But hey, childhood decay damage and face plant trauma keeps me busy, so as they say, every cloud has a silver filling!

Sadly our children’s teeth as a nation are in a shocking state. Did you know, the most common reason for a child to end up in a hospital bed is no longer trauma, but ROTTEN TEETH.

Sadly investment in educating parents in healthy diet re dental health is pretty much non existent. Even worse, thee recent “sugar swaps” dept of health initiative was written by a group of idiots with clearly no idea of what healthy diet is for a Homo sapiens.

Nothing wrong with cordial, if it’s at meal times. In between, it’s a processed carb, and guess what it causes.

General rule of thumb is this.:
If it came straight off the tree, or straight out of the ground, it’s probably going to be ok. If not, it’s almost certainly got processed carbs in, that you are not evolved for, and they’ll cause tooth decay. Like the advice says, too often and the cumulative effect will mean only one thing I’m afraid. Holes in teeth. And worse.

And first visit to the dentist…..18 months to two years. Simple in and out. We often don’t get a proper look until three or four visits in, but that’s still only three years of age or so. But more importantly it gets YOU, the parent switched onto healthy diet info at an early stage, before you start feeding them cra……… Rubbish.
Frequency of processed carbs is what causes tooth decay. Clean them all you like…. I have to treat lots of lovely shiny middle class cavities that get brushed quite well between their processed carb snacks.
“But they’re natural sugars ” they say. “
” yup, and they’re natural cavities your kids are getting!”
sadly we don’t have any natural fillings!

See these that we give out to our patients, helps to get the message across. We have many middle class parents that cannot grasp why their kids have holes in their teeth despite using ” a good brand of toothpaste and an electric brush”………… It is all about diet, or more importantly, eating patterns. Read on, and feel free to pass on, please, especially to grandparents.

Diet for a healthy mouth, or how to ward off the evil decay spirits

Would you like to never get another cavity? It is possible. In fact, if you follow just a few simple rules, you are almost guaranteed never to get another cavity.

Here’s how it works. Everybody has germs in their mouths. Decay happens when certain types of these germs turn sugar into acid. This acid causes decay. The good guy is your saliva. The saliva neutralises the acid produced by the germs (stick around, this will get more interesting). It takes 2 hours however after having anything with sugar for your teeth to stop dissolving.

So, your teeth are dissolving for 2 hours after you have anything with sugar. If you have 3 meals a day and nothing in between, your teeth dissolve for 6 hours a day. They seem to cope OK with this. Every sugary snack between meals adds an extra 2 hours to your dissolving time. If you’ve got enough fingers count up how many meals or snacks or drinks with sugar you have a day. Multiply by 2 (use toes if necessary) and you get how much of the day your teeth spend decaying.
If its 10 hours or more, you may as well reserve a seat in our chair for lots of fillings.

Public enemy number one, the sugary snacks are the obvious ones like sweets, lozenges, biscuits and cakes, but this also includes drinks with sugar such as soft drinks, fruit juice, coffee or tea with sugar. Did you know that a large MacDonald’s coke has 22 teaspoons of sugar? It’s full of acid too, which really wrecks the teeth. A cup of juice is healthier, but still has 6-8 teaspoons. The worst snacks are those you suck on for a long time, especially sour sweets which have built in acid.
Even ‘healthy’ snacks like cereal bars and dried fruit are loaded with sugar.

Before all you chocoholics jump out the window, there is a simple solution. All you have to do is bundle up all your snacks and juice and include them with the 3 major meals. Presto! No more decay. If you must gobble or nibble between meals some things are OK. Most dairy products, fresh fruit (not dried) and vegetables are fine to have as snacks. Meat, cheese and the like are good too. You can drink water, milk, coffee or tea unsweetened or with sugar substitute, and watered down juices in moderation. Juice with fizzy water tastes good, and has a lot less sugar and calories. Diet soft drinks and sugarless gum are sort of OK but don’t overdo it.

It sounds easy and it is. The rest is up to you.

Don’t worry about t he physical efficiency of the cleaning it’s not important at this stage at all. At 12 months the teeth are almost self cleansing provided they are on reasonably fresh unprocessed food. Just let them lay with the toothbrush while you do yours. I defy them not to copy you in the end. Only use a TINY amount of paste, less than half a pea sized amount, more can ironically cause problems with their adult teeth in some succeptible people.
More important is diet. Frequency of sugar input, in all it’s forms. Will post a tongue in cheek but of simple dietary advice later.
Yes they will get another set even if you screw these up. But they will be permanently affected in many ways if you screw up the deciduous (baby) teeth. It is not a simple case, of start again, all is forgiven. It isn’t sadly.

