Thanks for taking the time to visit Davy and Fiona Gunn's JustGiving page.

This year we wanted to put our energy into a bike race with a difference, not just for our own personal satisfaction but to do a challenge which also benefits others through our efforts. Etape Caledonia is a race on closed roads over 81 miles of the beautiful Perthshire countryside. (Read hills and long miles!)

We have been avid supporters of the Livestrong community but also wanted to raise funds for cancer support nearer home, so decided to do this race.

We believe that while we have the good health and energy to do something positive about cancer this is an opportunity to take part. After all, it can't be nearly as hard as having to live with and fight this disease on a daily basis; we think ourselves lucky to be given such good health,(mind you we have had our scares). We see and hear of so many who are suffering. Did you know for example that two million people alive in the UK today have had a cancer diagnosis – a figure which is rising every day.

We know this will be hard and neither of us are afraid of hard work, we have plans for intensive training up to and after this event, including  local time trials to help us get used to working at high intensity, long day rides to help us with endurance and the odd mountain bike race or ride with friends for variety and agility. The picture of us cycling together (in the rain) was at the Selkirk Merida in August 2009, Davy cycled 90 miles and Fiona cycled 48, each of us were initially exhilerated when we had finished the ride but shattered afterwards, Davy couldn't ride a bike for weeks afterwards due to a knee injury (long story) and Fiona was a lot fitter but didn't get much done afterwards because her biking partner was injured.

This year is going to be better - we will be fitter and stronger and hopefully keep away from injury and illness. Davy has been keeping fit through the winter - freezing on his turbo trainer in the shed and conservatory. Fiona has been busy keeping the home fires burning and keeping warm (insulating the house), a little Mountain biking and skiing too! We started our training this weekend with a 16 mile road cycle in 5 degrees C. Getting back onto training again will be hard in these cold temperatures, however we will keep you posted how the rest of our training goes over the next few weeks.....

So please dig deep and donate now.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thanks very much for your support.

Davy and Fiona - Training Dairy follows below:

7th Feb 16 miles Duror and back to ease ourselves into the road and new saddles.

11th Feb 20 miles round Loch Leven in 2C! Bums were numb - due to temp and unacustomed saddle soreness! Large amounts of Arnica and Ibuprofen will be required! 1 hr 20 mins not bad for 6 months off the road bike. Need to get it down to 1hr again - yikes!

Oh my it has been a while since we updated this page! Sorry! 29th March!

Davy is doing about 100 + miles a week and Fiona is doing 45-60 a week. We hope to step up the training this week to over 100 miles each but quite how we fit this in we are not sure! The snow has come back so this is distracting us over Easter weekend.

We find that cycling 45 miles in one go is good training but mainly for our nether regions - sitting in a saddle for 3hrs is quite hard work! Davy thinks he can do the race is under 4hrs, where as Fiona will be lucky if she is over Shehallion by then! She is aiming for about 5.5hrs ride on the day.