Summer of triathlons

Now that I’m probably about half way through my A- Z fundraising challenge, I’m getting to the stage where I’ll need to get a bit creative with the letters.Firstly I’m going to bag a V with the Victoria dock (rather than Virgin cos I hate using the sponsor’s name) London triathlon.  I was really nervous before, as it was my first proper open water swim race, and I couldn’t stop thinking about everything I’d heard about getting kicked in the face and pushed under. In the end it went waaaay better than I’d expected, it was fairly chaotic in the water at first but once I settled into my rhythm I really enjoyed it. The return lap was frustrating because there was just a wall of bodies in front of me and no way past, and I got a few kicks in the face, but at least I got a bit of a rest before the bike! The bike was quite non eventful, got up some good speed going down the underpasses, and luckily the rain held off, and the run was fine with a good sprint finish at the end. Not the prettiest of races, but very happy to have done it.

Next was L for London Triathlon – I began the day watching the climax of the Triathlon world series and saw Non Stanford not only win the race but the world series, with Jodie Stimpson getting silver for the year. Amazing start to the day. But was quite scared about going out on my bike having seen the series’ leader, Gwen Jorgensen, from the US crash on the bike section and have to drop out. Again luckily by the time I raced the rain had stopped and the course was drying out. I still really didnt enjoy the bike section, lots of loops with too many tight turns. My feet froze up on the bike course so I only started feeling my feet again on the third lap of the run. Not my favourite race at all, but still amazing to have been part of the same race (if not quite the same course) as the ladies had been on that morning, and the Brownlees would be on the next day.

Next to come – H – for Hever Castle. Only a sprint distance (or the Henry VIII as they call it), but really looking forwards to it because its a swim the moat of the castle and then bike course on open roads around the country side, no more London roads and lap counting!

As always, its all about the money, well, and the taking part, so thanks for any donations.

Not quite the Olympics (East London half)

The East London marathon isnt the most exciting of races, but it does have the excitement of passing by the outside of the Olympic park, so for a short second my mind wandered and I was running down the race track past the cheering crowds…

Back to earth with a bump as my nostrils were filled with the aroma of the portaloos along the route, the Olympics will just have to wait.

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

X is for Xtreme Xmas swim

Wow, that was cold!! This weekend saw the last of my alphabetically themed fundraising challenges to raise money for the World Development Movement for the year.

I bagged my X, as well as completing my ‘W’ challenge (wild swimming every month of the year) with an Xtreme Xmas swim – a  100m swim in Brockwell Lido dressed as Father Christmas (unheated 50 m pool, no wetsuit :s).

When we turned up at the pool, the sun was out and it almost felt like we’d almost be cheating to do a December swim on such a lovely day, but after a quick briefing and pep talk by Jo Brand, the sky began to turn black and moody and the rain started falling and I almost began to look forwards to getting in the water, to escape the weather outside!

First went the people just jumping in and out, and then the rest of us lined up for the swim. Clambering in surrounded by a sea of santa hats, as well as some amazing penguins, was slightly surreal.  We were doing widths of the shallow end (presumably they didn’t trust us not to drown down the deep end!) and  there was general chaos with some running, some swimming, and some desperately trying to make it to the edge whilst others were already coming back on the return lap.

I managed to complete the challenge of 100 m (4 widths). By the end lap I couldn’t really feel my hands, and I wasn’t even sure I was actually moving, but somehow I made it and out of the pool to a very welcome hot chocolate. I was cold, it was painful, but I’d definitely do it again!

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

From A to Z in 2 days!

When I first decided to do my alphabet challenge to raise money for WDM I only planned to go from A- D. But then I got a bit too in to the idea and when the Richmond park duathlon came up, I decided I would also go for R – Z. And so it was that two days after the rather horrific experience of the Amsterdam marathon, I found myself on a lovely Dutch bike, heading to the coast to swim in the sea at Zandvoort!

I’m guessing ‘zin’ doesn’t mean swimming in the winter sea

Whilst the weather was not overly inviting for sea swimming, finding myself in a country where most of the towns seemed to begin with Z, it was too tempting not to try and find a Z shaped challenge. The day after the marathon we had a lovely day cycling round the countryside criss-crossed by canals just north of Amsterdam, and I picked up a good few Z’s there. But even though getting on and off the bike was hard work given the state of my legs, that didn’t really feel quite challenging enough.

So the next day we cycled to Zandvoort, via some great apple pie in Haarlem, a Center Parc that we somehow managed to cycle into and couldn’t find our way out of, and a national park across the sand dunes – home to some beautiful Autumn trees, but also perhaps Holland’s only hill, which was hard work on our heavy Dutch bikes.

After some time admiring the beach from above, there was no putting it off any longer. We went down to the beach, past the families and couples wrapped up in coats, scarves and hats, past the fishermen wading out in galloshers and full waterproof gear. We got changed as quickly as possible, and after exchanging a quick ‘are we really going to do this’ look, ran into the sea. It was a really shallow beach so it took a long time to actually get immersed in the water but finally we were in and swimming. It was really cold, but just about bearable.

