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 10 - Thank God There Were No Turds.

Day 10 Morning

We were up nice and early on the 10th morning and everybody got on with the morning jobs, we had almost finished everything we could get done at the campsite when Amy and Dave from The 53 Foundation arrived. I'd spoken to Dave on the phone quite a few times, even before I decided to ditch the other charity he had contacted me to ask if there was anything he could do to help. His offer of help without wanting anything in return is why, when I ditched the other lot, there wasn't a second thought about who I was going to raise money for. The 53 Foundation fits right in with what I wanted my sponsorship to go towards - getting disabled people out of the house and using the abilities they do have rather than dwelling on what they can't do. Amy had set up the foundation with an epic 53 marathon challenge so both her and Dave had expert advise to give during the planning stage of my challenge, only each time Dave phoned me I was being messed about and waiting for something from the original charity. How he never gave up trying to help I will never know! Day 10 was the first time I had met either Dave of Amy face to face. It was lovely meeting them, just having smiley happy people around in the morning was nice enough. They had brought some vests, training tops, wristbands, stickers and collection buckets and tubs so Nick thought it was Christmas day. We had a little chat at the campsite but then we drove down to the start point.
 At the start point Ant, Ed and Nick sprung into action like the finely tuned pit crew that they were. Chair and bike un-racked, wheels put on, drinks mixed, bag packed with snacks, fluids, tools etc, cameras fitted, gps unit fitted. I'm not sure what Dave and Amy thought but I was pretty impressed.

Getting ready for the off!

Whilst all this was going on I was busy plastering my ribs in painkilling cream and changing in to our new 53 Foundation kit whilst talking to Dave and Amy about everything that had happened so far. Amy was made up that Shropshire had been so kind to us, it's her home county. Both Nick and I told her about the man with the water and the ladies giving us money on the dual carriageway, you could tell she was as touched as we were because she has done her own mad challenges. To anybody that hasn't done something similar it must seem odd that a man buying you a bottle of water makes you well up but if you know, you know. We posed for some pictures with Dave and Amy, Dave took the first picture of all of my little team and I together - the first one of the trip! Then it was time to set off. It would have been nice if Dave or Amy could have cycled with me for a while but Amy had run 49 miles the day before and the logistics of getting them back to their car after cycling were not easy. They bunny hopped us for a few miles, pipping and cheering as they passed.

Me and my crew!

Dave, Amy, Ant, Nick and me

Nick was cycling in a 53 Foundation top and carrying the donation box on his handle bars but we didn't get a single donation in Cheshire - the rich don't get rich by giving their money away!

  It wasn't long before we were in County number 11 Merseyside, we crossed the River Mersey at the Runcorn/Widnes Bridge which had major road works going on. We slightly held up the traffic here just as I climbed on to the bridge. This was the first time in the entire trip so far where we didn't let drivers pass. It wasn't far, probably only 300m or so but I did feel guilty. It wouldn't have been safe to let drivers try to squeeze alongside me. The road cones made it impossible to get out of the road. Straight after the bridge the road became two lanes again. Ed stayed behind me with his hazards on and the traffic streamed past us. We had lots of encouragement and even people handing cash to Nick for his collection box, whilst moving. All of Nicks practice of riding hands free for the photos came in handy as car passengers were handing him money out of the car windows whilst still driving along the dual carriageway. We even had a police car come past us, I was convinced it was gonna pull us over and ask us to leave the road but as they passed the lady copper in the passenger seat was clapping away at us and the driver gave us the thumbs up. Like on other fast busy roads that I had used I pushed as hard and as fast as I could just to get out of danger as soon as possible.

 That fast pace to get off the duel carriageway set the tempo for the morning, my pace was quick, almost race pace. I was enjoying the most comfortable day with my ribs since Bristol. The sun was out and I was already in the old county of Lancashire and not far from crossing the border in to the modern county of Lancashire. I'm a proud Lancastrian and I felt like I wanted to be in my home county as soon as possible.

