Final update

The grand total raised by both of us seems to be ... £3556.  Thanks very much to all donors.

Post-ride report

We set out from Marsworth about 8 a.m. and had a pretty good first two hours of riding, averaging roughly ten miles an hour over a variety of towpath terrain - the best bits are lovely but there are sections with puddles and pretty rough surfaces, including various hazards that remind you you're using a path not originally intended for cycling.  We'd stopped for a short rest after 2 hours and were just setting off again when I noticed I had a front wheel puncture.  We thought we'd been crafty by carrying spare inner tubes, but our tyre man (no names ...) had omitted to check that the valves on them matched those on our pumps - two of three didn't.  This reduced us to one spare tube which was one size smaller than my wheel, but we contrived to get it on and inflate it - and were quite chuffed that the tyre change under a tree had used up about 99% of a rain shower.  After three or four miles though, there was a very sudden and obvious impediment to my progress.  I stopped and saw that the inner tube had come out from under the tyre.  Just as I imagined putting it back, there was a loud bang which made some fishermen jump.  So out with the puncture repair kit to mend my original inner tube, which we should really have done in the first place - it turned out that the puncture was a very small hole. 

A few miles after this we reached a cafe at roughly halfway so stopped for a hot chocolate.  Another 5 miles or so took us to Bulls Bridge where the canal divides into one branch for Brentford and one for London. We took the London one but then cam up against "towpath closed" signs and a map of a little diversion through Southall which started off with a mile or so along the Brentford arm. That was our last siginificant hold-up apart from dismounting for some of the busier bits in London and finding our way through the streets for the two sections of tunnel - strightforward at Maida Vale, rather less so at Islington.  We finished just after four o'clock so reckoned to have spent slightly less than seven hours in the saddle. At journey's end (the south side of Limehouse basin, we paused for a celebratory pint before riding over to Canary Wharf to join our wives for supper and a fairly long ride home through some pouring rain, which cleaned the bikes up very nicely!

Thanks again to all donors, and also to Jacquie for driving us both to Marsworth and home from Canary Wharf.

Update, 3 August

Date for the ride is now Thursday 6th August which we're hoping follows a dry spell to make life nice 'n easy.

Update, 30 July

We've postponed the ride to next week in the hope of getting two dry days in a row, riding on the second after any  muddy sections of towpath have dried out on the first.

Update, 24 July

Thanks to all donors for their considerable generosity.  I hope we can exceed the target I originally set, and maybe pay a nurse for three weeks.  As long as they arrive in time, we'll be resplendent in Helen & Douglas house T-shirts - one of their fundraising team saw this page and offered to send them.  I will have lights, though we expect to finish in daylight, and as a non-swimmer, I'll be keeping well clear of the water!

What am I doing?

With a friend, I'm riding about 60 miles along the Grand Union and Regents Canal towpaths, from Marsworth Junction near Tring, to Limehouse Basin. You can see a map showing our route here. We'll be riding on Thursday 30th July, or Tuesday 4th August if the weather looks really grim on the 30th.

What's the charity?

The bike ride is in aid of Helen and Douglas House, a home providing respite and end of life care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, as well as support and friendship for their families.  Their current services cost £4.5m a year, and most of this comes from donations.  Employing a nurse costs £85 a day - my fundraising target will pay for one nurse for two weeks.

Background information on JustGiving

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