11/04/10- well well well! Jobs done, completed the cycle to roll down the the hill into lands end on thur 8th april as planned at 5.30pm after a 120 mile ride from exeter.  total mileage for the trip came to just over 1000miles with the longest day being arnside to telford on day 6 at 140 miles finishing at 10 pm after 14 hours riding.  the journey had its tough points and good points but mostly tough.  weather was stunning for the last few days and horrendous for the first few! 

 A huge thank you to my mum and dad for paying my train ticket and  all their support.  Big thanks to my sister dawn also for spreading the word and helping to get over £100 worth of sponsors.  Uncle Jack for approaching the directors at wiseman dairys who provided lots of money as well.  Big thanks for Grainne who drove me up to john o groats, made up cards for handing out during the ride to encourage sponsors and sending on the link to family and friends.  And everyone that has donated, wished me luck or has still to donate. the amount of money raised is amazing and really made the whole ordeal (i mean experience!) worthwhile. Ill stick the photos up shortly, thanks again.

Andy

xx

 

25/03/10- Hurrah again! already got from 500 to 700 in about a week! decided to raise the target once and final time to £1000 which was the orginal figure in my head from the start but didnt want to be too brave! So this Tuesday is my journey to the start and i set off from john o groats on wed morn for the biggest day of the ride, 126 miles to Inverness, however some home comforts to be had there as im staying at my flat!.  anyway thanks to everyone whos donated response has been great and hope it keeps coming! a few wee tweaks to the bike (new bottom bracket, break blocks)  and 2 places of accomodation to still book then its off!!!

18/03/10-Hurrah! reached the original target of £500 today, really delighted thanks alot to everyone thats donated so far its amazing how quickly we reached it.  However why stop there, going to see if we can push it on to £700 as its still over a week untill i set off and then another week and a half untill ive completed it so still plenty of opportunities for some people to donate. 

 

Hi thanks for visiting my justgiving page! Im raising money for alzheimers scotland.  Alzheimers Scotland provide a range of services to assist and aid people with alzheimers and there carerers.  They do this through day centres and drop in centres which give people with dementia the chance to socialise, enjoy activities and outings and allow carers to take a break.  They also educate carers and families about the illness and give advice on how to cope.  As well as day centres home support is also provided to assist carers and in cases overnight stays at there own homes.  More information about the charity and what they do can be found here.  www.alzscot.org  

 

Ok now the fun bit, sort of!  Im planning to raise money by cycling from the John o Groats to Lands End over the easter holiday.  The main challenge of this is that I aim to complete the trip in 9 days, ive plotted my route and the riding mileage comes to around 903 miles. My sharp mathamatical brain calculates that this will be a avereage daily mileage of 100 miles a day with no rest days.  Im planning to leave John o Groats bright and breezy, perhaps gale force breezy! on Wed 31st March and arrive at lands End a stronger, fitter, leaner, (or weaker,dying, carcass of a) man on Thur 8th April.  This will be achieved without any catastrophic set backs, of which may include my bum turning to mush from  spending 6 to 8 hours in the saddle or on surviving this, the end product of having porridge every single morning will create a similar bum mush outcome.  To far? sod it thats staying in.  Also as i will be riding the trip solo means a lack of company except for the sound of my own voice which some will know i love very much.  This also creates the other possible delaying or abandonmeant of the trip due to assualt from fellow hostel users in the evening.  I will no doubt force feed them my terrible chat after having no one to talk to all day insist on informing them of the days roadside toilet stops, obviously including one's and two's, as well the status of any crotch area chaffage or developing sores as a result of so much time perched on a saddle like deranged sweating budgie.  I will probably unleash this chat over dinner at the hostels communal dining area.  Angering many.  Surviving these and any mechanical problems or attacks from wild dogs (this particular canine problem has been dealt with by choosing to go over Arran and not through glasgow, thus avoiding the woman of the gorbals)  I should reach Lands End in one piece on the 9th day.

Heres a wee look at the plan.

Day 1- John o Groats to Inverness - 126 miles

Day 2- Inverness to Fort William- 67 miles

Day 3 Fort William to Lochranza- 103 Miles

Day 4-Lochranza to Annan- 100 miles

Day 5- Annan to Arnside- 88 miles

Day 6- Arnside to Shrewsbury- 99 miles

Day 7- Crewe to Cinderford- 108 miles

Day 8- Cinderford to Exeter- 110 miles

Day 9- Exeter to Lands End- 105 miles

A few wee facts on the calorie consumption of the trip, Ill be burning an avereage of 2800 calories a day for a 7 hour day which totals for the whole trip at 25200 calories (only including riding not the rest of the day) or in food terms as follows.

 

Wispa Golds- 96.2

Jars of Nuttela (400g)- 12

Pints of medium strength beer- 135

Tins of sardines in tomatoe sauce- 132

Cream eggs- 148

 

So there you have it, ill try to update along the where i can do a wee report (i know "wee" sounds unlikely given what ive wrote and ive not even left yet)  when i get back.  It would be great to reach the target of £1000 which is only about 97p a mile in total!  Anything you can give will make a difference, thanks very much.

 

Andy

xx