Coming home.

Nothing actually changed when I crossed the border, I felt great to be home but it felt odd I wasn't actually going to see my house or even my hometown. At about 24 miles I started to feel like I was going to bonk again. We had a quick break for me to take on something other than energy gels. Of course a brew was needed, a couple of energy bars, a handful of jelly sweets and an electrolyte drink seemed to work together to perk me up. If I'd have been thinking straight I would have stopped there for lunch but I didn't think 24 miles was enough so I got back on the road. At about 25.5 miles we left the main road on to a country lane. It looked a normal lane at first but it soon turned into a tiny one track lane. I was trying to push myself to keep the traffic moving but I was what's technically known as fucked. Nick dropped back to tell the lads in the motorhome that I needed to stop ASAP and for them to overtake us so they could find a layby and also the other people stuck behind us could start to filter past us. This single track lane went on and on and on. I was starting to get into real trouble when the lane gave us something else to tackle; three humpback bridges. I swore my way up each of them.
 It was over 30 miles before we got to Ed and Ant in the motorhome. They'd started making lunch and already had a brew waiting for me! I needed help to get out of the race chair again. Ed and Nick lifted me whilst Ant pulled the chair away from me and replaced it with a deckchair. I was numb from the effort I put in. I didn't even have the energy to make much conversation but I was happy and content that I was in Lancashire.

On the way towards Southport

Dinner stop

Day 10 Morning Stats

Miles: 30.28
Time: 2:31:26
Average Moving Speed: 12.0mph
Top Speed: 32.2mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 4 - 8:51
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 6 - 3:01
Total Ascent: 964ft
Average Heart Rate: 143bpm
Max Heart Rate: 170bpm

Day 10 Morning Progress Maps

Day 10 Afternoon

In the afternoon I was a bit slow to get going, if you bonk as a runner in a race you would take a minimum of two days off - most would take longer. Without doubt you would never go out for a run an hour and a half after you'd bonked. I had to get back out there to get Nick to Scotland. I started off slow not because I was trying to be sensible and not cause myself anymore damage.

It was a roasting hot day, there were lots of people out on the streets and many of them were stopping us to make donations. I stopped for the first few to say thanks and talk to them about the challenge. Each time I stopped I found it hard to get going again. With that in mind Nick and I decided I would just shout thanks or cheers from now on but he would stop to tell them about the 53 Foundation and what I was doing to raise money for them. I think Nick enjoyed chatting to people donating, especially one little lad of about 5 who put all of his pocket money in the box. When Nick caught me up after that I could tell it had made his day meeting and chatting to this little lad.

Nick being Nick

When we travelled through Much Hoole Ed had been to a pub to ask some witnesses to sign to say they have seen me pushing. The people in the beer garden all shouted me on as I passed. I felt like a rock star. The people in the pub had made some large donations too.

On the approach to Preston a woman shouted out of her car
"I follow you on Facebook"
I loved that, it felt like I was starting to get somewhere with letting people know what I was doing. Also on the approach to Preston I had a little race with a couple of school lads on bikes, they stuck with me or a couple of hundred meters but then started to fade. The shouted to me that I was quick and then asked how far I'd been, I told them it was around 400 miles. They were pretty shocked and started cheering me on, calling me a legend. I probably shouldn't have got into that race with them, I do it all the time when I see a cyclist travelling at a similar speed to me I like to hunt them down. Overtaking people using their legs to power a vehicle that has gears shouldn't really be possible in a wheelchair without gears powered by arms on the flat so it feels great when you do it. Myself and Nick decided the next time Ed was taking a photo we would do a superman pose just for a laugh, it became one of the most shared photos of the challenge.

Supermen

 As we got to Preston I started to feel a bit crappy again, I'd been pushing hard all day. The hot weather and hundreds of people supporting me had got me all fired up but now I was feeling it. I had a pain in my wrist and I was just generally shattered.

