If you didn't realise I was crazy before...now read on and this may change your mind!
Saturday 30 June wasn't wet or windy or chilly, infact it dawned bright with a strange little yellow thing in the sky....a far cry from this dismal weather we've been having recently. Maybe this was an omen of good things to come today!?
10.30 rendezvous at Bournemouth Hospital with what would be the first of my fabulous support crew from Bournemouth Joggers : Ellen, Liz, Lauren (Loz), Tricia, Debbie and Debs. Lesley, Lisa and Carl from the Jigsaw Appeal were there together with several others they had clearly coerced into giving up an hour or so of their sunny Saturday morning, together with balloons and banners. Mock up photos of my 'start' duly completed ready to be sent off to the press and suchlike, we then transferred to the Littledown Centre for an impromptu whip-round before heading back to the hospital for the real departure.
Loz had been installed as our official photo / video taker for the adventure and was to do an incredible job of recording our adventures and post them straight back to our Facebook pages so that people could keep a track of our exploits. Wave105 were also airing the event all over the weekend.
12.00 and I was off. We made our first error of judgement just 400m later when I changed tact and followed the cycle path down by the river...how was I to know that Ellen and Liz had legged it to Iford roundabout and missed us coming through!! Oops...
Christchurch was heaving and with Liz and Ellen still waiting for us to appear at Iford, it was left to my bike crew to try to get some coins in those buckets and tins. On to Somerford where Liz and Ellen then passed me, sat on the railings near the zebra crossing waiting for my bike crew! Highcliffe gave another opportunity to catch shoppers before we hit the first pub of the day, The House Martin at Barton-on-Sea. We started to get into a routine as Liz and Ellen were able to leap-frog us and 'prep' the pub / village that we were approaching so by the time we got there the hard work had already been done and the tins were filling up nicely....great going guys :o)
Country lanes beckoned next as we headed down towards the coast to Milford-on-Sea and Keyhaven where once again Ellen and Liz had worked wonders in the car parks! No-one was safe from these two!!
Great support in Milford-on-Sea then a quick hop down to The Gun Inn at Keyhaven where I was rewarded with a round of applause when appearing round the corner - again Ellen and Liz had got there first!
It was at this point that Ellen told me off....for running too fast and not giving them sufficient time to really work the punters. At several points earlier, I'd clocked myself doing well under sub 8 minute miles...what was I trying to achieve here...a fast run or to raise as much money as possible? Slow down kid!!
Next stop was Lymington but first we had to negotiate the very busy main road into the town which wasn't pleasant as there was no footpath : I decided best plan of action was to run in front of the bikes rather than behind or on the opposite side of the road. Another raptuous round of applause greeted us as we arrived in the High Street, closed due to a street market...excellent crowds for Ellen and Liz to capture. Two lads in jeans and fashion trainers were apparently in awe of what I was doing and were debating whether they could run with me for the remaining 6 or 7 miles...they decided to try and ran with me to the bottom of the High Street hill before electing that this was the limits of their stamina! Suddenly craving a milk shake, Loz found me an amazing freshly made banana one - later would decide this probably wasn't the best idea I've had but right here, right now, it was delicious! Having worked the hordes of people around the marina / harbour, we then set off for the final leg to East Boldre. The wheels came off my wagon about a mile to the finish, probably around the same time that I revisited the banana milkshake idea and decided not to go down that route again! The Turfcutters Arms couldn't have been a more welcome sight and once I'd recomposed myself, enjoyed an ice cold drink in the beer garden, along with a wedding party that had already been extremely generous and dropped over £50 into our buckets.
Amazing day, fantastic crew and all the boxes were ticked.
Covered 24.5 miles and raised £543.18, way in excess of any of our guesses. Tomorrow, back out to do it all again :o)
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