London To Brighton 2010: I Made It Through The Rain

The first time I had ridden a bike in over 10 years, it took me four hours & I got a lift home bike et all from a very good friend. I started slowly with Glens assistance, it turned out I had to learn how to ride a bike, some tears, some tantrums, a change of saddle, some padded shorts & a lot of patience (all Glens) and it was all starting to come together. My saddle was high enough so my knees didn’t hurt, I could stop properly for traffic, I had mastered out how to stay steady at slow speeds between small gaps & slowly the rides got longer & the times improved. But I don’t think there are enough country miles to practise on!

So the day started the evening before with a good old cry from Thame to the A34…17 miles! For some reason it had just dawned on me how far it was…even if I cycled form my front door to my mums I still wouldn’t be in Brighton! I had a fear & I felt a little unwell, which was unfortunate as I was on the way to mum & dads to have mums spaghetti bolognaise which I adore and had requested!

By the time we got to mum & dads Glen had done lots of hand squeezing, provided tissues & had calmed me down to my heart beating very firmly throughout my chest! Alarms set for 3am it was an early night, Glen fell asleep nearly straight away, I on the other hand think I had about 2 hours sleep, if it had been continuous that would have been a bonus but by the time the alarm went off I was just about calm enough to fall asleep properly!

A scramble in the dark, a bowl of branflakes & we were in the tank heading to Clapham Common for our 6am start. We joined the queues & were the third gate to be realised to start the journey! What a lovely bunch of people with encouraging words, my absolute favourite following 3 guys on a tridem (a 3 wheeled tandem, is there a word for that?) dressed as the village people, we had a sailor (all tight & in white), a construction worker (work boots, tiny denim shorts & a high vis jacket) and an Indian (who had not a lot on other than a headdress) who we ended up seeing a lot of on our way!

So we started at just gone 6am…cycling through a mostly closed road London was eerie but somehow a very fitting start, (someone has very kindly mapped the route we all took with the official stops here (http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.rebelinblue.com/l2b.kml) we rolled and we rolled & I have never been so pleased to see the M25, so much so I had to ask a lot of people whether it was the real M25!

Unfortunately before we cleared the M23 we were stopped (8.03) for sometime while an accident was cleared, a cyclist had confused the road with a concrete wall & had hurt themselves quite badly. At this point I was a little tired and in need of a hug so we pit stopped at of the official stops on route at mile 18 (9.10) for some food & a comfort break (the luxury port-a-loos were luxury) & then got back on the road.

We stopped just under half way at Burstow Scout Hut a ‘gnats whisker’ under half way…how knew gnats had whiskers? (10.26) for a sit down and a recharge, spoke to some very lovely people and got some fuel inside us, fig rolls, bananas and gross energy gels that give you an instant hit! The thing of heroes…by this point I had seen 2 people eating Jaffa cakes & thought we had missed a trick there!

& so we carried on, more miles & someone next to me said there thighs were starting to burn & I was relieved that it wasn’t just me! A lot of hills & absolutely no pride meant that when I was ready to not do it anymore, I got off and pushed my bike up the hills. Glen powered on up every one and kindly waited for me at the top.

We had made it to the 30 miles (11.27)! From there on in it was officially the longest bike ride I would have ever been on, the last time we cycled 30 miles I was so ready to get home for a hot bath. The brass band at the stop were great, the bacon roll I had hit the spot very nicely and the atmosphere was great. I was a little cold & some of the lads were looking at my a little funny for shivering, but a quite moment, a stretch of the legs & we decided to get moving again (11.39).

On the way again and we passed lots of lovely locals out cheering everyone on, offering free water & sweets & lots of children keeping eyes out for Dads with Fathers day banners, there was one lovely lovely lady, singing Daisy Daisy, which was enough to bring a tear to your eye (it did).

By mile 38 I had hit the metaphorical wall after another hill. I was struggling so we made a longer stop with a little more space around us, refreshed our water, had a comfort stop and ate a little something. I enjoyed the retired gent jumping around to the beat of a drum singing about Brighton but for some reason I looked at the clock (13.10). It was looking as if we weren’t going to make it home in time to be in our own beds watching the CSI New York I had missed during the week especially to be able to watch it on CSI Sunday following London to Brighton. At this point I started to cry, I didn’t think I could do anymore with 16 miles left to go I was considering just stopping it there. But this is where each and everyone of you played your part. You’d all sponsored me your hard earned money & I was just going to decide I had had enough? I had a little word with myself.

