Last Sunday I did my longest ever solo training ride, 67 miles on a very beautiful but hot Sunday afternoon. As I was nearing the end, it suddenly dawned on me that I was exactly that, past the point of no return. There was no amount of training that I could cram in now that would help me with what I'm going to do in now, just 3 days time. Some of you may know, that I used to be Product Manager for Florida at Virgin Holidays, and therefore have spent some time experiencing the thrills and spills of the rollercoasters in Orlando's theme parks (stick with me on this one). My favourite ride of all time is the Incredible Hulk at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The roller coaster is unique because it features a launch lift hill as opposed to conventional chain lifts, this means the train accelerates to 40 mph in approximately 2 seconds before speeding through several inversions (sorry geeky rollercoaster freak moment). At the start of the ride, the car stops and alarm bells start to ring, whilst a loud recorded voice screams in your ear "malfunction, malfunction, you are past the point of no return" & the mixed feeling of excitement, fear & anticipation is a heady combination that is difficult to beat, or experience in any other life situation, it only happens for a split second normally........and I've now been feeling exactly that for a week now - it's exhausting!
My emotions this week have certainly been a rollercoaster, with alternate feelings each morning, sometimes sheer excitement and cannotwait-ness, to naseastiousness and what have I done-ness!!! I'm not concerned about the per day mileage, I'm pretty sure having got several 50-60 milers under my belt, I can do that. Over the last few weeks, I've been racking up 120+ miles per week. But whether I can do those sort of miles on 4 consecutive days......well as I said at the beginning of this post - there's not much I can do about it now if I can't. I'm reliably told by great friends who've done this sort of thing and have offered advice and encouragement, that I will find a reserve from somewhere that I didn't know I had and the dynamics and support of the group I'm riding with will make all the difference.
So I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but if I'm honest, almost every waking hour has been consumed with preparing for Wednesday, whether that has been buying last minute kit, attending a nutrition talk at the bike club, liaising with the printers constantly to make sure my cycling jerseys were going to arrive with all my logos printed on them, thanking all my fantastically generous sponsors, obsessively checking the 10 day weather forecast (at present sunny with showers), or whiling away the hours overthinking every eventuality!
Talking of sponsors, I have now raised a MASSIVE £2,510, as you will have read previously, my fabulous employers Virgin Holidays have paid my full costs, which means that every penny that you have all pledged goes 100% to Community Music in Action. I've also had some very generous contributions from some of the suppliers I work with, so thank you so very much to the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce and to Centara Hotels and Resorts.
When I first set out, I wanted to raise a minimum of £2,000, which would fund 2 x extra projects a year. With the support of Virgin Holidays & your generous donations, we can now increase that to 3 extra projects - if I can increase my total to £2,700, we could do 4 - doubling what the charity targets to do in a year, which would be phenomenal. If you haven't done so already, if you could find it in your hearts to hit the donate button on the right hand side of this page - or pledge your money via email or text and I'll collect afterwards, even if it's just a £1, every single penny will go direct to the charity.
Unfortunately circumstances outside of my control meant I couldn't get to see our current project last week as I'd planned. We have funded a professional rapper, Myles Dhillon, to go into the Riverside School, a specialist school for children with autism to work with their sixth formers on a story-telling project. My visit has been re-scheduled for their final session on the 2nd July, so I'll still get to see directly where all your donations are going, and I'll definitely still report back. We also have a project confirmed with the Alzheimers Society to run through the summer and are currently in the process of recruiting the right Project Leader for this. It's so rewarding to see the benefits that I have got from singing with the choir, being passed on to people less fortunate than myself.
So anyway, here I am with only 3 days to wait. When I originally signed up for this and noticed our set off date was the day after the Diamond Jubilee double bank holiday, I thought, how great, I'll have 4 days off work before the ride to prepare and chill....of course the reality hit this week, the WHOLE nation are out partying whilst I'm sat in doors, trying to avoid injury and alcohol - I actually couldn't have picked a worse weekend to want to do nothing! Oh well, ho hum, in years to come, when I'm asked what I was doing on the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, I certainly won't forget it!
As you know, it was me joining the choir that was the catalyst to me starting on this journey, this term we are working on some new songs, and there is one that is so apt for what I'm doing, in fact I sometimes (especially on some of the more challenging hills) find myself singing it whilst I'm cycling along, so I thought I'd leave you with it........as this is definitely all I can hope for now............and if you think of me at any point from Wednesday onwards, envisage me on a bike, cycling along country lanes, singing this at the top of my voice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVCyTrB4ws
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