# My LEL



## martint235 (6 Aug 2013)

The text below is from my blog post so if you've already read that, I wouldn't bother reading this. I'm not very good at write ups anyway so it's probably best not to read this but people did ask for write ups:

Where to start? At the beginning I suppose. In the summer of 2010, I was happily commuting to my job in London by bike everyday. I found though that the ravages of age meant that 100 miles per week were no longer enough to keep the waistline in check and so I started to go out at weekends. Initially just a 30 mile wander past Biggin Hill and back to home. I then became aware of a website called Cyclechat and they had a Sunday London Ride (SLR) that could be joined in Bromley. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I thought and off I went. Two SLRs later I found myself on my first Friday Night Ride to the Coast (FNRttC). How had this happened? And it got worse, not only did I cycle to Brighton in the dead of night but some people persuaded me to cycle home again after breakfast. What madness was this? I gained my maiden 100 miles that morning on the approach to Gatwick airport. I was most definitely bitten.

Shortly after this I was introduced to a man named Andy Allsopp. He is in fact the devil incarnate. This was a man who apparently in 2009 had completed the London – Edinburgh and back challenge AND written a book about it (Barring Mechanicals). I bought the book. I read the book in one sitting. Boy, was I now in trouble? London – Edinburgh – London, or LEL as it’s more commonly known, takes place every 4 years. It’s a 1400km trip between the capital of England and the capital of Scotland. As a rider, you have just over 116 hours to complete the ride. This time includes all the time you spend sleeping, eating, resting, crying etc and is not just moving time. The next LEL was in two and a half years. Could I be ready in time? Possibly. Was it a completely stupid idea? Almost certainly.

The following year I began to build up my mileages on the bike, regularly taking part in FNRttCs and also a new challenge of completing at least one 100 mile ride each calendar month. The highlight of that first year was a 250 mile bimble from London to Wootten Bassett via Stonehenge and back with Arallsopp, Aperitif, Redjedi and Davywalnuts (names given are Cyclechat names to protect the guilty). It had started. Now I needed a decent bike.
January 2012 saw the arrival of Lelly, a titanium sportive bike courtesy of some people who had charged me unnecessary PPI on some loans. Long distances suddenly got much easier. The next challenge was Home – Home. Welling in SE London to Nelson in Lancashire, home of my parents. Unsupported and alone, it’s been documented elsewhere on this blog.

January 2013 dawned. Entry to LEL opened. I got a place. Was I ready for this? No. My mileage ramped up but I wasn’t doing too well physically, I wasn’t eating properly and was therefore suffering towards the end of a long ride. Nevermind, there’s time to sort it. Davywalnuts stepped up to the plate and organised 150 miler out into Cambridgeshire with regular food stops. This worked well and I arrived home feeling relatively fresh. I could still be ready for 28th July and the start of LEL.

Then on the 30th April, my mum unexpectedly passed away. Suddenly cycling wasn’t all that important anymore. Did LEL even matter? At that moment in time it didn’t. I gave myself to the end of May to decide whether or not to go ahead with LEL. In the meantime, I spent most of my time as an emotional wreck. I rarely commuted to work, I spent way too long down the pub. Any good work I’d done evaporated.

At the end of May, I went on an FNRttC and then another in early June. I still enjoyed being on a bike and so committed to LEL. Those were the last two rides I did before the start though.

Fast forward now to July 28th cos you’re all probably bored with so much pre-amble. I’d decided to take part in the LEL prologure from the Mall to the true start at Loughton in Essex largely because it was the easiest way to get from my house to Loughton. I was encouraged by some of the bikes being used, a couple of single speeds and even this guy: (I believe he’s called Drew Buck and usually finishes events like this. Unfortunately he appears to have abandoned at St Ives this time)