Emerging from the freezing sea!

I counted 26 strokes (one for each letter of the alphabet) before escaping back out of the water and on for a well deserved beer.

So now I’ve got my A-D, I’ve got my R and my Z, just need to get the ones in between now…

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

Amsterdam marathon – an experience I’d rather not repeat!

There’s three main things you’re usually told if you are running a marathon – train properly for it, pace yourself and make sure you have a good pair of running shoes. I passed the last one with flying colours, but somehow didn’t quite get round to the other two.

To be fair, I did manage one long run around the hills of south-east London 2 weeks before the race and I did well at the tapering (resting) in the week leading up to the race. But overall my training regime probably left rather a lot to be desired.

I even spent ages boring my friends the night before working out what speed I should be running, based on what I thought was an achievable finish time. But then I started running, and felt so great that I decided my lack of training might go in my favour because my legs would be so much fresher (?!), and started running much faster than planned. This went well for the first 2 hours, and then I started paying for it. If I’d had any idea how to get to the finish another way, I would probably have dropped out

But I did eventually finish, and even managed to keep walking far enough to pick up my medal! The race started and finished in the Olympic stadium (my second stadium finish of the year!) which made it more exciting, and although there’s a boring bit around the back of an industrial area at around 30k – just when you least want to be running, it was generally a good course. Most excitingly for me, it has two windmills along the countryside part of the route where it runs alongside the Amstel (sadly, no one was offering Amstel beers).

Not my happiest moment!

In conclusion, an experience I would never want to repeat, but purely self inflicted, and at least I’ve got my ‘A’ now!

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

Dunwich dynamo – 120 miles overnight to the coast

It’s hard to explain what the attraction of cycling 120 miles through the dark is, but the Dunwich Dynamo XX was without doubt one of the best things I’ve done in a long time (as well as bagging my the D in my fundraising challenge).

For the first few hours from leaving London and going out through Essex, the stream of bikes was absolutely non stop. My friend dropped her bike light at one point, and it seemed hours before there was a break in the bikes so we could go back and pick it up. There’s an amazing feeling about suddenly being the dominant vehicle on the road – even the cars were stopping to let us go past.

As we got further from London the bikes gradually thinned out, but there was hardly ever a moment where you didn’t have a little red rear light blinking in front of you.  So much so that I almost started panicking when the bike in front momentarily went out of sight as it went round a corner, jerking me out of the trance-like state it brought over me.

At one point we entered a village and the bikes in front all started slowing down, and I thought there must have been some awful accident ahead, but it was just two pubs, opposite each other in the road, that had stayed open late, and the road was absolutely packed with and high vis beer drinkers. As we went on into the early hours of the morning, there were still pubs that had stayed open for us, serving very welcome coffee, as well as more beer for those who were brave enough.

Strangely I never really felt tired, there were too many other sensations to occupy your brain – especially the heightened sense of smell in the darkness, picking out the different tree blossoms hiding in the darkness at the side of the road.

We reached the halfway point around 4am, marked by an amazing village hall serving coffee and hot soup. As we left the carpet of bikes around the hall, the sun was just beginning to come up, lighting up the wheat fields around us.

It was amazing seeing the fields at our sides begin to creep into colour as the sun rose and just to remind you how black it had been a few hours ago, there were bright red poppies dancing in the sun at the side of the road.

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We eventually got to the beach around 11am, 13 hours after we set off. Most people had already got there and the beach at Dunwich was absolutely coated in bikes and people passed out on the pebbles. We finished off with a quick dip in the rather grey sea, before joining them for a well deserved nap on the beach, dreaming of red lights blinking ahead into the distance.

So that’s D in my fundraising challenge done…

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

Crystal Palace triathlon – done!

Today was the next step in my alphabet fundraising challenge for WDM – with the C in the shape of the Crystal Palace marathon.

And it went rather better than I was expecting – the evening after finishing my first triathlon, I’m still grinning at the memory.

Maybe it was the relief after spending the last few weeks worrying about the swimming. I’d put a rather over ambitious swim time of 17 minutes, which given that back in March I couldn’t swim more than one length of a 25 m pool, was probably a bit overambitious. And so I had visions of massive tail backs stuck behind me. And then after meeting someone on the train on the way who said last year it was ‘carnage’ with people swimming on top of each other to overtake, my worry turned to outright fear.

But in the end it was of course all fine, I had a 5 person queue behind me at one point, but after being tapped on the foot (it’s all frightfully polite!) and letting them overtake, I quickly caught back up, and after a few lengths rather too close to the guy in front’s bum, I overtook.

