Saturday 26 June 2010

Day 15 - 26 June



Brilliant ! We've done it ! We finished just after 5pm today and went straight to the photo booth. There is a little hut at both Land's End and at John O'Groats which has official photographers and being a Saturday today, we did not know until what time he would be there so it was with great relief when we spotted that he was still on duty.

Our day started really early. I don't think it really gets very dark so far up north. It was still very light when I tried to go to sleep last night so I took a picture. The window was a bit steamed up (room was hot and it was cold outside) so pardon the poor photo quality.

Anyway. We set off at 8.30 and were immediately into the hills. One massive hill after the other. That continued till well after the first 25mi when it sort of flatten out a bit. On top of that we got soaked! The weather was threatening with spots of rain and then it hammered it down. Cycling down a hill whilst raining hard is very unpleasant as the rain drops really sting your face, it almost feel like deep needle pricks.
The wind was also against us today and we were cycling against a severe head wind the whole way.

Lunch was a toastie at Thurso where we also got some coke and filled up our water bottles which were both empty by now. Then the battle with the head wind started again.
Stops became more frequent and I developed a new knee ache, different to the one I already had. Jackets were off and we were getting dry from our rain shower.
As usual the last 10 miles were really crunching time. We just put our heads down in the wind and kept going. And we finished !

Stats for today are :


63.19 mi

10.42 mi average speed

133 bpm average

32.39 mph max speed

3062 cals

The total stats for the challenge are :

Distance 1010 miles

Cycling time : 91hrs 48min 7 sec

Calories burned : 51 841

My wrists hurt a lot and so does my left knee. My bum is tender and my upper legs are stiff and very reluctant to climb any stairs. But everything will recover - I hope !

A BIG thank you to everyone that cheered me on during the challenge. In no particular order: Thanks to my mum for all her prayers to keep me safe, Kascha, Moira, Sue, Jo-anne, Kris, Matt, Sonia, Gemma, Ali, Tonia, Fawn, Carene, Kate and everyone else I didn't mention. Also a big thanks to my Twitter friends.

A particular thanks and HUGE hugs and kisses to my wonderful husband who was so patient and caring during the whole trip. He even carried my pannier for me all the way ! You are the best !

Thank you also to all our wonderful sponsors.
USN for all your wonderful products which carried us through our journey. Those products were life savers !
Thank you to Bikefactory for servicing our bikes and fixing Stephen's on Day 6 super fast ! Thank you also for the energy gels which helped everyday during the last 15 miles.

This was an experience that I will never forget.

Thanks for reading my blog and following us every day. You were a wonderful audience.

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