Edinburg - John o groats tongue

The alarm went off the painful time of 5.42, but we need to get going. It is an other 4 hours by car than 60 Miles. So ... Well... Calculations are funny things and they are always go on their own stretchy way. We got to John O Groats about 2ish. Quick cup of tea and we trundled off to The sign. We were all standing there ready for the big adventure smiling hopefully in Carl's camera when an evil seagull came and thought Hahaaaa.... and landed a huge sploshy poo on right top of my head. Good luck hey... Silly silly concept. (and the tonight programme is .... washing my hair ... not as would anybody ask me out). Anyway 3 of us finally set off just after 3. The first 20 miles were really good mood is high, landscape stunning,weather fine. After Thurso I continued on my own still ok for an other 20 miles. But then I got a bit beyond myself and the hills just kept coming  towards me in a relentless manner, it was hard. Arrived 10.15 pm to the youth hostel. Lovely Penny has prepared this fantastic meal which was just a life saver. Shower and my hair smells nice not a speckle of bird poo. Off to bed now ... Long day tomorrow
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12/07 hull to Edinburg

The morning of Setting off with full of excitement, expectation and a fair share of empty mindedness in a bit of a manic la-la mode. I do the usual things, how predictable how utterly useless, running up and down looking for things ... Which I  can live without and no importance what so ever my orange hair slide ... Do I really need it?
My lovely people started to arrive to see the bonkers adventure begin. Carl is here so as John no we just need Penny. The bike carrier looks dodgy but it just done 4 bikes London and back so bound to be. (?) we pick Penny up and off we go north. After 2 hours we hit a small bump and things start to unravel the dodgy carrier passed the dodgy stage and entered the can't carry on with this AND somehow penny s shiny new bike has wheel buckled. The clouds of darkness  hit us but plans were forming. Find a shop and just get the stuff so two towns and two shops later cheeriness and fresh air have found us again. Well just laughing in the face of adversity, we are quite good at that.
We are in Edinburg now just finished a enormous ball of past ... Bring on the carbs.... planning for tomorrow
6 hours to John o groats and 60 miles on the bike so  I am going to sleep now, yes I better

bit of a laugh

I had the last chemotherapy session on Monday and am having another batch straight after I get home in 3 weeks time instead of my usual 2 weeks...  that feels good, a bit more breathing space... and don't have to bear the smell of hospital ... which I have found increasingly difficult, but hey, it does keep me ticking. I had a treat on Tuesday and went to have Reiki and Reflexology with gorgeous Val and as I was flicking between trying to empty my mind (falling asleep occasionally) and going on a killing spree and telling the nasties it is time to go ... out of the blue it suddenly hit me,  the 1000 miles thing ... a bit out of nowhere (which is a bit ridiculously silly as i have been breathing this ride for the last couple of months) ... and started laughing my head off ... thinking for the first time that it is a bit bonkers... and you know maybe it is. I haven't really thought about it that way... I guess it is a 1000 miles in a chemotherapy sandwich ... but I always think things will just work out ... never-ending bloody optimism that's me  ... but hey it is working for me ... usually.

But I am ready to roll around the country with lovely people and meet new ones and have some stories to tell... so here we go with a big grin on my face; it will be a hell of adventure!

Share it with us

We will write, upload pictures and take video every day.

So see you tomorrow at John o Groats. Have a lovely day. I am sure I will.

 

100 kilometres at night-time in London … Nightrider!

 4 of us and 3000 others, most of them bombing it fast as they can, while we played the sightseers, wide mouth full of laughter, amazement and flapjack. Started at Crystal Palace at 11.40pm and were thinking about doing it by 6/7ish … well it took us a bit longer; we rolled in around 9ish…But what an adventure!  The route was amazing, really well signed, only managed to get nearly lost once, which is a record for us by any account.. mind you, to get there was a bit of an adventure through a very dark park . Having all of London to ourselves was really surreal and magical; Canary Wharf with all  those sparkling shiny mega spaces.. Annabel was desperately longing for some colour and velvet at that point; Camden Town with all the jolly fellows who were very amused of the sight of two wheels pedalling when the only double usually visible at that time of the night is brought on by the drink . Alexandra Palace, half way point, the view, dawn… crisp, pinkish, smelling cold earth … and then the trickling down to the big landmarks …  but the best thing about it was pedalling with my wonderful mates; all the giggles and swearing of the hills the teas and wees  and the real hero of the night was wonderful Nicol who has never cycled more than 30 kilometres and using gears was only from sight and theory… she was whizzing by the end of it and the gears were clicking furiously.

