Ride Thirteen — Two Hundred Miles Done

That is the two hundred miles done, inside the month, with the last of it ridden on legs that had already had enough.

The final ride was 37.88km with 221m of climbing, in 2 hours and 8 minutes of riding time — an average of 17.8km/h. The same route as the last few, extended to pick up the distance I still needed.

The One That Took the Longest

This was the hardest ride of the month, and I do not think that was the route’s doing.

Two 30km rides the day before will do that. Everything took slightly more effort than it should have, the climbs came round sooner than I expected, and the pace never really arrived.

17.8km/h against the 21.2 I managed on the evening ride the night before, and that gap is not the route or the weather. That is a body that had already done 60km in a day and was being asked for another 38. I stopped caring about the number fairly early on.

There was never any question of not finishing it. It just took what it took.

Over the Old Railway Line

The extension took me over an old railway station and along the line that used to run through it.

Disused railway makes for good riding — level, quiet, and built for something else entirely, which is always interesting to be moving along. At the end of it there was a small coffee stop, and I sat there for a while with the month more or less behind me.

That was the right place to think about it. Not at the finish, not at home, but sitting outside somewhere with the bike leaning up and nothing left to ride.

What It Actually Tested

Here is what I learned, and it was not what I expected.

The riding was never the problem. I could do the distances. What made this hard was finding the hours — fitting rides around work, around being away, around a family and a diary that did not clear themselves because I had signed up to something.

Every ride this month came out of a gap I had to make rather than one that was there. The early mornings, the evening rides after a full day, forty minutes on the turbo when the weather closed in. None of that was about fitness.

That is worth knowing about myself, and it is worth knowing about anything else I take on.

Why I Will Keep Going

The other thing I did not expect is that I want to carry on.

Not for a challenge or a total. For the hour itself. No devices, no work, no noise from the house — just a path in front of me and nothing being asked of me while I am on it. I have not had a regular hour like that in a long time.

And there is whatever it is that arrives afterwards. Endorphins, I think, though I would not swear to the biology. Whatever it is, I come back in feeling better than when I left, and that has been true of almost every ride this month.

The bike is not going back in the garage.

Thank You

Every one of those two hundred miles was for Prostate Cancer UK — funding research, raising awareness and supporting men and families dealing with a disease that affects far too many people, and one that we still do not talk about nearly enough.

I started this month without a personal reason for choosing it. I finish it with one, and with a great deal of respect for the people who have been through it. If the money raised makes any difference at all to somebody I will never meet, that will have been an hour a day very well spent.

To everyone who has sponsored me, read these posts or asked how it was going — thank you. The page stays open a little longer if you have been meaning to and have not got round to it.

Thirteen rides. Two hundred miles. Done.