Vale Royal AC Runners

Another week gone, another week nearer!

Since the last blog we?ve done some more cycling, prepared the bikes, arranged the transportation to Cornwall, booked some further accommodation, packed virtually everything we require for the trip, done some extensive route planning, had some additional press coverage, raised some more money for charity and had T-shirts printed detailing what, when, where and why we?re doing what we?re doing!

That all sounds very professional and organised doesn?t it! ? should I leave it there and say thanks for reading and if you?d like to sponsor us blah, blah blah ??or would it be better to keep this blog detailed and truthful!

The cycling for us was back and forth to the running club on Tuesday and Thursday plus a Sunday ride to Scenic Stockport! In addition to that Mark has also continued to ride to and fro to work on a daily basis (has he overtrained? Should he be worried if he is feeling a little tired as he reads this? I guess he should!).

On Wednesday, following an early morning run I decided to head to the railway station to reserve places for the bikes on the 3 trains that we need to catch to get us to Penzance next Saturday. I arrived there shortly after 6.30, and stood at the booking office window for what seemed an eternity (but may have been longer!) before the booking clerk acknowledged the fact that I was there, he appeared not to have heard my coughing fit, my tuneful humming, my ever loudening whistling or my coins dropping on the counter! But that might have been because his desk was 6 feet away from the window and of course his newspaper might have been more engrossing than the prospects of serving someone who was making random noises! I explained to him that I would like to book the bikes on to 3 trains, he took a sharp intake of breath at this and advised me that I?d picked a bad time to do this (pal!) as it was the busiest time of day, I sneaked a glance behind me at this stage to confirm that, apart from me, the booking hall was still completely empty. I feel he may have spotted my sneaky glance as he quickly confirmed that the waiting room would be full within a few minutes, if only you?d served me when I got here I thought! He may well have been reading about Wimbledon in the paper, as we then played ?train ticket tennis?! although his service wasn?t very good ? he still had a few shots ? His opening one suggested possible alternative ?less busy? times that I could come back, ?after 9am would be better? he said, I returned this with ?I need to be at work then? he hit back with ?do you work Saturdays? can?t you come back then?? ? ?well I suppose I could ? but couldn?t we try and do it now? I said ? ?It?s going to get busy? he retorted, ?well, if it gets busy I?ll come back?, after which he (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to ?give it a go?

He then did a little bit on his keyboard, clicked his mouse a few times and within a minute (stopping only to give me an ?I told you? look when another customer entered the booking hall) produced me 2 cycle reservations for the Birmingham to Exeter train (which turned out to be the only train that we could pre book cycles on). That done he asked me ?what about getting back?? when I explained why I didn?t need reservations for that he gave me another look that had suggested his suspicions had been confirmed!

Last week we also got some (more accurate!) coverage in the Northwich Chronicle, in fact we were actually featured in the cycling section on the sports pages. Slightly less flattering though we had been relegated from the dizzy heights of being a ?Dynamic Duo? (Northwich Guardian 10th June!) to now being a ?Plucky Pair? but at least we weren?t ?pedalling plumbers? can?t be long though before we become the ?Gruesome Twosome?, the ?Balding Brace? or the ?Calamitous Couple?. One thing I have realised is that you when you set up a justgiving site you need to keep the address as simple as possible ? and that punctuation should be kept out of it - hyphens are not a good idea! Both the Guardian and the Chronicle got our address wrong, and strangely enough they both made the same error despite one of them getting the address by telephone and one from a computer link, each of papers put a dash in to big-mark! Obviously anybody who knows him would realise that there is no dash in bigmark! But to make sure we didn?t miss anyone who wanted to donate I set up a justgiving site with the address given in the local press and put a note on it saying it was incorrect and putting a link back to the correct address ? but we still had a donation on the new address, which is fine because it all goes to Dystonia.

At the start of our previous long ride, one of my toe clips snapped, not a problem I thought as I can take one of my other bike to replace it, In fact I thought I?d take both of them of my other bike so that they still match. I took one off quite easily, but no matter what I tried I couldn?t get the other one to budge, so after trying for a while I abandoned that plan and decided matching toe clips wasn?t particularly important. However, when I tried to put the toe clip on to the bike it became apparent that they were totally different types of toe clips! Not a problem I thought (I think that a lot) I would simply head to the local bicycle shop and purchase the correct one from the chappy there. So on Saturday I cycled there clutching my broken toe clip. I entered the shop but before I had chance to speak, the shop owner said ?antique? I called him ?speccy four eyes? he retorted with ?big nose? ? no not really - I made that bit up - he simply meant that my toe clip was pretty old he said that they didn?t make them anymore but suggested that the other cycle shop in town might still have some, so I cycled up there and checked whether they had any, again it was a ?no? but the advice was that I should try the original shop ? fearing that this could have now easily developed in to ?toe clip tennis? between the 2 shops I decided to try and find a vendor elsewhere. So at the current time I am continuing to search on the internet for what I need but at the moment I remain a toe clip short of a full bike!