… and we did it together; it felt good so so very good.

And our treat ….

Well … we thought we needed a treat after roughing it through the night. We booked afternoon tea at the Dorchester. But as we only had an hour’s sleep  we all felt a bit adrenalin fuelled, giggly and delirious. We packed our bags ..god knows how we filled with the car with 1 days supplies, put all 4 bikes back on my battered Zafira,  bits hanging off… and after an hour and a half, some going around roundabouts and a very dubious U turn later (sat nav estimated 42 minutes), we pulled in to the Dorchester and gave the key to the man in the hat who managed not to the snigger in our face. Mind you we were grinning had ear to ear at that point nothing could have stopped us. And it was really really lovely, didn’t feel out of place, we were very well looked after and gave the whole escapade rather enchanted finish.

10k with a lovely Mr Surgeon and Dear Dr Oncologist of mine

I really do think, and lots of academic researchers do too, that physical exercise improves quality of life during and after treatment and I would like it if the medical world would give us tools such as exercise and diet when people ask what can they do to help themselves.
… so I am on a little mission to get people to notice

We are running! The lovely Mr Surgeon and Dr Oncologist and me and my ever so gorgeous friend Nicol are running the Beverley 10k. I kind of plotted and they kind of very kindly went along with it after a bit of a trickery. I first asked Dr Oncologist who said …no way, he had never run and he won’t and he would die if… (no no this is my line) … I had a feeling that he wouldn’t be that easy so I had a backup plan… Ok I said, but what about if … Mr Surgeon will come along … I got a tentative yes, in the expectation he wouldn’t be that daft to agree to such a nonsense. Well I had kind of done my research and knew lovely Mr Surgeon has done some running about before, so he might just do it. I asked and he agreed … I was prepared, reasoning, argument … but really did not need them; it was dead simple …he was just “yes ok we will do it”… with a smile. (Thank you, thank you)
So I was a bit giggly to see Dr Oncologist …It look like time had stopped with a look of shock and disbelief … with the realisation that he had got himself into, no previous running training, 10k running race ahead… in that point I am not sure if I managed to keep a straight face. But He is being brilliant and they have been training together since November … I am sure they are cursing me every now and again but I am sure they have a laugh too between puffing.

So wish us luck … I am hoping they won’t be whizzing past though …

http://www.bmycharity.com/anthonymaraveyas2012

the last 3 weeks

I am sorry haven't been in touch the last 3 weeks has been a bit turbulent. I got a new CT result which was a bit dubious as there was a bit of a "dodgy" one in October it looks like it had been a slight progression in that time looking back all my result, but since than it is stable again. My husband, Chris decided to redo the kitchen as we got some cheap unit on ebay so i ending up project managing it all (and as we never follow bog standard stuff we ended up knocking 2 walls doing swirly worktop and breakfast bar supported by a real tree trunk). i just ran a marathon (the Hull marathon on the 8th of April) in just over 5 hours. and my sister quite unexpectedly offered me and my mum a ticket to Australia to visit her, I am going between two chemo sessions, flying this Saturday. So even by my standards it has been  a bit windwhirly. Oh yes, and had my birthday in between. So the ride has suffered a bit; I haven't been as proactive as before but things are ticking over and when I get back on the 29th I will fully refocus again. I heard about the charity and will contact them; thanks for the contact. I might try to do some stuff from Oz but not sure if I will manage it. The dates on the website are correct. 

