SitS/Fundraising

I am now just over 3 days from the start of the biggest challenge of my cycling career, and im getting a bit nervous. Up until now it has been pretty easy to think about other things, concentrating on fundraising, and getting all the kit together etc but now I am getting to the point when it is nearly upon me. The only thing standing between me and success is the resilience of my body and mind. I haven’t really trained for it as such because I am confident I could ride for 8 hours, and I don’t have the time to do any training rides longer than that. Even if I did a12 hour training ride, that would still be only half the task! I am aiming to break the event down into laps, and hopefully even sections of a lap, and where possible, avoid thinking about how long there is left.

My goal for the event is to finish without giving up over night and lying down or sleeping. I could say I want a top 10%, or even a top 10, but with no idea how my body will react to the task, I think that would just put a negative slant on the result. If I manage to ride for the full 24 I should be in a descent position, so that is all I can ask for at the moment.

On the fundraising front, you might have seen my facebook page, or even made it as far as my virgin money page, but to summarise, I am doing this to raise money for the Meningitis Trust. I have been affiliated with the charity since 2004 when I ran my first marathon, spurred on by the sudden loss of Will Sheppard. Since then I have lost 2 more close friends in Tom Fletcher and Tom Donaldson, and although their deaths were not related to meningitis directly, they both supported the charity and had seen first hand, the great work the charity does. Wills trust fund has now reached a staggering £140,000 raised from events and challenges like this by friends and family and the support this provides is invaluable. For this reason I urge you to go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/tomward and donate. If you own a company or work for a company and would be interested in corporate sponsorship, please get in touch and I would be happy to put adverts on my blog, facebook and virgin money pages.

Please come and find the Columbia-Bikefood set up at Sleepless in the saddle this weekend to find out about the raffle for Bikefood and Columbia products, and to try out our amazing home made Bikefood raw protein enhanced flapjack (for a small fee of course)! All money raised will be added to the total and you can even have a sticky badge as a reward!

I would also like to thank One Hat Designs for such a generous donation!