I'm back!! First, I'd like to say a huge thank you for all your kind, motivating comments. During my struggles up hills, these kept me pedalling!
JB42, it is both.
As I said, I did it 1989 and wanted to prove to my disbelieving wife that I could do it again. I did not train other than a 6 mile run out a couple of weeks back.
My time was far from spectacular (hardly surprising given the poor preparation!). The mileage turned out to be 65.9 and I took exactly an hour longer than Mrs Secure, at 7:34:00.
There were a few reasons for this!
1. I had a vomit break!!
For breakfast I had dry muffins with honey & porridge & plenty of water.
We didn't eat normal meals as such, but every 20 miles or so, we ate a carb bar and a banana and drank some isotonic drink and water.
Unknown to me, I stopped and took my 40-mile meal just before a long, slow tortuous hill, at the top of which I unfortunately rejected the contents of my stomach.
2. Despite having a special saddle to prevent depressed nerves & blood vessels in the perineal region, I suffered total numbness (indeed am still numb
) and great pain to my perineal region, so much so that I had to dismount and walk for a short distance before saddling up again.
These first two points you could argue resulted from my poor preparation for the ride.
3. Along the coast road approaching Blackpool South Prom, I came off after hitting a small patch of dry sand on the tarmac. This knocked my shimano gears out at the front & subsequently resulted in the changer pushing the chain right off the smaller of the three front cogs.
But apart from those incidents, I has a ball ('scuse the pun!)
The first 52 ish miles were great, but it was the last 10 that were tiresome, something I found last time, despite training well that time.
It wasn't just me, loads of cyclists told me after the ride that they all felt the last few miles were not smooth going.
I've got a picture taken by my eldest that I will post when I can find a way of transferring it from the moby to the PC.
Feeling good, despite my few aches!
