I did it !  I achieved all my goals (which were admittedly simple: stay safe, get round, enoy it!) and as a bonus am really pleased with my finish time and results !  It was a beautiful sunny day, getting hotter as it went on. I had no technical problems with the bike or the legs, managed to stay clear of stray sheep on the course, and made it back in time for dinner at the hotel !

Total time         8h 48min exactly

Position            2,538th overall (10,000 starters, 6887 finishers)

Placed 22nd in my age/gender category !

I'm well happy with that.  Thanks so much to all for your amazing support, I knew it would make all the difference ! Pictures from the event are available on the left so you can see the action !

Thanks once again,

Helen

ps, thanks to Andrew, Cathy, Leslie, Martin, Robin and Rosemary for donations made offline