Story 15: Registering to Ride The Night

An email landed in my inbox inviting me to sign up for the 'Women V Cancer Ride The Night'. I couldn't possibly resist! Especially after I managed to persuade my daughter to take part with me! It involves cycling a circular route from Windsor Race Course then all around London all through the night. I love London, especially when it's lit up at night time, and seeing it from the saddle - with my daughter (who recently moved down to London and is, ahem, about to take up cycling...) riding along beside me - amongst hundreds of other women will, I think, be a pretty awesome experience! It's not till May next year, so we've got plenty of time to prepare for cycling the 100km (eek!!) route.

Another reason I'm excited about the event is that it's helping to raise awareness of (and funds for) three different cancer charities. I guess we've all been, or at the very least know someone who's been, affected by cancer. Over the course of this past year I've lost an aunt (one year ago today actually), an uncle and a good friend from choir, all to different forms of cancer. I've also worked with many lovely people - who are either living with cancer or have lost someone to cancer - through my voluntary work at a local hospice. So, it feels really worthwhile to be signing up for something that's raising awareness and raising money towards funding research and new treatments for this horrible disease.

Having said that, I've only just finished fundraising for the STV Appeal through taking part in Pedal for Scotland, so I think I'd better wait a wee while before I set up another Just Giving page for this particular cycling event! But, in a similar vein to the wee nod I was giving my Dad by taking part in Pedal for Scotland, it seems really appropriate to be giving a wee nod to my Aunt (my Dad's twin sister) tonight by deciding to take part in the Ride the Night event.

So, there we go, another cycling adventure to look forward to. But, not till May 2014. And I'm sure I'll have one or two more stories from the saddle to tell before then...

Story 6: Being a danger to the public on Boris's bike

I've only managed one wee cycle this week, partly because I've been suffering from an aching back but mainly because we were down in London over the weekend. For various reasons, it was an emotional few days so our lovely little nine mile pedal round the park, before we headed for home yesterday, was a nice way to finish our stay off. 

We set off on one of Boris's Bikes for a leisurely trek round Hyde Park. The 'Barclays Bikes' is a great scheme (and I'm sure the idea didn't come from Boris Johnson, but his name will forever be associated with it following his launch of the initiative in 2010) that allows you to hire a bike from, then return it to, one of the many docking stations that are dotted around London. It's especially great if you're only going to be on the bike for 30 minutes as you don't pay a penny for the privilege. You are, of course, a free-wheeling advert for Barclays but I guess that's a small price to pay...

Once we'd figured out the system we were off and running:

Now, as you can see, I'm not wearing very sensible cycling attire. We hadn't been planning on cycling during our visit, so I had a choice of flip-flops or court shoes to wear on my feet. The flip-flops won the toss. We also didn't have helmets, but neither did anyone else cycling around the park and it did feel strangely liberating to ride our bikes just as we did when we were kids. We didn't venture anywhere near the main roads and didn't go anywhere near fast enough to sustain a major injury! Which was just as well...

The bikes only have three gears, but I couldn't quite master them! Every time I changed up or down, I had to fiddle about with the wee twirly bit on the handlebar till the chain stopped making a clicky noise (yup, this not-so-serious cyclist hasn't quite got to grips with the lingo yet...) My incompetence with the very simple gears also meant that sometimes I'd accidentally slip from third to first, but still be peddling hard, as if I was in third. The result of this, as an innocent young couple who were out for a leisurely morning stroll discovered, was that my feet - and hence my flip-flops - were liable to fly off the pedals. Said couple not only had to dodge roller-bladers, groups of joggers and Scottish cycling plodders in the park on Sunday morning; they also had a very near miss from a flying flip-flop! I'm happy to report that they escaped unharmed and that nothing was damaged except my own not-so-serious pride. 

Apart from nearly decapitating a pedestrian, it was a really lovely wee cycle. Maybe next time I'll even venture out onto the roads on one of Boris's bikes - but very definitely only if I've remembered to pack my trainers and helmet...!