We got back on the road (13.59) but not for long, at the next marshal point we were stopped (14.18) we had heard there had been an accident on the Beacon & that the ride had been stopped. I had started to cramp and sieze & was in a foul mood, vowing that I disliked people, disliked bikes & the weather. We were stopped for a considerable time, about an hour and a half. Rumours were filtering down that were later confirmed to be true. We had heard the rumour that someone had had a heart attack on the Beacon & had taken some cyclists out which is why they ride had been stopped to get ambulances & helicopters in. Unfortunately Gary Allen later lost his life in hospital (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10362762.stm)

We made one last stop before the Beacon for a ham roll & a packet of ready salted crisps & it was probably the best meal of my life. In the queue for the ladies, I spoke to three wonderful girls, who all assured me that my feelings of happiness, sadness, pain and disappointment where all perfectly normal for a first time and urged I try it again at least some point in my life. One of the girls had done it with her dad when she was a young teenager and was trying it again for fun, the other girl had done it every year for 10 years (ouch) and the final girl had said she remembered thinking she was fitter than she was on her first time and was surprised how much it took as she had been going to the gym three times a week. I was where she was (apart from the gym bit) and it was nice to know it got easier.We got going again, but by this point the traffic was very bunched together and the London to Brighton had turned from a bike ride to a push your bike challenge. At this point I did feel at a slight disadvantage pushing a heavy framed mountain bike up a 300m climb over 1000m distance. But we were all there, next to each other…talking, chatting, accidentally laughing at a guy who was still trying to cycle up the beacon but grabbed his sunglasses, dropped them in an attempt to not ride over them fell off his bike in that comedy just falling sideways way with a thud.

At this point we were joined by the plight of a young man attempting to get his wife back (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2010/06/20/man-uses-banners-to-declare-love-115875-22347510/) just what you want when your legs & arms hurt. Glens bum was hurting at this point but mine wasn’t (it was a miracle!) as we trundled past the various signs with declarations of lost love, pictures of their demonic looking children & various wedding pictures that I am getting were quite old as they did look very happy together. At this point we all wondered what Zoe’s husband had done. The first sign got us all wondering ‘Zoe, I accept I've made mistakes. Please, forgive me!’ was it an illicit affair, had he decided he was gay & then not so much anymore, who knew? By the second sign ‘Zoe, the bond that we both share could be deeper and stronger than ever. Give us that chance and allow our bond of love to blossom again’ we were united in a common thought, we desperately hoped Zoe was equally as appalled as we were, I expressed my hope, much to the amusement of the couple in front of us, that Zoe was cycling the London to Brighton with her newer better boyfriend.

My favourite was the third sign with more pictures of his evil looking kids & more wedding photos that read ‘"Unite us and our family so we may love, laugh and grow together. Why take advantage of us, let's take advantage of life. I love you Zoe! I always have and always will x." at this point a wonderful young man declared ‘I think I have just been a little sick in my mouth’. The beacon was the first time I had laughed all day and it felt good. The last sign was too vile to share, I told Glen if he ever did anything like that then I would be forced to kick him in the face!

But we had made the top! & What a lovely view, I was sad the clouds weren’t sign written to say Rachael is great but you cant have it all. I had every intention of stopping at the top to get an ice cream but so many people were stopping and it was starting to be late afternoon that we decided to carry on to the finish line. We were still 6 miles from Brighton, but as the monotone man on the tannoy announced, we were nearly there and it was all down hill from there, with a cautionary warning to attempt to stop at traffic lights.

We flew down the Beacon with its bends and curves, it was nice to feel the air circulate and the temperature come down abit. Another slow down to get us coming through in waves just by the A27 but we were free, with Glen way up a head we were going down hill. I had my brakes on the whole time as I am not a fan of down hill, but I could smell the breaks burning & I had no choice but to fly 30mph (very slow, team leaders gps had him down the hill at 43mph) and down into Brighton, it was nice to start seeing offices & town life, I knew it couldn’t be too much further. We were stopped for lights by the Marshalls, the flat above the shops was playing We Are The Champions by Queen and we started off on the green light to ‘And we'll keep on fighting - till the end’ how apt, more tears in eyes, some more cycling & another set of red lights, another flat above the shops playing encouraging music this time I Want To Ride My Bicycle which I whaled my little heart out too. At this point Glen slowed down so I could come in first, as we approached the final corner, I caught Mum & Caroline out of the corner of my eye, moved over, shouted & waved & neither of them saw me, but I heard them see Glen as I cycled on to the finish line. I think I was most disappointed here, the traffic was just so heavy we had to walk over the finish line at 5.28pm.

Just at this moment I had a text message from our team leader Tim wanting to know if we had made it yet (he came in at half eleven, just in front of the first accident so beat the traffic).

As we walked up to the tent to get our cards stamped and collect our medal it was a funny feeling, I was shattered but I wasn’t grumpy anymore. I had done what I had set out to do & cycled from London to Brighton in 1 day.

Nearly a week on it feels a world away, by Tuesday I was fully recovered…my head took a little catching up. I was disappointed in the time it had taken us, eleven and a half hours of your own company is a long time to rake over things. But now I’ve turned on the GPS & discovered our moving time was 6hrs57 and our stopped time was 5hrs05 (which weren’t all choice) I finally feel achieved. & I would do it all again.

I would like to say thank you to all my sponsors (roll called as follows http://original.justgiving.com/rachaelmckelvey), my supporters, my encouraging twitter friends, my lovely family for all their support & taxi-ing & Glen who I couldn’t & wouldn’t have done it without.

Thank you.