In Preston

I crossed the River Ribble in Preston, I think that was the point I was closest to home during the push. Ant and Ed did a brilliant job of directing Nick and I through the centre, Ant was jumping out of the motorhome at points Ed couldn't park and he'd then point us in the right direction before running back to the motorhome. In Preston I met my first hills of the day. They weren't anything spectacular but it was enough to finish me off for the day. I did make my way through Preston before stopping, I didn't fancy pushing through the centre during the morning rush the next day. I quit for the day at a pub just on the north side of the city centre and we made our way to the camp for the night.
  Ed had found a campsite  with a Preston postcode, unfortunately it was bloody miles from Preston. It was actually quite close to Blackpool Zoo. It took a while to get there but it was a cracking little site once we arrived the receptionist called the owner who drove down to the site to meet me and have a few photos taken. I had to get back in my chair and do my interview with Ed, which was slightly easier today, I knew where I had been because we were in places I had been to before. Video boxed off we made our way to our pitch which was close to a Lynx helicopter! How cool! You could spend a night in a Lynx helicopter instead of a caravan at this site. The site was a lovely one, really well kept and with great facilities. The staff were really friendly, even opening the laundry room up late so we had time to wash and dry our kit. Ream Hills Holiday Park is definitely worth considering if you are looking for a site near Blackpool.

Campsite owner.

Fancy a night in a Lynx anyone?

 When hooked up we started to clean the bathroom which had started to smell really bad. We'd not really used the bathroom because we'd been using the facilities at the campsites. We'd mainly used the bathroom for storage, cleaning our teeth and a quick pee when we weren't on site. We cleaned the bathroom but it still smelt like a lift in a multi-storey carpark. Who is it that pisses in those lifts? - I've always wondered that! Anyway Ed and Nick went to investigate and opened the hatch that was used to get to the piss collection box. When the fella at the motorhome place had showed us how to empty it he hadn't reattached it and our piss had been leaking everywhere! 10 days worth of piss. It stunk! Ed bit the bullet and cleaned it all up, what a star! I don't think my stomach would have been strong enough to be cleaning up my mates stale piss! Thank god there were no turds!
 Nick's mum and dad came to visit us at the campsite,  they stayed for a while and chatted with us sat out in the sun outside the motorhome. You could see how proud they were of Nick for cycling most of England already and even better to see was that Nick was proud of himself. He reverted back to a little kid telling them all about his journey so far. I was dead chuffed for the lad, going from never cycling more than 15 miles before to cycling over 400miles is impressive stuff. We had a laugh with his parents before they left and then got on with the evening jobs. Food, wheel and glove repairs, laundry and the like. We had carbonara for tea, made by Ed, I was a little worried about what Nick would eat, his dad had told me to keep nagging him to eat properly, I even had parental permission to give him a slap if he didn't eat what the rest of us were eating. Nick shocked me by saying he would try it! We were definitely making progress with his eating.... but then again carbonara and spaghetti are both beige so they fitted in to his colourless diet haha!
After tea, all three lads went to walk Bonnie whilst I got on with transferring some of the GPS and heart rate data onto my external hard drive so I had copies in case anything went wrong. When they got back they sat down with me and said they'd been a bit worried that after day 14 all of them were due to leave me and that would have just left me pushing with no cyclist and my dad joining me to drive the motorhome. Nick had to go back to work or risk losing his job. Ed and Ant had decided they were staying with me for the full trip. I was fighting the tears! Two lads giving a months wages up just to keep me safe and get me to John O'Groats. I was worried about their finances and if they would both keep their jobs but they assured me they would be fine and that they wanted to stay. Nick also wanted to stay and was a bit upset that he couldn't. Ant would need to go back home the next day and spend the night there to sort a few things out and bring some more clothes etc for himself and Ed, he would get a lift back with our other mate Danny.
The night wasn't the most comfortable of the trip as both the fridge and the air-conditioning had stopped working. The motorhome was very warm that night making sleeping difficult.