Peaks, routes of all lengths to suit and no massive journey.

I dare say there are a tiny number of idiots who are intentionally reckless but I doubt presumed liability does anything about them. The reality is the others all think they can get passed and are driving safely (this may be more disturbing!).

You have missed another possibility – more proactive detection and prosecution of “bad” driving (and bad cycling). You shouldn’t (and don’t in law) need to actually cause an accident to be prosecuted. I believe there are differences in how active road traffic enforcement is across the country. It would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between that and accident rates.j

This above. Most people think they drive safely and sensibly and the problem is everyone else. In reality of course the truth is very different. I honestly believe that the answer lies in both better education, and better enforcement of general driving standards.
Better education……. Perhaps a change to car provisional licences to that of motorcycles for starters, where you are not let loose in a car until you have done some basic training off the public roads first, and achieved an acceptable standard of basic car control. Not the biggest issue, granted, as few people are killed by learner drivers I suspect, but it would enable to provision of better basic training for all. In an era when you have to go on a full day course before you can use a ruddy step ladder, and three days for a basic first aid course (three DAYS…. TO PUT A RUDDY PLASTER ON A CUT,!!) it beggars belief that you can pay a small fee for a provisional license and jump in with your dad/mum etc with zero training at all and pick it up as you go!
More education is called for in the media, and action needs to be taken against the £@&;s that effectively incite poor behaviour on the roads. Again, if this was an “industry” no way would the death toll be tolerated.

Enforcement. ….. Speed cameras work. They do. People stop speeding past them. But they only work at that spot. In life, What stops people from offending, or in general being naughty, is not the likely penalty, but the likelihood of getting caught. At t eh moment the chances of getting pulled for a driving offence is very slim. The odds are very low, with the number of drivers and the small number of traffic officers. Automation is called for. Unmarked civilian cars, with cameras fitted, driven by civilians trained to recognise road traffics offences touring around. When they spot an offence, eg passing too close to a cyclist, driving on the phone, passing on double whites to name but a few that are clear cut, they press a button on the dash to index the recording, at a the end of the day, they pass the recording to an officer, they review the indexed sections, and issue a fixed penalty notice a la speed camera system, via ANPR with a link to view the video evidence. Go t I magistrates court if you like but make it double or quits there. It would educate and enforce. Cost effective behavioural change when you consider the cost of each death on the road being millions

But unlikely to happen, for the reasons that Ton has outlined earlier. Easier to just let a few more plebs get killed each year than do something that would make easy headlines for the daily mail.

Those snow chains, on the front wheels, of the rear wheel drive BMW ? ? ? ?

block built mancave will take its place

…think footflaps knew of a cheap brickie for blockwork if you need one. Its a pretty fair bet he’ll be available….. 😆

( ducks and leaves quickly)

+1 for the slow moving old chicane on the course, perhaps we can bunch up and really slow the beggars down!
See you there, it’s gonna be epic! 😀
Pete

Gutted to have missed it. Was about to start loading the truck on Friday afternoon but decided to mow the lawns before we left. Unfortunately a random bit hof crap decided to lodge itself in my eye in the orocess and scratch the surface of my cornea. A bit sore initially but tried not to rub it etc etc but woke up Saturday morning with it all swollen up and very painful. So sadly had to give it a miss. Looking forward to next year!
Sounds like everyone had a great time. Beer festival, right next door…. That must have been a burden…. 😀

Not actually sold it yet, but my 1994 Yamaha TYZ which is not being used. Will break my heart to see it go. I know it’s not an mtb but it’s one of my little family of off road two wheelers, and it will be sadly missed, but it’s almost a crime to keep it unused, sob. On the plus side, I feel the ” one out…. One in ” rule may apply too!

hmmm a bit of research suggest the direct mount front mech i now sport has only a 18 tooth range option. so 24-42 max range.
so its either:
switch back to nine speed
or add a 40t dinnerplate at the rear.

or of course, just mtfu and get on with the climbing 😉

ps pretty much all gradually down hill back to the b&B from almost everyhere on the chase on the way back at the end of the day. definitely from Follow the Dog & Monkey Trails.

