:: update ::

Hey everybody - I did it! But boy - this was no ride in the park.

The ride started off really well, 10 of us set off from the Old Inn around 6.00am with high hopes. I must admit I was feeling pretty good and flew through Melton Mowbray and Grantham. In fact, going up Grantham Hill (about 1.5 mile climb) I was leading and when I eventually got to the top I turned around to check on how everyone was doing and they were still only halfway up!

But about 8 miles outside of Grantham it all went horribly wrong. After 2 miles of quite frankly crap road surfaces, I hit a hole in the road that snapped three spokes and bent the wheel. The wheel could no longer turn and I was left behind on my own in the wilderness that is Lincolnshire.

But, I'm a resourceful guy. After trying a couple of things - I threaded the snapped spokes into the other spokes and removed the front brakes to enable the wheel to go around. I hopped back onto the bike and whilst the bike was a bit wobbly - it would go forward.

For 40 odd miles on a wobbly front tyre riding into a 10-12 mile headwind on my own with only an MP3 player and fields of cabbage for company I went forth. And rather than being a purely physical challenge - it became a mental challenge to just keep going until I hit Skegness. Believe you me, I had more excuses to stop rather than go on...

But I made it eventually in 5 hours and 30 minutes averaging a reasonable 16.0 miles an hour. Probably the most surprising thing was that Paul Bailey (the guy I trained with) stopped about 5 miles after my wheel incident and Joe Boyle stopped outside Boston (with only 23 miles left to do).

The other results were...

Carl, Dean, Geoff and Christian finishing in 5 hours. Mark and Fran finishing in just over 6 hours and Lad & Dad (sorry can't remember their names) finishing in 6 hours 45 minutes, which considering the Lad was only 13, that's a big achievement.

So thank you to everyone for their encouragement and sponsorship. For those of you who sponsored me, I'll be sending instructions on how you can pay me and all that stuff.

Thanks for your time - M

p.s. I'll still waiting for Paul's Jo to get the pictures from her phone and I'll post them up as soon as I can.

:: introduction ::

As some of you may or may not know I try to do something vaguely fitness orientated each summer. Last year it was cycling and lo and behold, its cycling again this year. Boring, granted - but I really didn't fancy training for a marathon (or even a Snickers - boom boom!).

Now this is a charity event and as you may have guessed, I need some sponsors . The charity we are raising money for is the 'Hope Foundation for Cancer Research' - a Leicestershire based charity whose main efforts are to raise funds for various research projects to erradicate this terrible disease. Now as I'm sure you will know, Cancer does effect and touch our lives whether it be to ourselves, our family, our friends or even people we don't particularly like. So you could view a tiny contribution as an investment if you like, however that doesn't mean you can chain-smoke twenty B&H and start licking roads.

What's the format? Well, pretty much the same as last year. We'll be cycling from the Old Inn, Littlethorpe straight to Skegness - a beautiful coastal resort set in the rolling fens of Lincolnshire if you've never been there before. Most of the lads and lasses from last year are participating as well as some newbies - but I can't see us being as lucky with the weather as last year, but that's where the training will tell.

So, if you would like to sponsor me you can either complete the form below or send me an email. This will send me a notification confirming that you would like to sponsor me and for how much. Once I've completed the challenge, I'll forward you details of my Paypal account and that's pretty much it.

Thanks for your time and if you're a bit brassic and can't sponsor me - nevermind, an email of encouragement is always appreciated (yer tight little ....)

Mark, Katie, Reece and the bump.

:: FAQ ::

Where's the email form?
Below this form, just use the scrolly thing...

How much should I sponsor you then?
Whatever you can spare really. However, sponsorships over £1000 will guarantee absolutions from most serious crimes in the UK.

Have you ran into any parked cars this year?
Nope - none so far. Although I had to pay £100 in damages to the owner of the motor I ran into - did she have her hazard lights on? Nope, but I really couldn't be bothered to follow it up. Ho hum.

Can I get my company to sponsor you?
Sure - it’s a registered Charity (No. 1091480). There are some super tax benefits from giving stuff to charity, well, in the UK there is.

Hold on, so this is a local Leicestershire charity - what good is that going to do me living in Peru?
Easy tiger. Research undertaken on or on behalf of the Hope Foundation is distributed across the globe - if they suss out the cure, I'm sure it will be winging its way over.

So, should I start sending all my money to you now?
It would be nice to think so - but no. All I need is a small commitment via the email form below and that's it. Please don't send me any credit card details - I'll do the whole lot through Paypal.

How much did you raise last year?
Good question - to be honest I can't remember, but it was certainly in the £1900 region. So if you sponsored me last year - kudos to you!

Wow - is this site completely CSS designed?
You betcha. After making a living out of HTML tables I decided to play around with CSS and see what it could do. You can even review this site using the Lynx browser - woohoo!