Jamie Whelton Completes London Marathon

Congratulations to Jamie Whelton (Senior Consultant - Now Education) who completed the London Marathon in 4hrs 23mins Jamie has raised over £1,000 pounds for Anthony Nolan Trust who specialise in providing stem cell transplants. Well done Jamie view Jamie's time splits

Marathon Update!

Dave has hit his target of sponsorship, receiving over £1,000! however, targets are not just to be hit - they're to be smashed! - thanks to everyone who has contributed - if you would like to donate please click here

LA Marathon - Just Done It!

Evening Everyone!

A huge congratulations to Dave Mac who completed the LA marathon today, this is a true show of determination, believe me, this was no easy marathon, with gale force winds and torrential rain throughout the day it made conditions twice as hard.


Dave came in with a time of 7.03 which is amazing, bearing in mind he only trained for 4 months - put your mind to it and you can achieve anything.

I also managed to complete the course in 4.24


this is Dave's day though


we are off for steak, chips and beer to celebrate!


Gary & Dave


The route:

Complete the Journey - The Finish!

Well here we go, here is my final blog of the trip - the shortened posts of the last few days were the result of not much happening when you're on your own on a bike for 10 hours!

I arrived home Monday afternoon, and to be honest felt sad that it was all over. Whilst I dreaded waking in the morning only to face a day of pain, I knew that Sean was going through his own battle, so it made my pain much less.

My mileage was helped by my ever good support man Graeme, after my speedo packed up he decided to disguise the mileage, basically bullshit me, which at the end of the day did help as I covered 20 to 30 miles extra each day!

It's been a long 6 days on the bike, day two was the hardest day, the days following that, while in pain through my legs and my bum, I was quicker!

My best day was Saturday where I left the main group at 47 miles arriving into Paris on my own. That day I completed 135 miles, boy my arse was sore!

I am still working toward my £10k target, with £8234 raised to date. I do hope in the next 3 weeks I will hit my target and move the funds over to the Cycle Across America pot. I would like to thank everyone for your support, I know that Sean will be so please with everything WE have all achieved.

Many thanks and here's to the next challenge


Gary

to Paris and back...

Hi,

Everything's broken! - body, laptop (will do full update when this is working), but not my spirit...

Saturday was a long, long day - after arriving in Paris at lunch time from an early start, we had a quick beer to celebrate. I then set off back to Rugby - covering 65 miles. In total on Saturday I covered 130 miles

Sunday - up at dawn for the earliest start yet to cover some miles, all going well, legs were very tired in the morning, so it was a case of going through the pain, again!

full update will be put on here as soon as laptop is working -

Gary

photo one - arriving after 130 miles on the bike, 57 miles north of Paris, proper done in!

photo two - puncture...

Day 4 Lisieux - Pain!

Day 4 -

Woke up to thunderstorms and pouring rain, so we've brought the weather! everything hurts and i mean everything - still got to keep going.

Glad to hear that Sean's operation has been successful - has spurred us all on.

we left Lisieux at around 8:30, as the town is in a valley we went straight off and into another, you guessed it, hill! this was 3 miles climbing till it leveled out - we really, really didn't need that

Will update you all later when we stop

Keep smiling

Gary

Day 3 - Dieppe - Lisieux

Here we go again!

Before I get into the day I need to update you all about yesterday evening...

After finishing our 2 pints of well earned! Guiness, we headed back to the meeting point to catch the bus. After arriving into Dover earlier than others, we were the last to load our bikes. We then found out that our bags had been left outside in the glorious English weather - so we had soaking wet clothes! - we then found out that we had a three hour journey on the other side, nightmare! - not sure which one of us was supposed to read the itineary!!

We finally arrived in Dieppe at midnight and after a shower, it was straight to bed.

Today - early start again, everyone was quite sore, legs, bums, knees, but once on the road we soon got into our rhythm, well sort of! - the ride started off with a puncture for Leigh (Clifton)! and then a two mile climb! As we hit the open road of Northern France we faced a nasty head wind.

We've done a good strong day of cycling, and make no mistake we are all in serious pain as we achieved 5 long climbs in the baking heat. It is only pain and pain is temporary. Not a lot else to report, but a hard day.

With 12 miles to go to Lisieux we hit another two big and long climbs - all we needed! - Legs extremely tired. We've done just over 90 miles today, we are knackered, but with a rest, we will be ready for another day in the saddle

No matter what pain we are feeling, Sean (Newman) will be going under the knife today with an operation on his spine. So all the pain in comparison is nothing. Check Sean's blog for a full update. http://www.cycleacrossamerica2010.com/2010/07/big-back-operation-on-thursday/

Here is to another day

Keep smiling - stay strong