Little Haywood General Store with B&B
Main Road
Little Haywood
Staffordshire
ST18 0TU

01889 881579
frankandkatieshelley@gmail.com

http://www.generalstorebandb.co.uk/accommodation

the general store B&B in Little Haywood, lovely place, they are keen to get more mtbers, they tell me they have storage for the bikes thats secure too.
About 400m from the chase and beautiful trails, about 25 minutes classic off road riding from the monkey trail. Nice folks, tell them Pete the Dentist sent you 😀
They also sell quality cakes and sticky buns plus trail snacks/nibbles. bosting!Lovely pubs in short walking distance. What more could you want? Several great bike shops for mooching in too within 20 mins off road riding!
Theres even a dodgy dentist up the road for when you faceplant OTB and rearrange your gnashers!

Flood & Ark
Stephen Baxter

Nope , being fit doesn’t make you immortal, but it does help you to pack more in.
I cringe when I hear people telling me what they would do when they retire or when they had more time. They will probably never do those things, when they could be doing them now.
Anything you have planned for next year, do it this year. That leaves next year free to something else cool. Win both ways.
Live life NOW, TODAY.

Yes indeed very windy, but on the chase you are pretty sheltered from the worst, even most, of the wind on the way round. Strongly suggest you avoid Brocton coppice if you are going off piste due to the danger from wind damage there especially. Otherwise it was riding well. Enjoy and have a safe journey.

And of course Davidian, all the very best of luck, 😀 on both counts!

Wallop

Example listed below is taken from a current maternity leave for an experienced Dental Nurse/Dental receptionist
This is over and above the maternity pay that is recoverable from hmrc

Time off for antenatal visits £250
Advertising for replacement £250 often much more.
Practice Managers time advising, discussing and organising, risk assessing, etc and later liasing with the employee going on leave £100
PMs time spent on person spec, job description, job app forms, interview protocols and questions £50
PM and Principals time spent assessing and short listing candidates from applications for interview £460
Time out of clinics for interviewing PM and Principal. £460
PMs time organising and supervising induction of replacement £100
Two weeks induction overlap to ease in the new staff member and fully induct in practice ethos, protocols and procedures before other member of staff leaves £700
Protective clothing/apparel £150 for temp
eCRB check £75 ( now DBS checks)
GDC registration £120
Indemnity costs£45
CPD Allowance £105
Further CPD time on course payments£105
Continued increased supervision, monitoring, mentoring and training to our standards for temp by PM and other staff £500
Increased wage bill over staff on leave due to pay differential £800

Total £4,270

Now fair enough, this is for a very specialist member of staff in a practice that believes in supporting its staff as much as is possible, and 8 months maternity leave as opposed to a few weeks paternity leave, but you get the general idea. And like I said before, my team are worth it.

And since we’re on STW, to bring it back to the usual level………… if only someone had put some latex on an old six incher, i could have afforded a fully rubbered up new 29er!!!!!!!

to the OP, yes, sounds like it’ll be holiday, but ask after you’re hired. Employment law around the descrimiation side of “pregnant fathers” 😯 is still in its infancy… you don’t want to become a test case.

re the “it doesn’t cost your employer a thing” sentiment:
the reality is often quite different when you actually see it from the employers side I can assure you.
In larger organisations, managers who do not have to sign the cheques and consider how they are going to balance the books at the end of each month for the whole business typically lose sight of the “real” costs of employing staff, (and in the civil service they live in cloud cuckoo land altogether, hence the terrible mess they have got themselves into with pay structures and expectations, but that’s a whole other topic!)
As a smaller employer, with 8 members of staff, I can assure you that there very real costs and impacts associated with all staff leave. Whilst Statutory paternity Pay is usually eventually recoverable, there are often significant additional costs/impacts on the business as a result of losing that member of staff for a period of time. Slightly off subject but as an example, a recent maternity leave of just 8 months has so far cost the business in excess of £3.5 k in additional costs, over and above costs of eventually recoverable Maternity pay, and its not over yet. That’s 1% of our gross turnover. That might not seem much, but anyone who runs a business will understand knows that a 1% hit against gross turnover means probably a 3-4% cut in net profit for the business. And in these challenging times thats pretty darn significant. 3 or 4% paycut every time an employee takes maternity leave anyone?

