Puppies in the Rain

So they made it round, a little chaffing here or there, but I am still walking today. I removed my wetsuit, took off my goggles and snorkel, and whipped them out as I crossed the finish line to a few startled looks from the crowd! Thank you Neil and Eugene.

Now time to protect the sore parts of me after the ride.

Thank you Andrex for thinking of me.

Puppies on a Roll

But the big Thank You should go to all of you who have donated, to Neil Baker whose training regime got me through it, and again to him for today’s little light warm down session, were you joking 1,000 reps in a hour? Oh, and let me remind you, you can’t count!

The donations have reached close to £4,000 and climbing. Once again if you would like to donate, this is the link:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ADRIANHOLDSWORTHVOLPE

So let’s go back to the ride.

It started at 6.00 am with a 7 mile ride to the start!

Then the rumours that Leith Hill and Box Hill had been removed for the sake of everyone’s safety were true reducing the ride to 86 miles. There were a few grumbles, however I hope these were silenced on the first semi-serious climb, which in fairness would have been really tough despite my bravado.

The rain was so heavy that the stream of water was coming downhill towards you faster than most people were climbing, and then as you crested the top of the hill the water was then running downhill faster than most people were descending.

This was augmented by at times gale force winds from ex-hurricane Bertha, and the odd flash of lightening.

There was standing water across the entire road in about 40 or 50 places and in some places nearly a foot deep.

There were a lot of accidents and hundreds of punctures, I was happily involved in neither.

I’d love to say that the four of us would have stuck together, but given the conditions and confusion we all got separated, and then my phone and then Adam’s gave out, and neither is likely to make a complete recovery. The phones I hasten to add, it’s already too late for me or Adam.

I stopped at the last hub for a while for an intake and an out take, to see where Adam was so just tipped me over the 5 hours, but I could not have been happier with the ride.

The sun, saw us home for the last few miles giving my hair time to dry, and cross the line looking half decent, until I whipped my puppies out.

Time sheet

There is of course an obvious mistake with this time sheet. The category says M50, clearly I am a male despite the red lycra photos, but the age is the 50+ category which is definitely way out, and please no smart Alec remarks about it being too low.

By the end, the mink covered saddle looked like a drowned rat, which I suppose is what it is, or was. It is slowly drying, meanwhile I will be taking offers. A Van Gogh it is not, but it has been as close to me for more 5 hours as anything is likely to ever get, so get your cheque books out.

Lastly, once again, a huge thank you to everyone in whatever capacity you supported me. I gripe slightly, but it was great fun despite the conditions, and to all of you who think my life is all fun, fun, fun; it is despite whatever is thrown at me., which in this case was a bucket of water that never emptied.

If Adam hadn’t undertaken this event with me, I would have thought that he had arranged this.

Please keep giving.

Copyright © 2014 Adrian Holdsworth. All Rights Reserved.