Thank You

Just a short post to give a mention to a few of the people who have helped me to get to this stage- that is the stage of panic and dread that its nearly the starting day and I am not prepared enough.

Firstly, I must give thanks to my son Tom, who would dearly love to be riding with me, but sadly for him he has got his GCSE exams at exactly the time I am doing the ride. Tom is the reason I got into cycling. My father got Tom cycling at the age of about 7, and being the over protective parent that I am, I wouldn't let Tom ride his bike alone on the roads in London, so I got a bike to accompany him. Over the years, Tom has accompanied me on many rides, including several London- Southend rides, several Audax events and general weekend rides around the Essex lanes. Last summer Tom & my father did the C2C ride from Whitehaven to Hartlepool. Tom has never let me hear the end of that and the fact he did it and I didn't. That is probably part of my motivation to do LEJoG.

Next, I must give a mention to my father who has encouraged me to cycle and is a seemingly never ending source of bikes and bike kit. He is even going to travel over from Durham to Wales and ride with me up to the Carlisle or the Scottish borders, and even better has persuaded my mother to drive that part of the route carrying our luggage. Thanks to both of you.

Next, I must say thanks to Les Harrison, a fellow north east cyclist and a friend of my father. Les did LEJoG last summer and his advice has been very helpful, from what luggage to take, what route to follow and how to approach the hills etc.

Last but not least, I must give a big thank you to Jo, my partner for not letting me weasel my way out of doing the ride. She has also decided to give up her time to join me as luggage carrier/ hotel booker etc for the 2nd week of the ride. She has put up with my arranging weekends around cycling- ie getting home late on a Friday/ leaving early on a Monday so I can do extra cycling. She's even put up with my falling asleep on the sofa or in the cinema as I'm too tired after too much cycling. She's a star.

Finally, I got round to putting all the luggage etc on my bike today. I've got the GPS, computer, all set up on bike now. Just got to try packing my kit into the luggage bags now