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A VERY VERY BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED THIS EVENT!
So many of you whom I met on the day made all the difference. Because of you I enjoyed the arduous day in a way I could never have imagined. And, because of all our effort, now some children far away can perhaps enjoy their days better!!!
So, at 10pm on thurs 2nd I stepped on to my first machine & started to jog. After months of serious training the first couple of hours belies the true pain & effort that is yet to come. Everything starts off so so easy. My first team members were there & everything had a real party boys will be boys atmosphere. The first thing I noticed during my first run was that I was sweating a lot more than I had during training. The temperature since my last session a week before had gone up by several degrees. Hence I found my self wondering how my body would succumb to a faster rate of dehydration.
By 4.30am I had hit my first wall. I wanted to sleep! I planned that I would combat this by going into a kind of slumber whilst on the bike to give me some rest. This was a mistake! Instead of going into a slumber my body just kicked into full sleep mode with me almost falling of the bike! At this point for 1 hour it wasn’t an effort to stay awake, it was a fight! Eventually the simple act of placing an ice cold towel on my neck was all it took to jolt me back! Oh man, that towel felt soooooo good. There’re only a few things in life that have felt that good, but I won’t go there!
The light of day started to break & members began entering the gym. My team were still there driving me on with plenty of laughter & joke! My main man Mike Costa joined me for 3 hours which for set a new personal best for cardio! Gergo kept us pepped up with water, cold towels & energy bars & generally made sure I did helped keep my record of the distances I made on each machine.
There was a lot of pain but the big distractions came with many old & new faces taking time to come and see what I was doing. I only listened to my music for about 2 hours!
Eventually my first team left in the morning to be replaced by Ronnie & Paul. They started with me for pretty much the rest of the day with Paul doing the food & camera & Ronnie on the machines.
There were several walls I began to hit one after the over, each one being followed by a high! Sometimes members & friends would join me for an hour or two. When I wasn’t battling a wall I was happy cracking drunken jokes! The sleep deprivation & flood of endorphins/adrenaline provided the fuel for much humour. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t hallucinate. That was a highlight I looked forward to but didn’t get to enjoy!
One of my last barriers was met in the afternoon. Gorge, one of my mates came over to have a chat. The problem was I didn’t understand anything he was saying!!! He’s a bit of a joker sometimes & I just thought he was deliberately mumbling to me! A couple of hours later he returned & I was back to normal. That was a particularly hard wall but one I had experienced before & knew it would subside once my body had adjusted.
6pm was a godsend! At this point I knew I was on my way to the finish with ‘only’ 4 hours left! My mum & girlfriend had already spent most of the day with me popping out every now & then to have a coffee!
An hour before the finale many had gathered around & in the last minute there was a great troupe there counting down the last 10 seconds!
That was euphoric! I sat there on the machine still pedalling then realised I could get off! Wow, finished! Was I happy about that!
It was a truelly incredible day! I’ll never forget it! I didn’t imagine it would be such a thing to treasure. But the most memorable thing will be that I helped some desperate lives become that much more fulfilled…
Just to let you know, I covered 254 kilometres which is approximately the distance from Nelsons column to the town of Stockport in Greater Manchester. I burnt enough calories to equal about 50 pints of beer or 50 mars bars! I drank roughly 10 litres of water & used up 20 ice cold towels. And finally, my body weight dropped by 3.5 kilograms…
VERY SOON TO DO THE PRIZE DRAW ONCE ALL DONATIONS HAVE BEEN FINALISED!!!
SORRY THIS PAGE TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE, HAD SOME PROBS WITH MY COMPUTER!
Matthew Bridle
General Manager
The Club and Spa London Marriott Hotel,
County Hall
Westminster Bridge Road
London
SE1 7PB
Tel: 02079028021 Mobile: 07770934827
