100 miler

Unbelievably, I cycled 100 miles today! I've been training up to the distance over the past few months; all for the Road Race event of my Olympic Challenge. The Olympic distance is 87.2miles, but why stop there when you can do 100?!

The whole day was a bit bonkers. The first 50 miles flew by and were an absolute pleasure. I had G with me for company for most of them, and I felt fresh as a daisy. The Essex/Suffolk countryside was resplendent in the sunshine, and I felt almost giddy about my day. As the miles edged closer to 60, that feeling started to disappear and it became more of a struggle. I broke the ride down into 10 mile sections and just chipped away, but when I got to 70 I hit a real mental block. I somehow still had 30 miles to go. Luckily, the Olympic distance was a really good target, but once I hit that, I was so tempted to call it a day. I convinced myself to get to 90 and stop. But then the odometer crept round to 91 miles, and I knew I had to see it through. I'm not a quitter! With my legs and bum screaming, I pedalled on, and am so glad I did! Those last 9 miles were joyous! I swung back to my Mum's house just over 100 miles, to cheers and yellow roses from her and G!

I spent the rest of the evening staying as still as possible. As the night wore on I felt increasingly worse; shakey and nauseous and incredibly tired! It didn't help that I smacked my head on the door when I was leaving Mum's! I was very glad to get to bed!

It's undoubtedly the hardest sporting thing I've ever done and I'm so glad it's behind me! I can't really believe now that I did it. I'm so happy that I can go back to cycling for fun now; I think I'll be sticking to 50 miles as my perfect cycling day-out limit!