Now please don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly support paternity leave, I really believe its a good idea ( not the mudshark model, obviously) and I encourage all father’s to play an active part in the early weeks and years of your fledgeling families life: I have no member of staff who has worked with me less than 8 years, apart from our current temp, in an industry that is typically plagued by high staff turnover rates. We pay full sick pay etc and a host of other benefits as part of a package to train and retain our invaluable team members, and we have a great relationship as a result because of mutual respect and understanding of how the business, and its team members , interact and depend upon each other. I count my blessings each day when I hear the horror stories from my contemporaries.

To get to the point of what is now probably starting to seem like a ramble, please don’t assume these things “cost your employer/business nothing”. It does.

To the OP again I say, respectfully, say nothing at interview, but after accepting an offer, discuss your personal needs then. A good employer will work with you to achieve something suitable for your situation.

hi Saccades

Ideally you should be getting an oral health check at least annually, if for no other reason than to check the lining of your mouth for unhealthy or abnormal pathology, which is largely a check for Oral Cancer and its cousins.

Gums recede with age naturally, this is so that humans “in the wild” would still have some tooth left sticking out to chew with when they had worn down what they started with, giving them a few years more before they starved to death. Most herbivores ( homo sapiens is most closely descended from herbivores than carnivores: though of course, with the notable exception of MTQGraham, we are now omnivores) lifespans are largely dictated by the lifespan of their dentition, foremost amongst other things.
If you don’t have alot of wear, and as a result vertical loss of tooth length, this gum recession occurs anyway, making you literally “long in the tooth”.
You won’t normally notice this that much as its so gradual, ( like the gradual expansion of that bald spot on the back of your head until it suddenly crests the horizon of your crown when you look in the mirror one day and…….but enough about…… errr….. my friend), unless that is there is a visible fixed reference point, like the point where a crown finishes and the rest/root of the tooth begins. If it has “died” and been “root filled” , quite often the root would go quite dark, and almost black with some of the older style root filling materials/techniques, making the contrast between the crown and root very striking and unaesthetic. On occasions this can be improved by using a white filling at the joint to improve the appearance, but the improvement will usually be very limited at best and not worth it. Alternately you can replace the crown, extending the joint point to where the tooth emerges from the gum, the gingival crevice……. hang on a mo………YOU AT THE BACK…….YES YOU…….YES, I used the word “CREVICE” …….now calm down and stop sniggering…….

sorry about that…. where were we…. yes you can replace the crown.

But basically, dark borders beyond the edge of a crown, whilst unaesthetic, don’t necessarily mean your crowns are on the way out. Get yourself a check up though. Could save you alot of grief long term, and it sounds like you’ve already had your fair share in the past. Perhaps best to keep ahead of probs while you’re still having a good run?

This certainly doesn’t mean that you are looking at problems with your crowned teeth, but you should really get them checked at least annually, assuming the rest of your oral health is tickety boo, which of course if you haven’t had it check, you kinda don’t know.

For those folks searching for a new dentist by the way, I’m often asked if I can recommend an NHS dentist, sadly not in my area, and there are precious few private ones fo rthat matter that I’d happily see a friend attend, but a good tip is to look at teh reviews recieved on NHS Choices for any practice you are looking at attending. Though the mumbers of reviews is often quite low, for the practices in my area they seem to be a pretty accurate refelection of the type of experience you might expect. See NHS Choices and use teh postcode search for practices near you. Also tells you who is accepting NHS patients

Next Question? The Dentist is IN

regarding the hygienist – ask if your gum health means you need to see her/him, or whether it is purely cosmetic. If it purely cosmetic then its a private issue. If its clinically needed or preventativethen it MUST be provided under the NHS, as part of the same course.

Sadly the wider NHS just doesn’t give a flying fig about all this though, so you’ve basically got bob hope of seeing a hygienist, or getting any gum treatment under the NHS. NHS dentistry has small pockets of excellence,( and they’re getting ever smaller!) but generally the basic level of care provided is poor, at best.

But because the publics main fear at a dentist is overtreatment, the MASSIVE, absolutely HUGE amount of undertreatment and supervised neglect going on in UK dentistry over the last 7 years is going unnoticed. After all, who ever argues because the dentist says you don’t need treatment? Unnoticed that is until you look at the number of teeth now being extracted and plastic partial dentures provided that is.
Ironically this is heralded by the governements Chief Dental officer as “an increase insimpler, less complex treatment that requires less maintainance”. Nice spin until you’re the one taking your teeth out at night.

