Dear Everyone,
I want to say a big thank you to you all, for your donations and good wishes for my cycling challenge. The ride went as well as it could, without punctures or any difficulties with the bike. It was an epic journey, not just physically but mentally also. I didn't get much time to reflect on Wednesday when I returned home safe and sound. However I have now had time to go through my route and I pretty much did cycle the whole way around Wales, in the four days I had planned.
My first day (Sunday 19th Aug) was from home (Mold) to Tremadog (Nr Porthmadog). I set off at 5:30am and met a squash buddy, JG, who bought me lunch in Tudweiliog which was greatly appreciated. I arrived at my first destination at 4:30pm. The next day was an earlier start at 5am. This proved to be one of my most challenging days. I couldn't get out of the lower gears, as it was hill after hill after hill . My destination for this second day was St Davids. It took me 13hrs, so I arrived at the hotel in St Davids at 6pm. The 3rd day ended up even longer. I started at 4:30am. My destination this time was Abergavenny, even though it was a longer day I felt better than the day before. I think my legs just couldn't be bothered to complain anymore and realised what they needed to be doing!! This was to be a more stressfull day as some of the roads near Swansea and Cardiff were hectic, plus got lost a little lost which didn't help!! Anyway I managed to get to the hotel in Abergavenny for 8:30pm, so this day took me 16hrs to complete. My last planned day was Abergavenny to home. Starting at 5:30am this was a lovely journey, especially through a mountain range called the Black Mountains. All I could hear was the sounds of Hawks, as there was hardly any traffic (definately one of my best memories of the trip). I did feel really tired this day, I think the previous two days had caught up with me. However the roads were really good to me, as there where not many hills until the last quarter. Another favourite memory of my trip, was having my last lunchbreak on top of a mountain looking down into the valley (see piccy). I managed to get home for 5:15pm, so this day took just under 12hrs to complete.
Overall it took me about 52hrs, which includes stops for eating etc. I haven't got an exact distance but definately around the 600 miles mark.
The money raised so far is a fantastic amount. However if this link is shared with all the people you know, I am sure we can raise the amount even higher.
This was a very tough challenge, however not as tough as the challenges people face battling Cancer.
Thanks for visiting my fundraising page.
I would like to thank Keith and Sandra from the Royal Madoc Hotel (Tremadog), Howard from the City Inn (St Davids) and Ken Watkins from the Kings Head Hotel (Abergavenny) for providing me with the accomodation for my trip, it was very much appreciated.
I would also like to thank my wife Jane, for her patience and support especially during my training , it would have been impossible to complete this enormous challenge without putting the hours of training in, plus the extra encouragement along the way too!
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