Two years ago, I was pretty much your typical 14 year old, lying around, listening to music, “floorganising” my things; and pretty much allergic to exercise! Then my dad started taking me out mountain biking once a week. At first it was bad. I mean really bad. Going downhill was slow and scary, going uphill was even slower and agony, my legs burned, my lungs ached and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest! I’ll be honest, I hated it.
But I stuck with it. We kept going, puffing up hills and then crashing back down the them. I didn’t hate it anymore but I probably wouldn’t be doing it if I had the choice. But then something really weird happened…its just unbelievable… I PASSED SOMEONE!
Yes, little me, who was dying on those uphills, struggling to fightback the tears sometimes overtook someone! And then another. And another. And I started to enjoy it an look forward to those rides, and even began night riding, but that’s a whole other story!
One day we went for a ride out along the old railway line towards Newport, and carried on, and rode up the Wrekin- it has without doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever done. When I’d got my breath back at the top, we looked west to the Welsh borders, and dad talked about his idea to carry on one day and ride all to through Wales to the beach at Barmouth. Yeah, right, good luck with that I said, it seemed crazy, but something about it stuck with me because a few weeks later I decided to go for it and try and raise some money as we go. It was only then that dad told me it was 110 miles!
Long story short, two years later and after a brief layoff due to exams this spring, I am trying to cram in the training miles to do this in July. It’ll be a tough, the furthest I’ve gone is 40 miles and that nearly killed me, but I am now starting to ride 30 miles regularly as a solo girl!
So how can you help? Well, its easy really. I’ll do all the sweating and pedaling for 110 miles, through all those lovely Welsh hills, from Stafford to Barmouth, in one day. And I’ll do it for those wonderful people at the Donna Louise Trust, whose hospice helps Life Limited Children and their families, to get through one of the most awful terrible experiences any family could ever have to go through, the loss of a child. They provide end of life care for children and is vital for all those involved. All you have to is click the button and donate a few pounds. Even 50p. Come on. Please. Help Me! My journey has been, and on the day will be, hard, but it just pales into insignificance by comparison to what those at the Donna Louise Trust go through.
My just giving page