After obeying the instructions not to run on the stairs leaving the pool (taking me back to school days!) it was into transition to pick up my bike, and then straight on to the cycling. A bit more sun would have been nice at this stage to help dry off, but generally the weather was perfect. Each lap began with a big climb, but it was worth it for the brilliant down hill stretches and the excitement of swooping down without having to worry about traffic.

The hardest bit was trying to keep count of the 9 laps, before going through to dump the bike, and on to the run. I could really feel the effects of the previous 2 sections and it felt more like a 20k run than 5, but I got a second wind as the second lap ended in the stadium and the chariots of fire music started playing in my mind.

I did the whole thing in 1.32.53 (18 min– 750m swim, 46.33– 20k cycle, 23.51 – 5k run), which made me 51^st lady, which probably says more about the lower number of women taking part than my abilities, but I was very happy! Only problem now is I’m pretty sure I want to do another one.

Thanks so much if you’ve already sponsored me, if you’d still like to, then just click here:

Brighton cycle ride – done!

I kicked off my alphabetically themed fundraising challenge for WDM with the ‘B‘ in my series of challenges – London to Brighton cycle ride (unfortunately my A is the Amsterdam marathon which isn’t until the end of the year, so I wont be doing them quite in order).

Tim did a great job of working out a route that avoided most of the busy roads and then expertly navigating us through it. We set off from the London Eye on a surprisingly sunny morning, dealt with the challenges of keeping a group of 9 together cycling through the streets of London, and breezed up our first hill of the day to Crystal Palace.

Setting off from the London Eye

Then on through Croydon (maybe not the highlight of the trip), and out of London into the north Downs cycling past some beautiful woods of blue bells. After several more hills, and a few threats of rain that luckily failed to materialise, we got to Turners Hill in time for lunch. I’ve never seen so many soft drinks on a pub table!

We carried on along some beautiful open roads, past Haywards Heath, then onto rather less pleasant, narrow roads, coupled with a strong head wind, and with growing dread as we approached Ditchling Beacon. Having been told over lunch that the hills we’d already done (the sort where you’re not sure if you’ll actually be able to get the pedal all the way round or will suddenly start going backwards down the hill) were not really hills in comparison with Ditchling, the wall of hill in front of us became ever more ominous!

By Brighton Pier

We’d split into a smaller group by now, which was probably just as well for the carspatiently waiting behind us as we crawled up the hill, in ever lower gears. It was definitely worth it to get to the top, with a brilliant view that the sun obligingly came back out for. After a rest it was a long downhill all the way into Brighton, to finally have some well deserved beers, and even a quick swim in the sea. So that’s ‘B’ done, ‘C’ – Crystal Palace triathlon next …

I’d love it if you could sponsor me and help me reach my target of raising £750 for WDM – you can donate at www.justgiving.com/loooceyabcde or by texting ABCD63 £5 to 70070 (you can change the amount you donate, there’s no additional cost to you or WDM).

Doing the alphabet the hard way!

I blame the beer. There I was having a Christmas drink with friends. And then for some reason, a few of us started talking about doing the Berlin marathon. Having found that was already booked up, our plan changed to Amsterdam. Which begins with an ‘A’. And that’s where it all started…

Because in some warped world in my head, if you decide to do a race beginning with an A, it follows you need to do something beginning with a B, and so on.

And so it is that I find myself doing a series of alphabetically themed challenges this year to raise as much money as possible for one of my favourite organisations – the World Development Movement. And I’m setting up this blog to let you know how I get on .

So far I’ve got the following challenges planned:

A: Amsterdam marathon – 26 miles (21 October)
B: Brighton from London cycle ride – 60 miles (21 April)
C: Crystal Palace triathlon – Swim: 750m, Bike: 20km, Run: 5km (20 May)
D: Dunwich dynamo – 120 miles cycling overnight from London, to the Suffolk coast the next morning (30 June–1 July)

No, I probably won’t do all the letters of the alphabet, that would be silly! But I’ll definitely be adding in a few more letters soon.

And yes, I would love you to sponsor me to remind me why the hell I’m doing it all.

• Either go to www.justgiving.com/loooceyabcde
• Or text ABCD63 £5 to 70070 (you can change the amount, there’s no additional cost to you or WDM)

More on WDM: World Development Movement is a global anti-poverty campaigning organisation. You might not have heard of them, but here’s a few reasons why I hope you’ll support them by sponsoring me.

1. They’re a little organisation that does great things on low budgets so you know your money is well spent. Rather than big budgets, a famous brand and celebs, they achieve real impact through mobilising supporters and innovative tactics.

2. Rather than putting a ‘sticking plaster’ on things that have gone wrong, they campaign to actually change the systems and structures that keep people and countries poor.

Current campaigns you’d be helping support include ending banks speculating on food which is pushing up food prices and pushing the poorest deeper into hunger and poverty, and ending climate debt where poor countries risk being trapped into new and dangerous debt to pay for the costs of climate change, largely caused by the rich countries.

So please dig deep and donate now! Thanks in advance.