It’s a rubbish photo. Sorry. He was riding an extremely old bike with grapes hanging off the front.
So onto the ride:
*DAY One*
Plan: Barnard Castle (this is the revised plan A as Brampton was too far).
Actual: Pocklington
Miles: 239
I saw Tim Decker (from Cyclechat and a fellow LEL rider) and Pippa (from FNRttCs and a volunteer) at Loughton. Tim had a later start time than me so I left him in the hall enjoying breakfast. There was a cracking tailwind out of Loughton and I got myself into a fairly quick group. We hammered North for quite a way, passing St Ives control and on to Kirton and Market Rasen. At Market Rasen, I realised mistake number one. Although able to keep this pace for 100, even 200 miles, it was burning me out when I had to do 5 days of this. At Market Rasen I bumped into Arallsopp who was volunteering and also RedflightUK who was taking part on his trike. As I left Market Rasen I bumped into Victor from Columbia who I’d met on the prologue. Victor was a really nice bloke, kind of like a Davywalnuts with a foreign accent. We rode along together over the Humber Bridge and towards Pocklington. I began to suffer badly, I’d not been feeling hungry at controls and so hadn’t taken on nearly enough food. With Victor’s encouragement I made it into Pocklington and started looking for a bed. There was a worrying thing about the sign used to allocate beds: each bed had a time 3 hours from now next to it. It was 12.30am, surely they weren’t going to wake me at 3.30 am? They didn’t. They let me lie in till 4am. 
The breakfast area was carnage, there were sleeping bodies everywhere. Trying not to step on anyone, I got loads of breakfast, loads of coffee and prepared to leave. Victor showed up again with his usual huge grin on his face. I had no idea how he maintained this happy attitude. Whenever we passed another cyclist, it was always with an exceptionally cheery wave and comment. Madman.

*DAY 2*
Plan: Brampton Southbound
Actual: Edinburgh. The plan was out anyway after stopping at Pocklington the previous night.
Miles: 232
Together with Victor, we headed north to Castle Howard



I was going much better this day but the Howardian Hills were still a challenge. As a native of the Pennines, I’m not prone to good feeling when I see a sign showing a 17% descent as I know it usually results in one not long after of an 18% ascent. We rolled down the steep hill at speed into what was effectively a gravel trap. How I managed to keep Lelly going I’ll never know. Up the other side, cursing all the way. A 53/39 11-25 setup is not designed for climbing a 18% incline. Having experienced the gravel, I firmly told myself that on the southbound route I’d be walking this particular hill (and I did). That over with we rolled onto Thirsk without incident and then on to Barnard Castle. Unfortunately at Barnard Castle, I lost Victor. He disappeared to the loo and hadn’t returned 45 minutes later. I did a quick scan around for him but also couldn’t see his bike outside and so decided I’d better crack on as Yad Moss was to come (I found out when I got home that Victor abandoned just after Kirkton on the way southbound. I knew his knees had given him a lot of trouble. I hope he takes part in 2017 as he fully deserves to complete!). Yad Moss isn’t actually that bad. It’s a 21km climb but it’s an easy gradient and before I knew it I was flying downhill towards Brampton. Another carefully orchestrated food stop and on to Moffat. I don’t actually remember much about the ride to Moffat. I got there in the dark to find they had run out of pasta sauce so I had baked beans and pasta. Twice. I also found out that beds at Moffat were all night jobs, not just 3 hours. However I wanted to make Edinburgh. I left Moffat with a Frenchman who didn’t speak much English and my French is woeful. I never found out his name. We climbed the Devil’s Beeftub together (again an easy gradient climb but about 10km long). He then provided some light as I changed the batteries in my Hope light and we sped down to Edinburgh. What a great road! It just defies logic, it goes downhill forever!!! I got into Edinburgh at 3.19 and promptly went and had a shower and fell in to bed. Mistake number 2, I didn’t take my watch with me to bed. A loud snore woke me. I could see daylight creeping in so got up, dressed and had breakfast. Turned on the GPS to find out it was 5.45am. I had had around 2 hours sleep. Arrrghhh.

*DAY 3*
Plan: There isn’t one.
Actual: Barnard Castle
Miles: 144
I rolled out of Edinburgh alone but feeling good. However within about 10 miles my feet were burning. The curse of hotfoot. It was rapidly to take over my life. I got to Traquair and had porridge for the first time since childhood. There was also whisky on offer but I felt that if I had whisky at 8.30 in a morning I might not leave the control. The run from Traquair to Eskdalemuir was notable only because it was the first time I got wet. And I got properly wet. By this stage though, the hotfoot had taken over my life. I couldn’t think of anything else and just ploughed on towards Brampton. I know the organisers of LEL try to arrange it on quieter roads but with pain emanating from my feet, I looked at the GPS unit to see a route that kept leaving a perfectly good A road (the A7) and heading off down little country lanes. After following the first of these up a steep incline, I decided I was staying on the A7 and motored into Brampton on my own. Refuelled I set off to climb Yad Moss again. I bumped into two Canadians who I’d been crossing paths with since Pocklington, they’d leave a control before me, I’d pass them on the road, repeat at next control. They did tell me their names but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten. I do remember they had a friend called Martin but that’s pretty irrelevant. We climbed Yad Moss together but somehow I lost them on the way into Barnard Castle (see GPS below). I took the wrong route into BC and it must have cost me 5 miles. I was shattered, my feet were killing me. I sat down and ate my dinner in tears. I couldn’t believe how hard this had become. What had happened to “Just cycle 200 miles a day and it’ll be ok” and “It’s only 4 days how bad can it be?”. Others must have been feeling as bad as no one gave me a second glance, this 6’62 guy crying into pasta.

