Hey Folks,     25 April 2008

Well this is a first for me! Fundraising and Fun on a bike all in one go! I have always seem to have all the other F’s fixed firmly in my mind instead of. Now come on, keep focused! The Farm, Family and Friends is what I mean and never supposedly leaving any other time to do something else which will obviously be worthwhile. So here goes...!

I have chosen a charity probably like no other but then I am taking party in an activity like no other! Extreme Cycling, well not so extreme other than it is 81 miles of arduous course through Perthshire "mountain and thicket" riding with many Carbon Fibre Geeks who are going to leave us in their wakes! Etape Caledonia is it's name.

I enrolled (paroled) into this madness with my brother-in-law Dan. He of course will be right up there with the geeks but that is not my focus (we'll see if I can fool him). I have been getting very serious about the challenge ahead and started going out in Feb/March in hail, sleet, wind with some suitably dodgy lycra clothes and sending my round robin report to my fellow cyclists thinking I was doing SO well when I had done 10 miles (of course I hadn’t done well). Admittedly, I couldn’t walk after the first initial runs which was suitably summed up by my brother Alexander that it felt like one "had had a romantic WE away with Julian Clarry"!! Quite why/how he knows this would be the case escapes me but I think you get the general jist! Happily (for me) we’ve moved on from there and I happily trained for 40+ miles recently so am half way to achieving my goal.

I am also doing this race(endurance?) with my brother and his friend Euan. A Motley crew if ever there was one (see picture) !! So what skills do I have to bring to this fundraising venture? Err, Umm!? Well, now let me see, err, Determination to Finish! Is that allowed? Does that count? 81 miles of ass crunching! Now of course you could be really mean and really make me work for my supper and sponsor me, say, 10p a mile. I am DETRMINED to finish which means I would at least get £8.10 out of you (unless I lose a spoke. Punctures I can fix, spokes not!). That’ll be good if lots of people respond but I live in the real world too you know and apart from getting bombarded by spam which might like to make parts of my anatomy much bigger (still looking for the “gel ass” enlargement e-mail which would obviously improve my comfort rating on the bike) I do get asked for sponsoring which I try to get involved in. Anyway, to cut a short story long, I’d love to hear from you even if it is for 5p a mile (now that WOULD be making me work for my breakfast, lunch AND dinner)!! Whatever you can do would be great. It will all be appreciated.

This is just a first for me and if I could make it any more personal I would but as usual am leaving it late to get around to it! Been training that hard you see! No honestly I have. No really!! I'm already half the man I never was BUT TRY TO BE!!!

Anyway, without further ado, please make it easy for me to achieve my goal!

Yours aye,

Jamie (Roberts, Lawhill)