Day 10 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 14.77
Time: 1:22:12
Average Moving Speed: 10.8mph
Top Speed: 25.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 13 - 8:04
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 2 - 4:40
Total Ascent: 397ft
Average Heart Rate: 142bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 10 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 45.05

Lands End to John O'Groats Day 4 - Bonking in Bear Country.

Day 4 Morning

   With the news that the day was going to be another wet one and the fact that Dartmoor wasn't going to be flat we had set the alarms even earlier to give me more time during the day to meet my mileage target of 33 miles. The Alarms were set for 6:45AM but I was up and wide awake by 6:30AM, the herbal sleeping tablets had done the business, I'd slept well for the first time since Tania had dropped the Justin Bomb during my date and told me I couldn't do my challenge. The workload and stress of getting ready to leave 10 weeks early, the anger when you realise you've been mugged off for a year or more by people you thought of as friends and the pain of pushing long distances without training had ruined my sleep. That one good night's kip had worked wonders for me. Yes, it was wet outside and I knew I would have climbs to make but I already had 100 miles behind me and got further than most of the wheelchairs that had attempted Lands End to John O'Groats in the past so I had a bit of confidence growing. I was first out of bed, beating Ed for the first time, I started the morning routine and felt good that I wasn't being waited on by Ed. It wasn't long before he was up playing mother though, I was playing father and shouting at Nick to stop being a lazy little oik and get out of his pit and lend us a hand. Lazy? haha! This lad who had only cycled 15 miles before had just cycled over 100 miles in 3 days for me, he wasn't lazy just tired... but we did need all hands on deck in the mornings as there was less of us than we had planned for. The mornings were taken up with the obvious making and eating breakfast, moving kit/wheelchairs/luggage etc from the seating area on to the beds, pumping tyres, checking brakes, replacing batteries in the tech, downloading footage from the previous day to my external hard drive, mixing several different sports drinks, learning bits of the route, letting the dream team at home know roughly where we would need accommodation that night and lots more!
  We only had a short drive to the start of the day's push and my first 10 minutes of pushing was heading back towards the campsite so I could get on the former railway line that the site owners had tipped us off about. It was a bit tight getting through the gate and on to the track and I was worried that we would get a few miles down the track and there would be a bridge or stile I couldn't pass. The other worry was that there was no way for the motorhome to follow us down the track. Nick had to carry extra supplies in his rucksack in case we had a problem. He had extra food and energy gels, drinks, tools, tyres and gas canisters in case I had a puncture and dry gloves. The track wasn't completely flat and the gloves did slip quite a lot but I kept the wheels turning and the first time we saw Ed on an old level crossing we told him everything was going well. It wasn't long before we saw him again and everything was still great. We swapped our empty drinks bottles for ones filled up in the morning and left in the fridge in the camper and set out on the longest stretch of the path, we wouldn't see Ed again until we got to the end of the ex railway line at Oakhampton. Not long after we left Ed we hit an untarmacked stretch of the path. We weren't expecting any off roading in the entire trip and we'd been told the path was fully tarmacked, race chairs and carbon fibre wheels are not meant for off roading! The path was made out of the stones they lay railway lines on top of so I was being shook about like a chubby middle aged housewife sat on a washing machine, all of my jiggly bits were being well and truly jiggled. The back wheels on a race chair are set at an angle so quite often if you hit a small stone whilst training they either shoot out the side of the chair or fire across and hit the opposite wheel, they make a loud noise when they hit the opposite wheel - the carbon acts like a drum. This part of the path was overgrown and the grass flower and seed heads had bowed down over the path with the weight of the rain. They'd bowed down to the exact height of a wheelchair athlete's eyes. A wheelchair athlete with hay fever. I must've looked a right sight trundling along with £5000 worth of kit, being shaken all over, sounding like I was shooting a gun, getting twatted in the face by bunches of pollen wielding kryptonite and cursing like hell. Nick was concerned and caring to start with but soon couldn't contain himself and started laughing to the point he was crying and struggling for breath.