Change of plans

I really should have gone for a run today. It should have been my longest one before the very silly far too long one … and so far I have been good (ish) at keeping to the plan. Thanks more to the fear, than the overwhelming enthusiasm. I was kind of up for it in a head clearing, muscle aching, questioning the word and humming along with the bit-too-familiar content of my playlist kind of way. But then the devilish phone call came and was humming a different song in my ear … and the resistance was futile … sunshine, bike and great company, oh yes I was in. My lovely friend Lisa’s and her fantastic dad Frank were out for a birthday bike ride and I was invited, so no question about it, I was going. Frank is great, 67 (Happy Birthday Frank!) on his rather shabby bike, which is not far from falling apart, his legs go like mad as his the gears are stuck in high. On the picture is an attempt to unstick it … did not work for long… come on Frank treat yourself to a nice one!

I have not been out for a longish bike ride for yonks’ as this running about taking up all my exercise time. Oh it was so good pushing along in the sunshine. I can’t wait to get the running out of the way and get back to the saddle.

Jazz up!...please...

Well it's maybe not everybody's problem but …I am a bit fed up with boring cycle clothes mainly ladies' ones.  I am aware of the difficult and wobbly bridge between practicality and glamour but at least somebody should attempt to sashay across it. There are many sites devoted to urban cool biking which is fantastic; you can see how can you pedal in stilettoes , floaty dresses … great, love it, point taken, I do the same . But when it comes to cycling a bit longer than going to the shop or to the café to meet with friends, the options to feel a bit proud of what you are wearing run out in no minutes. There is a choice between Lycra in black and pink or red if you really fancy variations of shapeless or sticking to you for dear life. There have been some attempts, the latest is a total disaster, Henry Holland and Skyride what were you thinking… frumpy frumpy frumpy. Even the models look uncomfortable… not a good sign!

So if anybody sees some proudly wearable interesting looking items, please give me a shout.

photo shoot

I woke up feeling much perkier than the last couple of days, so a run was on the cards. Interval training – I thought-will do (interval training – short burst of pushing it with recovery periods). Well it did me. My heartbeat was over the roof in about 2 lamp posts distance, even slow jogging in between was out of the question I resulted to walking and muttering under by breath about silly people who run. But apparently it does do the trick, I feel achier than after a 10 miles run.

Couple of days ago lovely Penny and Carl came to see us. Penny will be riding too : ). We ate vegan ratatouille, wild garlic soup and laughed a lot, such a lovely company …then we had a hilarious photo session directed by Carl … tremendous fun and more laughing. I just got the photos…

Had also great news from Mike, who will be joining The Ride for the Wales part of the adventure. The National Educational Trust has kindly donated £100 to The Ride.
Please check out his great web blog http://www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/beatingcancer/

I made some phone calls for sponsorship and had some discussion about the lobbying side of the website.

Starting again

I have kind of decided to get a bit better with blogpost … so I am on a little mission to write a little bit every day… we’ll see how it rolls

Not the very best day to start off with, but we have to start somewhere so it has been bit of a difficult day. I have GP, golden poison for long, and chemotherapy for boring, 2 weekly on Mondays. This is a cocktail of drugs on the day followed by a 46 hours companion in a pump form, escorted also by some steroids which give me rosy cheeks and help me to perk up and not to feel queasy. Reading back this sounds exhausting but it is bearable. Anyway … so I decided as I am usually fine just leave the steroids out; as I might just not need them and they give me wrinkles (joke… well kind of) and see what happens … well I got a bit shattered, which made me feel cross, which made me feel powerless, which I am not really good at a throws me into wobbles. I think I will take the damn things next time.

On the other hand

It looks like the accommodation for the Wales part of The Ride is sorted which is great.

Also I have been called by my MP Diana Johnson’s secretary, a really quite nice sounding young man, who assured me things are in hand and he is working on helping The Ride to get recognition at the end of the journey.

But

One of the funding bids I put in has come back and the answer includes the word ... unfortunately … so I got a bit disheartened, but by the time I am writing this my head is in a bit better place.

Tiredness and rejection do not make a cheerful couple.