Look after your teeth and oral health boys and girls, because the days of the state looking after you are behind you, I’m very sorry to say.

The sensitivity adjacent to a missing tooth is common, and a nuisance, but may well not be improved by replacing the crown. Treatment with topical fluorides and other desenitisers may also help. Avoid very abrasive toothpastes such as Colgate total Whitening, see the is article on relative abrasiveness of toothpastes (RDA) ie how much they wear your teeth while you are cleaning!
http://www.swissdent.com.au/press/dental-articles/comparing-different-toothpaste-brands-and-their-abrasion-levels/%5B/url%5D

I don’t suppose that the dentists themselves are on commission;

on the private treatment they almost certainly are, that is the norm.

As regards the “insufficient margins”, that specific term means nothing I’m afraid, and may be the result of a dentist for whom English is not their first language? ( though you would expect them to be proficient enough to discuss their area of expertise properly!)

“Deficient” margins though, would refer to the joint at the edge of the crown where it should seal against the tooth not being as well sealed as it should be, typically leaving a gap for bacteria to get into and potentially cause mayhem ( and not the Pat Adams kind!.
Alternatively it may be because the edges of the crowns stick out beyond the edge of the tooth, creating an overhang that cannot be cleaned properly, again leading to problems.
This may be for many reasons, either relating to the original provision/manufacture and or fitting, or due to decay or wear problems afterwards, or a combination of both. A deficient margin may increase your risk of, lead directly to, or be a result of, tooth decay under the crown causing damage to the core of tooth and or root that supports it. However, many teeth have crowns that are not just “deficient” but downright ruddy awful and survive for many many years with no issues despite this because the patient has maintained the teeth very well. By this i mean EXCELLENT cleaning, GOOD diet ( no snacking or other sources of regular carbs that cause decay, eg beer/lager/pop/energy drinks!). Conversely many excellent crowns are wrecked by patients in short order by poor oral hygiene and poor diet.

What you could do with knowing is exactly what type of “insufficiency” these crowns have: How long have they been like this, is it causing a problem now, or is it just less than ideal but free from active disease ( tooth or gum).

Sounds like you need a further chat with our dentist, as you are not really sure about the why and the how of treatment that they are suggesting to you. Are the crowns just less than ideal but in teh same cndiiton they were when they were fitted, or is there active disease?
What is the prognosis of these teeth if they have active disease for this further treatment? What preventve measures have they recomended to reduce improve the lifespan of the future crowns?
Without fully understanding both the nature of and the reasons for the treatment proposed you cannot give “informed consent”, and as such treatment should not go ahead. You should be able to see your dentist again….give them a call and say you want a chat. See how that goes but consider a second opinion.

Hope this helps,
let us know if you have any further questions.

You say a hygienist visit was also quoted, which you understand to be private. Was this made clear to you at the time, or on treatment estimate? Any course of care that mixes NHS and private care must be explicit in its clarity showing which is which.

Presumably this is an NHS practice? How much is the total estimate/bill they have quoted you? I know what it should be, and I bet it won’t be that.I’ dbe very interested to know.
Nothing we replace your damaged teeth with will last forever, but if you have been attending regularly, and these crowns have been fine until now, what do you reckon the chances are they they have both failed now at the same time? I’m betting these are two almost adjacent teeth.

To be fair though, if you’ve been to an NHS practice and had any x-rays done at all, you’ve done better than most! When did you last have any x-rays done? typically every 2-3 years ( based on several assumptions from what you’ve described)

[proud dad mode/] not only does she knock off a 110 mile ride on her mtb through wales, not only does she raise over £1.5k ( with all your kind STWer help!)but last week she picked up 12 A*-A GCSE’s! Top Daughter!!!! [proud dad mode/]

I did

64 miles into her ride she did this!

replaced my worn out MW02s with the new MW80s,
yes the water that runs down your legs does fill up the boots, unless,

you use the cuffs cut off some rubber gloves as “gaiters/putties” to seal the tops and stop the water getting in. Works a treat. Especially combined with stealth lite bib longs in coldest wettest winter rides. Brilliant. Just hose yourself off before taking them off!

