Update 6th February

 Well we all did it – Thanks all for the very generous donations - and if anyone was meaning to donate but hadn't got round to it - now's your chance :-) So I started off at 9:30 am and we had two people currently on chemo in the first session which was pretty impressive. 

 My youngest, Josh, came along at 10:30 am, but all the bikes were full, so I let him have mine (didn't want him to miss the fun!), but this meant I had to do an extra session to make up my 6 hours, so I booked the last session (8.30 pm-9:30 pm) - Thanks Jen for sorting that out !.  Cherry (the instructor) announced Josh was 'absolutely gorgeous' but then spoilt it by saying how much more he looked like Lyn ! Alison came in at 11:30am , so I had two hours off, to do the weekly shopping and get some lunch.  1:30-3:30pm was my next slot. including one of Sheila's (one of the instructors) 'killer sessions' - I was half way through !

 Alison took over at 3:30 pm and I had 2 hours break, went back home and make some tea. At about ten past five, it had been snowing heavily, and ruled out my usual route down the very steep Queen Street (I later noticed an AA van  that had crashed into a wall there going to someone's assistance.)  I took a very circuitous route, involving as few hills as possible, but I got stuck trying to get up the final hill.  It was 5:27pm.  I parked up, abandoned the car and sprinted (well, that might be an slight over-exaggeration, more like quick stumbling through the snow) - I was on the bike just as the bell went for the 5:30 pm session.  This was the graveyard shift where I ended up blocking everything out apart from keeping spinning: there is a photo that John took (see my photos) that I think was a bit of an accident but seems to sum up that session perfectly, with me in focus and the room all going a bit blurry - that was exactly how I felt.  But whenever I started to doubt myself, I looked across at Sue and Christine, who did 4 hours solid, which, in its way, was a feat as impressive as any that day.  

 7:30pm - 1 hour off then 1 session to go.    With the snow there seemed to be little point going home so I visited the downstairs 'Operations Centre' where loads of helpers had brought in homemade cakes, sweets, an urn of tea - thanks so much to all the 'behind the scenes' team that made it happen.

 The end was in sight, and people's spirits were lifting, and Cherry got all the people currently not on the bikes (including me) to Conga through the bikes.  Fortunately photos of that bit are unavailable (although that did cost me)

 Onto the last session,  I was back on,  Jen called this the "Party session".  John took a video of all of us spinning, although he did seems to linger on certain views - make your own mind up !  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=354833604535599

 My favourite track was DJ Liquid The Hall Of The Mountain King (Techno Remix) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBFCTDEewCI  which seems to speed up at the end to several thousand beats per minute at the end at which point the whole group collapses.

 By this stage, after twelve hours of teaching, Cherry and Sheila were nearly unable to talk (an event I never expect to see again) and were giving instructions mostly by sign language, making weird grunting noises and pointing at things.

 Then came the flags.

 There were two 'Iron Men' in the group who were doing the full twelve hours Barry and Drew.  A few years ago there was a Eurovision song entry "Fly the Flag", which didn't get very many points and Drew was the songwriter.  He keeps this very quiet and thinks everybody has forgotten about it.  At 9:25 everybody was issued with a Union Jack and you can guess what track came on next - to groans of embarrassment behind me.  At that point Alison nearly came to a grisly end by standing up whilst still spinning on the pedals, taking both hands off the handlebars (which is an insane thing to do at the best of times) and waving her flag back and forth.

 We were finished. Bring on the champagne(well Aldi Cava to be strictly accurate), which went straight to my head.  I can't really remember much else about the rest of that night, I started to lose touch with reality, but I think I had a conversation about metaphysics and  the Ship of Theseus with Michael, a philosophy lecturer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus and I remember keeping trying to drain my glass, walk towards the exit but before I could ever get to the door Sheila managed to refill my glass, it was like a recurrent dream, until I lost the use of my legs.

 So I would also like to add my thanks to everyone, Cherry and Sheila who were absolute superstars, all the 'behind the scenes' team.  Thanks to my team mate Alison, who I roped into doing 6 hours, but looked like she could join the two "Iron Men" and do the full 12 hours .  Thanks to Lyn for holding the fort back home while I was doing all this.  We all  got a beautiful thank you card from Paul and Jen, but I would like to thank them for organising it all,  I felt privileged to be part of it.  It's a a disease that has struck my own family and sometimes makes you feel rather helpless but it was great to be able to help fight back against it.

Update 30th Jan

5 days to go to the Spinathon -I've got my padded cycling shorts ready !   I'm starting to get a bit nervous.  Myself and Alison (who goes to the same spin class)  are trying to keep one bike going for 12 hours between us in 2 hour stints, but I think she is a lot fitter than I am, and I don't want to be the weak link.  I've been out early in the morning cycling up the hills in Glossop, and I've been running along the Thames path when I am working in London (I got a bit carried away last Wednesday and pulled my calf muscle but that doesn't seem to affect my cycling, fortunately)

I think there are still some spare slots on some of the other bikes, so I am trying to get some of the Glossop North End footballers to come along to fill some of the slots (that seemed to be very popular idea with some of the women in the team !)

And thanks very much for all the sponsorship - I'm feeling very motivated !

On Yer Bike For Brain Tumours!!!

On Saturday 4 February 2012 a group of mates will keep the pedals turning over 12 hours of indoor cycling classes at The Pilates Studio in Glossop!! So we need your help to motivate and keep us going by donating what you can

The event will involve a large group of us taking part in a big “Spinnathon” on the 4 February, leading a relayed Spinning class for 12 hours, The basic aim is to keep the pedals a turning for the whole 12 hours on a number of bikes.  I'm doing  it as part of a team of 2 - so I get to do 6 hours spinning - so please help motivating us by donating what you can !