On the old railway line.

At the ex level crossing on the railway with Bonnie looking on.

  Back on the tarmac we started to head down towards Oakhampton, I'd have loved to let go fully and fly down the hill but the path was narrow, my brakes don't work well in the wet and my eyes were streaming after being abused with grass pollen so I had to hold back. We were trying to get in a routine when we spotted a gate Nick would cycle ahead, open the gate, let me through and then catch me up. I was struggling to stop before the early gates with having wet gloves and useless brakes. I bumped a couple of gates and ended up in the long grass next to another that we didn't spot in time but nothing serious until close to the end of the path it left the old railway line to pass through a long tunnel underneath some sort of goods yard or train depot. Nick let me through the gate and I started pushing but then quickly realised there was a right angle turn at the end of the tunnel and a very big drop if I didn't make the turn. There was no way I was going to make the corner, the path wasn't wide enough. I slammed on my brake but it did cock all to slow the chair, I gripped the back wheels but then I couldn't steer. So I started yelling at Nick who raced down behind me and grabbed hold of me, we did hit the wire fence at the bottom of the downhill tunnel but he had slowed me enough that I just grazed my elbow rather than broke my neck! Little Nick was a hero, without him there at that point I think the challenge would have ended.
 No more than 5 minutes later we were off the path and with Ed at the top of a steep hill on the outskirts of Oakhampton. It had stopped raining so we popped the deckchairs up and had a brew whilst we added more tape to the push rims and my very damaged gloves. Just like when you've done something difficult like climb the tarmac cliff, when you've just nearly died every northerner needs a cup of tea. Whilst sat out in deckchairs, with bits of wheelchair and tools strewn everywhere on a nice residential street the guy who lived in the house we were outside pulled up. I thought he might have been annoyed at three untidy lads camping in his street but he asked if I was ok as I was bandaging some blisters and he asked about the challenge. I told him I had been struggling with the wet days. He grinned and said that the locals called it Soakhampton so it wouldn't be right passing through without getting wet. He brought out his biscuit barrel for us to tuck in to with our brews and made a donation to the charity. He spoke to Ed about the route through the town and warned me about the descents having junctions at the bottom so I needed to be careful.
After brew time the push was undulating but with a fair amount on downhill, I was frustrated that the road and weather conditions didn't allow me to go as fast as I wanted on the downhill sections. Nevertheless I managed to push 23 miles that morning, which was a minor miracle in the wet. The campsite owners had done us a great service by telling us about the railway line which cut out some huge hills. We stopped for lunch at a place called Copplestone, cheesy beans on toast! Poor Nick was going to be cycling behind me after I had eaten a full tin of beans! Over lunch we were trying to mend my gloves again with canvas tape, there were no new gloves in my size in Great Britain or the USA - Camilla had been trying to hunt me some down. I was telling Nick and Ed how I needed the gloves to hold together until Scotland where my dad was joining the trip. Dad sews my gloves and pushrims quite often so he would be able to patch them up. Nick suddenly chirped up that he could sew, I wasn't sure if I believed him or not but he gave Ed a shopping list of exact type of threads and a certain needle to get. He seemed to know what he was talking about so once we got going again Ed was going to stop at a haberdashery in one of the next villages and see if they had what Nick wanted.