Donated and bump,
Come on fellas, these guys need to know we care

sorry double post

Donated & bump 😀
Do you have a planned date for your re-attempt? Hows the prep going?

bump for the afternoon crowd, ellie still has a bit of writers block…….good job she’s not doing A-level english next year…..oh, er ……

I made a fantastic memory with my 16 year old daughter cycling 111 miles from home to Barmouth in a day, that will stay with me forever, and she made some money for a very worthy cause.

[/url] DSC00190[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]

linky here to her JG page

and her STW Thread with post ride report, worth a read I think, but then I’m biased.

and thanks for the latest donations. Video to follow once edited, including the puddle incident!

cheers matt
and to everyone else that supported, both with donations and goodluck comments….they made all the difference!

110 Exhilarating, Exhausting & Emotional miles!

So Saturday the 3rd of August arrived after several months of training for Ellies epic ride from Weston to Barmouth on her mountain bike to raise funds for the Donna Louise Trust. The weather forecast was good with warm clear skies all the way to the finish and a wind, that whilst not exactly the tailwind we had been hoping for, was at least not a headwind.
After listening to Ellies radio interview on BBC Radio Stoke we set off at 8 am with a mixture of excitement and eagerness on legs that had been intentionally rested for a week beforehand.
[/url] DSC00159[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]
Through Stafford and out along the old railway line to Gnosall, and from there to Newport and on to Wellington, where we had a food stop in the shadow of The Wrekin. With 25 miles done it was becoming obvious even by this point that the weathermen were lightly off in their prediction of the wind direction: we were pretty much head on in any unsheltered areas. So we had to accept that we weren’t going to make the progress that we had hoped and our original slightly optimistic schedule went out of the window, and a “lets crack on without burning ourselves out and take it as it comes” approach was adopted.
The next leg saw us snacking by the riverside in Shrewsbury, a detour and a trip through the old town, a chat with two old biddies, then out en route for the border, which we crossed soon after noon near Crewgreen. This pretty much marked the halfway point at 56 miles. We were feeling pretty good and a phone call to Ellies mum, Tania, confirmed she had just arrived at the first planned rendezvous point for food and drink resupply just 10 miles down the road. As usual, just when things seem to be going well, that’s when fate jumps up to get you!
Our route had been planned intentionally using minor roads wherever possible, planned via google maps and BikeRouteToaster.com, and we found ourselves on a road SO minor it was actually just a farm track, with deep ruts, that had some pretty big puddles to avoid. Sadly, there was no avoiding the final puddle and it fell to Ellie to go through first. At this point its probably worth pointing out that whilst we didn’t exactly have road tyres we had fitted the slickest tread mtb tyres we possessed for this little adventure in order to reduce rolling friction and help with the distance. This proved to be Ellies undoing, and perhaps along with the 6 hours already in our legs, the deep submerged deep ruts got the better of her and in she went. Welcome to Wales indeed! It had to be the most evil smelling stagnant pool of water in area, and she went nearly full length in it. She emerged looking a little like “the creature from the black lagoon” dripping slimy mud and foul water, as did her bike. Shorts, top, everything wet. Thankfully we were only two miles from our meeting point, and it was a very much less than chuffed Ellie that rolled into the petrol station at Groes Lwyd, north of Welshpool. However, it’s amazing what a wash, ( actually a couple…it was that smelly) baguette, fresh shorts & socks and a bike wash can achieve and after some more fettling we were on our way again in a better frame of mind. Which was a good job, because the famous Welsh hills were just beginning in earnest. 66 miles done.
Pretty much straight away the road started to rise up, and of course, those Welsh minor roads don’t wind their way do they….oh no! They seem to pick the shortest way up any given hill, i.e. straight up it. So the legs had to warm up again pretty darn quickly. The climbs on this section were well worth it though as the scenery was typical welsh borders; green and tranquil with beautiful hidden hamlets coming in to view around every corner, along with other unusual features such as the treestump spotted by Ellie that had been carved into the shape of a 4 foot tall hawk.
[/url] DSC00169[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]

It was hard going though, with the inclines and what seemed to a rash of recently resurfaced roads that had yet to have the loose chippings removed making climbing arduous and descending precarious on the sinuous lanes. On a better stretch we tried Ellie in the front, but it as fairly pointless as although she kept a good rhythm and held our target pace well, the tiny little hole she made in the air was useless for me, so we soon swapped her back into the trail position so that at least one of us was getting some respite from the headwind. It was actually a relief when we got off the back lanes and onto the A458 and some nice smooth tarmac in spite of a return to the busier traffic. Two miles later we met Tania again and with 81 miles under our belts we were feeling pretty good about having three quarters distance literally just around the corner. But the climbs so far had been just warm ups, and after divesting ourselves of any unnecessary extra kit and fitting lights, it was a good pull from there up to the next summit before a well deserved full bore descent for a couple of miles into Mallwyd. The legs were holding up well and with only 18 miles to go we would have been celebrating except for one little thing: The climb from Dinas Mawddy to Dolgellau, 1200 feet of thigh & calf burning ascent.