*DAY 4*
Plan: Ha
Actual: Kirkton
Miles: 179
I felt much better when I woke up at Barnard Castle. Largely due I think to the fact that I’d had 6 hours sleep. I set off on my own again. I must admit I rode the majority of LEL on my own. I did pass my Canadian friends once again and headed through Pocklington and into Market Rasen. i was hoping to meet Arallsopp here as I was hoping he’d help with my GPS issues which at the time meant I was unable to navigate in the dark. Unfortunately he was sleeping. It had also rained heavily on the way into Market Rasen and I was soaked so decided the best thing to do was crack on again. In addition to my hotfoot, my knees had also decided they wanted some of the action and began to protest loudly. Strangely though, I didn’t feel too bad overall, I’m convinced that the extra sleep had made the difference. It poured down with rain all the way to Kirkton but I did manage to resolve my GPS issues. I had my first puncture of the ride about 5 miles from Kirkton just as darkness was falling. A local guy helped me fix it and chatted to me before seeing me on my way. There were no showers at Kirkton so I just crawled onto my sleeping mat in my cycling kit. Dinner was chicken and ham pie. I managed to get another 6 hours sleep and woke refreshed.

*DAY 5*
Plan: To get to the finish.
Actual: Got to the finish but much later than I’d anticipated.
Miles: 124
When I woke up, I changed into my final kit. All clean plus LEL top for that final push. Had breakfast, chicken and ham pie




and went outside to check my tyre. It all seemed ok so I borrowed a track pump and pumped it up. Went back inside to get some bananas. “BANG!!!”. This is a noise those people on the May FNRttC to Whitstable will remember. My inner tube had exploded, I’m sure it’s my cackhanded-ness. Anyway a kind mechanic took it out of my hands and proceeded to fix it. Another rider came past, “I had to fix my own puncture” he said. “So did he”, answered the mechanic, “and that’s why we’re doing it again now”.
Back on the road, it rapidly started to warm up. I hit St Ives still going fairly well although the hotfoot was slowing me slightly. When I left St Ives though, the temperature rocketed. Coupled with a headwind it was a brutal day. Truly brutal. I had thought that no day would be worse than Tuesday into Barnard Castle but this was. I could hardly pedal due to hotfoot and the headwind meant i was looking to be hitting 10 mph at times. I made it to Great Easton at around 2.30pm curiously enough the time I’d given as my planned finish time at Loughton. My pickup was waiting for me 26 miles away. I saw Auntie Helen at Great Easton who kindly took a photo of me in a fairly c**p state. I’ll have to get a copy. Those last 26 miles were truly awful but I’m happy to say I made it.



I must admit I’ve looked better!!! I got a medal though!



*GPS*
Overall my GPS unit worked well however I had issues heading south. I’d labelled routes between the controls as LEL1 for northbound leg 1 and LEL1S as leg 1 southbound. However when I left Traquair, I set it for LEL2S and was told my next turn was 61 miles away. I repeatedly tried different routes at different times but it was only on the road into Kirkton that I suddenly I realised that a few days earlier I had given myself a stern talking to in my office at home: “Remember this. This is important when you get to Edinburgh”. What I’d told myself was that LEL1S covered up until Brampton with LEL2S being the route from Brampton to Barnard Castle. A quick working out in my head told me I was currently on LEL6S. Tapped it into the GPS and was rewarded with a pink line and a beep. GPS stupidity 0, Martin stupidity 1.

*Things I learned:*
Don’t take everything with you. Use bag drops. I didn’t. I paid for it badly.
Hotfoot really really really hurts. i heard rumours of other riders abandoning with it. I wouldn’t say I have a higher pain tolerance, I’m just a stubborn b*******.
LEL is a fantastic experience. The volunteers are great. If you have any plans of going for it in 2017, good luck!
LEL is definitely more a mental trial than a physical one. I thought I was ready. I wasn’t by a long way. Only my stubborn streak got me through.

*Will I be on the start line in 2017: NO. Definitely not. I do plan to be a volunteer though.*

This text is subject to revision.


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## martint235 (25 Aug 2013)

Finally got an action photo thanks to Noel on Facebook. I think I was only about 100 miles in at this point.


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