language older than English, in England? So they didn't speak English here?"
"Oh god! Nick you do know it hasn't actually been called England for that long don't you?"
"What!!!!!!??????"
I tried to explain that we weren't really a country until Alfred the Great and before then England was broken up into smaller kingdoms but before the Romans a lot of the counties we have now were little kingdoms that were really just big clans. Nick was just smiling and nodding, much like I do when Ed talks about space to me. I find it interesting but I don't take it in because I don't understand it. Anyhow, I gave up trying to teach Nick history because whilst confusing him more and more we'd been directed by Ed and Ant onto the B5152 a tiny country lane. It cut across country towards Frodsham. It would save us a lot of time compared to sticking to the main roads.

Ant Pointing us in the right direction

Cross roads in Cheshire

We were getting the odd glimpse of Warrington in the distance. Warrington is only a 40min drive from home so it gave me even more of the surreal 'home' feeling. Almost like I had nearly finished but as I said earlier I wasn't even half way yet. Unfortunately Cheshire lived up to its reputation for attracting people who think they are a cut above the rest. We hadn't had a single donation and very few people had waved or cheered us on. What Cheshire had provided us with is tons of arsehole drivers in ridiculously big and expensive cars driving in an aggressive way. I think Nick's middle finger was probably getting sore from all the use it was getting. We weren't in a different position on the road than we had been on the previous 8 days, the road was no narrower than any we'd already passed, we were acting in exactly the same way we had for the hundreds of miles so far. The only thing that was different was the drivers, we were being blasted with horns and we had people driving way too close to try and scare us. It was such a huge contrast to the day before and the people of Shropshire.
 Ed had found us a campsite for the night, another freebie, that's 9 free pitches in a row. This one was in The Delamere Forest. Right on the same road I was pushing along. When we got to the campsite I spoke to the lads and said I was feeling good, my ribs had eased slightly so I wanted to do a few more miles as I didn't know how I would feel in the morning. The lads agreed to make an effort in the morning to get up on time so we could accommodate the extra time we would need to travel from the campsite to the start. I ended up pushing another 6.5 miles, I thought any further would make the drive in the morning too far. Plus at that point we had reached a pub called The Traveller's Rest, it seemed the right place to end the day. I was reasonably happy with 43.5 miles for the day. 10 more miles than the original plan that my ex club thought was too far for me to manage.

Seemed an appropriate place to stop.

Dave from The 53 Foundation had asked Ed to get a short video interview of me each day for facebook. This was our first day doing the video and I'm really not good with being filmed, I even struggle with being photographed. It took about five attempts for me to stop laughing. On the take before the one we used Ed had asked me where I'd been that day and I answered with
"absolutely no idea mate"
My brain wasn't switched on, I had genuinely forgotten where I had been so Ed had to remind me of the towns and then start recording asking me where I had been before I forgot again! I stumbled through the interview and then we made our way to the campsite.

Delamere Forest Camping and Caravan site was one of the very few with disabled facilities and I was really glad of them. It was nice to have a proper shower seat and not have to sit on the floor. After my shower I rang Mother Hubbard to tell her how far north we'd got, she wasn't best pleased because she had booked a day off to come and support me through Lancashire but I was likely to be in Cumbria on that day now. I reminded her that I was trying to set a world record - I wasn't just on a jolly and told her just to come and see me after work instead. Showered, fed and told off I got in bed very early again, I was hoping for a better sleep so I would wake up in a better mood the next day. I couldn't sit up because of my ribs anyway so I didn't really have any option other than going to bed.

Day 9 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 16.79
Time: 1:37:17
Average Moving Speed: 10.4mph
Top Speed: 36.2mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 8 - 12:08
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 9 - 2:29
Total Ascent: 854ft
Average Heart Rate: 143bpm
Max Heart Rate: 163bpm

Day 9 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 43.53

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.