Hello everyone! Thanks for taking a peek at my JustGiving page.

Myself and a bunch of nurses, doctors and a few randoms have taken on the challenge of the – Paris Bike Ride in July 2010. 300 miles in 4 days! Eek!

I guess the big question is “What could inspire Sally to this level of craziness?”  Well…. I am raising valuable funds towards the new state of the art UCLH Cancer Centre due to open in 2012.

1 in 3 peoples lives are affected by cancer at this time, people from all different walks of life find that their lives as they knew them are changed forever. Anything that we can do to improve this experience for patients and their loved ones is a good enough reason to get generous with your pounds! And I think a purpose built Cancer Centre ticks the box nicely!

I know it looks an awfully big scary target, I only have 2 months in which to raise it, times are tough for a lot of people, but I am confident that we can get there!

through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate today, don’t put it off to tomorrow!

I’ll be keeping my page updated with my progress in training (I will try and avoid details of how sore my bum is!)

PROGRESS SO FAR .......

12/04/2010: Bike ordered....... I am at the mercy of the 'cycle to work' scheme as to when it arrives.

19/04/2010: No bike yet  :( but been doing lots of spinning and almost crippled myself with a 10k in Hyde Park last week. 2 wheels good, 2 legs bad....

26/04/2010: Hooray! Bike is being delivered tomorrow. I am the proud owner of a pair of Lycra padded bum shorts, cycling shoes, gloves, and glow in the dark jacket. I'm almost ready to start some actual road training! Went to an information event about the cycle on Saturday. I'm hopefully not going to be the last one back to the hotel every night. 2 guys are doing it on 1 and 1/2 butchers cycles which they have welded together to make a tandem. Getting beaten by them would be like PAt being taken over by a marathon Womble! :)

29/04/2010: Bike has arrived! Flatpacked!....... Biggest challenge so far has been how to untangle the curly handle bars from the cross bar. Think I'll get the man at cycle surgery to check I've re-tightened everything properly before I do some serious miles. Time to hit the road! BH weekend here I come!

05/05/2010: Last night the bike got its first REAL road ride! The padded bum shorts were tried and tested and so far seem to be doing the job. It was only a mid week 25 miles, but so much fun!  Harpenden countryside is nice! This weeks challenge - to fit the cleats to my cycling shoes and try the clip in pedals. Eeeek! Grazed elbows and knees here we come! 35 miles in Surrey planned for the weekend :) Also need to decide how I feel about using a chamois cream that was initially developed to put on the udders of cows who were being industrially milked......... discuss....... :) I do like the wrapper it comes in.......

10/05/2010: We caught the train out to Farnham yesterday and did a ride with Matthew's wife Jen. The terrible trio of Sally, Kate and Pam have now cycled together for the first time. Next stop .... world domination! Hills much more difficult than last ride and my first experiementation with clip in pedals! Only fell off twice, knees and calves look a bit bruised and grazed but all good fun! Midweek ride with lots of clipping.unclipping practice scheduled for Richmond Deer Park!

17/05/2010: We headed out to Oxfordshire this weekend to do our longest ride yet.... 40 miles. (Only Pam thought we were doing 30) Unfortunately she was most displeased when she realised my Jedi mind tricks meant that having just fallen off her bike and into a rather large clump of stinging nettles, that she still had another 10 miles to go. A classic Oxford monsoon started just 1/2 an hour into our ride and we were pretty much drenched for the entire time. At one point I could feel the water sloshing around in my shoes!

Our hypothermia was short lived thanks to Jess's Mum who filled us with hot tea and cookies and had a warm shower and set of dry clothes waiting for us back at the ranch. Pam might be talking to me by next weekend .... hopefully ...

24/05/2010: We didn't quite make our target miles on Sundays ride due to a late start caused by a tire deflating conspiracy and the fact that the UK hit 32 degrees, plus a cycling accident which we came across and had to do some impromptu cervicalspine stabilisation until LAS turned up .... 45 mins later! Anyway, on the plus side we felt we had well and truly earned our ice cream and indulged before driving home. Hoping to get at least x1 mid week ride in this week. Fingers crossed :)

07/06/2010: It has been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't had much time to update ... sorry! Last weekend we did our first 50 miles out in Harpenden which went very well. I'm discovering the joys of energy bars as can't manage my usual monster portions when I'm jumping straight back on the bike! Bought myself a cool little gadget that measures spped and miles to keep me motivated along the way!

Yesterday we took part in a 50mile sportive event in the Chilterns which was loads of fun and now we have all cracked the 50 mile mark! :)

June - July 2010

Hardcore training including a weekend in Wales, sportive in the New Forest and mid week Harpenden rides. Not to mention a trip to A & E with a ? #ankle (luckily just a bad sprain)!

We're all finally L2P ready!

 

WE'VE DONE IT!!!!!!!

14th-18th July 2010. 300 miles cycled, 50mph gale force winds braved, ridiculous tan lines from shorts, torrential rain at times. But it was FABULOUS!

I have until the 16th August to collect final donations and am not quite at my target yet. There's time to support me still.

 

Sx