We set off on this leg with the falling sun already starting to hide behind the towering mountains on either side of us, on occasions creating long shadows of these giants barring our way ahead. The thing about this climb is the gradient, 20%, with short stretches steeper still, with the steepest bit left until last. No stranger to climbs now Ellie was not phased by what we had ahead, that is until she got her first glimpse of the final pitch, which literally looks as though the hand of a mighty deity has reached down and bent the road upwards, just to dare travellers to venture upwards. We mentally moved into “winch mode” and settled in for the of battle to come. As the tarmac pitched upwards properly Ellie pointed out that “it would be a shame to get off and walk now” so the die was cast, neither of us was going to yield first. We ground our way up the truly relentless incline, and on approaching the summit and the final steepening corner, our old friend for the day “the headwind” returned after a brief respite in the valley, all the fresher for the extra altitude. But we made it! Truly elated and relieved we pulled into the small layby at the summit and surveyed that which we had conquered, nestled between two mighty welsh peaks.
[/url] DSC00173[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]
We zoomed down the other side at warp speed into Cross Foxes with only 12 miles to go, with no more climbing: Hallelujah! A last top up with food and we set off on the last 12 mile leg, with victory in our sights. Ellie was absolutely buzzing at this point and was talking already about planning her next challenge as she felt she was now hooked on endurance events!
[/url] DSC00176[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]
Finishing the descent down into Dolgellau and thence onto the Mawddach trail, a disused railway line that’s now a bridlepath that skirts the Mawddach Estuary. With the sun rapidly heading towards the horizon we were back in the teeth of a strengthening headwind, on a trail surface that really didn’t roll well, with the mouth of the estuary visible in the distance but never seeing to grow any closer, and about 3 miles out of Barmouth we got a text requesting an ETA from mum who had gone on ahead to the finish as the chip shop shut at 9pm! There was no way we were going to be there for 9 so it was starting to look like the fish and chip supper we had been thinking about all afternoon was now off. Then, with just three miles to go, and the finish within grasp, Ellie “hit the wall”. You kind of had to be there, but for a minute she was about to crumple completely. Ellie, who had conquered Dinas Mawddy in a single pitch, floored by a disused railway trail! Thankfully some rapid use of carb gels, a quick hug and a few kind words and we were on our way again. Almost immediately we seemed to be on the Railway bridge that spans the estuary from Arthog to Barmouth, which with its pedestrian route would carry us over to the north side and our final destination.
[/url] DSC00181[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]

We rolled across and with new energy in our bodies born of seeing the finish for real we finally zipped into Barmouth, 111 miles and 13 and a quarter hours after we set off to find Mum waiting for us at the finish. And better still she had persuaded the Barmouth Fish Bar to say open an extra 15 minutes just for us when she told them our story. And even better still they gave us £20 in cash for our charity! What stars!
[/url] DSC00182 – Copy[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]
It’s true to say that we had had grand plans for the finish, with photographs on the beach, but as dusk had already fallen, that was pretty much out, so a few photos munching chips in Barmouth harbour are our main momentos of the finish! And some of the best fish and chips I’ve ever tasted, whilst texting friends and family to confirm our successful arrival.
[/url] DSC00184 – Copy[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]
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DSCN0293[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr
[/url] DSC00190[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]

It was a proper adventure: Exhilarating, exhausting & emotional. I can honestly say there was no man prouder of his daughter that day, and that it was a privilege to have been able to share it with someone so special as Ellie.
In total so far, thanks to the generosity of our donors, the amount raised by Ellie is £1,350.00 .
at http://www.justgiving.com/EllieNadin

Thanks for all your support, Ellie & Dad.

[/url] DSC00159[/url] by Drillski[/url], on Flickr[/img]