Day 4 Morning Stats

Miles: 23.05
Time: 3:05:06
Average Moving Speed: 8.4mph
Top Speed: 39.3mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 20; 17:54
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 12: 3:02
Total Ascent: 1168ft
Average Heart Rate: 150bmp
Max Heart Rate: 171bmp

Day 4 Morning Progress Maps

Day 4 Afternoon

During the afternoon push we passed through Crediton where we picked Ant, Ed's fella, up. Ant is notorious for being terrible with directions and getting on the wrong tram at home in Manchester but somehow he had travelled all the way from Manchester to Devon by bus! I was so happy to see a fresh face and felt really honoured that he had travelled all that way to be part of the challenge. He came in useful straight away shouting directions out of the passenger side of the motorhome and handing Nick drinks bottles.
  Once we were on the road I would be spending the rest of the day on Ed and Ant went to get food and granny Nick's sewing wish list. That left me and Granny to fend for ourselves for a while. This area of Devon was lovely. We passed so many chocolate box thatched cottages, little villages that would make a jigsaw my mother hubbard would love to do.

One of the many beautiful houses we passed on Day 4.

Whilst passing through a heavily wooded area that felt quite remote Nick chirped up
"do you think this is a place bears live?"
I asked if he was taking the piss and he said
"They live in forests, I've seen it loads of times on TV"
"Nick, we are in Devon, not fucking Canada or Russia!"
Haha! Whilst I was still laughing my head off and trying to explain we've not had bears in Britain for thousands of years he asked if there were honey badgers
"coz they are hard as fuck, they fight lions and everything!"
"yes Nick! They fight fucking lions in fucking Africa"
It was my turn to be crying with laughter at him, he's the only person I know that can ask a question so stupid they rival my sisters questions. She once asked me if a squirrel eats ham does that make it a cannibal? No Debra, a squirrel would have to eat a squirrel for it to be a cannibal. I love daft questions! They make me giggle so much!
Anyway back to the pushing, at around 8.5 miles I bonked on a long dragging fairly steep hill. For all you none runners out there giggling like school girls bonking is a term runners use for what happens when your body runs out of fuel. You feel terrible, dizzy, sick, confused, uncoordinated and generally like you are about to faint. When you see people staggering all over the place at the end of a marathon on TV, they have bonked. It makes you look drunk but it's awful when it happens. Ed and Ant hadn't caught us back up yet after shopping so Nick phoned them. Luckily they were only a few minutes away so I pushed to the next layby at just over 9 miles and met the motorhome there. For some reason I felt a bit embarrassed about Ant seeing me in a mess, maybe because it was his first day or maybe because the hills weren't quite as bad as the first 3 days, I'm not sure.

The hill that made me bonk.

Anyhow, Ed and Ant were like a formula 1 pit crew within a minute of pulling in to the layby I was lifted out of the chair and in to the deckchair, handed that magic medicine - a cup of tea, given an energy bar and wrapped in a foil blanket. I was just under my daily mileage target by less than a mile so I could have stopped there but once I was warmed up and had a bit of sugar in my blood I perked up a bit. so I decided to push on a bit more. I managed another 6 miles to take me to 38 for the day, a day that could have been a disaster turned out to be a good day mileage wise but I'd had to work for it. I really had run myself into the ground on this one.

Considering phoning for help.

The Dream Team had pulled another free campsite out of the bag The Forrest Glade campsite near Tiverton. I went for a shower whilst Ed made us a curry, well most of us, Nick wouldn't eat curry because it wasn't beige. He just had grilled chicken with nothing at all on it, no herbs or sauces and plain boiled white rice. I think me and Ed both felt guilty, like we weren't feeding him properly but all our nagging wasn't working. I think maybe Ant got through a bit more by telling Nick he had been a fussy eater too but now he will try things to see if he likes them and not just decide he doesn't like them without even tasting them. Ant and Nick are similar ages and to say they had never met before they seemed to be getting on well.
I was in bed by 7:30PM, Again feeling guilty that the lads were up sorting things, especially Nick who was up very late stitching my gloves with his new needle and fancy thread. I used another herbal sleeping tablet hoping for another good nights sleep.

Day 4 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 15.40
Time: 2:01:11
Average Moving Speed: 8.8mph
Top Speed: 35.7mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 9 - 23:30
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 3 - 2:54
Total Ascent: 1480ft
Average Heart Rate: 148
Max Heart Rate: 170

Day 4 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 38.45