If the money I raise helps someone it is worth it
The honest reason I chose to do the London – Surrey Ride 100 for FitzRoy was because I felt so guilty about not doing the charity abseil down the Spinnaker Tower. I thought âOk, I’ll do the London Ride100 bike ride insteadâ. Now, six months later, I definitely wish I’d thrown myself off the Spinnaker Tower instead, because my body feels like I have anyway, and hit the floor!
My two lovely brothers – Steve and Dave – are also doing the cycle ride for FitzRoy. We have been discovering training routes together, around the Isle of Wight (horrible hilly, slow and never again), Goodwood Race Course (lovely, fast and flat) – we even chased after the Tour de France professionals in Yorkshire for two days. Images of my older brother Steve wearing both a French beret and a Yorkshire flat cap together on his head all weekend (and thinking he looked completely normal) comes to mind – and he is the more sane brother!
Having built my training up each week I’m now averaging about 80/100 miles a week. This weekend after cycling 50 miles I got off my bike and had a Bridget Jones moment (when she falls off the running machine), as my legs really didn’t seem to belong to me any longer. I felt proud of doing 50 miles  but fell back to earth with a bump when I remembered that I’ve got to do double that distance and faster, as we have to complete the ride within eight hours or we’ll be swooped up with the dust cart! So we definitely won’t have time for any pub and chip stops on the day!
I naively thought at least after six months of training and cycling 80 miles a week  I’d have lost weight â WRONG â I’ve not lost a single pound! Everyone keeps saying I’m building muscle but unfortunately I think it’s more to do with the pub and chip stops.
Why I’m doing this challenge for FitzRoy
Having worked at FitzRoy for six years, I’m completely inspired by how we’re helping the people we support, and all the wonderful work being done by the extremely hard-working support workers. This is what will help me complete Ride 100, or at least give it my best shot. If raising £600 changes something for a person we support in the smallest of ways it will be well worth every second of me feeling like my knees have aged ten years in the last six months.
It’s been really fun, healthy, exhausting, and exciting, getting ready, and it’s certainly been a much bigger personal challenge than I’d imagined. When I finally cross the line in The Mall outside Buckingham Palace with a big smile on my sweaty face, I shall think of all the lovely people we support who face much harder challenges every day of their lives than me cycling 100 miles, but I will also give myself a little pat on the back.