This Sunday?s ride took us to Stockport! During the week Mark had been over to Decathlon to order us some cycling shirts, and arranged for them to have The Dystonia Society logo on the front and Lands End to John o?Groats plus the date of our ride on the back. These were ready to be collected at the weekend and we thought it a good idea to collect them as part of our ride, as usual Ken was coming with us and also Speedy Weedy on his racer. I had decided that as the bike trip was getting quite close now it was probably a good time to try out my panniers! I would point out that I?d never ridden a bike with panniers before so it took me a little while to work out how to attach them to my bike. I?d got quite a few items of kit ready to take, but made a late decision to take some of the items out as I thought I shouldn?t attempt to carry too much on my first attempt so with a training shoe & a banana in one side and a training shoe and a Cheshire A-Z in the other I was on my way ? I remember thinking

that they seemed a little wobbly but was pretty sure that they wouldn?t be a problem!

As I set off from home they looked fine, however, after about 200 metres when I turned a corner (possibly should have chosen a route without corners!) my bike started making a strange noise, it was almost as if a Velcro strip was constantly hitting the spokes of the back wheel. However, this noise soon stopped though, unfortunately, so did my bike when (more of) my pannier got jammed in the back wheel! I lent my bike against a lamp post, at the corner of the street, to extract the pannier, but possibly pulled a bit too hard, which caused the bike to topple over, with the handlebar hitting me on the head and the Cheshire A-Z exiting the other pannier, oh me oh my! I picked up the bike and checked it was ok, found the A-Z in the road (usually that statement is the other way round I think!) re attached my panniers (in a fashion) and carried on to Mark?s house, feeling a little sorry for myself. Speedy Weedy was already there (having got a lift!!), clutching his little pump, I explained my pannier problem and he confided some of his personal problems to me. He admitted that no matter what he tried it wouldn?t go up ?his equipment was very small? and ?not really up to the job?, he certainly looked a little deflated. Whilst Mike borrowed a pump and sorted his tyres Mark assisted with my panniers, apparently I?d put them on the wrong way round!

?the reflector should be at the back ? they?ll be fine now!? Problem solved? 

Ken soon turned up and we were on our way, through Davenham, Lach Dennis (where I started the Garmin ? whoops forgot to do that again!), Lower Peover, Ollerton etc, chatting about many subjects as normal, Weedy fitting in well, although he was busy highlighting many potential problems that could occur on our ride. Having established ourselves as Thunderbolt & lightening on our previous rides we felt that Ken was ?sunshine? whereas Mike was definitely ?gloomy? although ?light drizzle? also seemed to suit him! We had a guessing game as to what the (Mark organised) cycling shirts were likely to say on them, with John o? Goats being seen as the most likely. All going well, on a lovely warm morning, we carried on through Mobberley, Wilmslow, and Bramhall but on the outskirts of Stockport I heard a shout of ?pothole? it was quite a late shout I thought but ?luckily? I managed to swerve to avoid it at the last second. However, I then heard a noise of a pannier reflector being hit by spokes! Yes, my pannier was having another argument with my back wheel ?they do bicker!? The wheel was being very moody and trying to put a hole in the corner of the pannier. I separated them, warned them about their behaviour, tightened my Velcro and got back on. But, although wounded, the pannier just wouldn?t leave it ? I think the wheel had ?spoke? out of turn. They had a couple more clashes as we made our way in to the centre of Stockport, but adopting a leaning back one handed method I found that I could keep them apart, however, this ?bucking bronco? style didn?t seem like a long term solution or a particularly good way to cycle round the M60 roundabout ? but we eventually made it to Decathlon!

At Decathlon I decided that a new rack was required to solve my problem, and Mark also decided to purchase a cycling computer (milo/speedo), so that he could get some accurate information on the ride (he doesn?t trust my Garmin for some reason!). We arranged for these to be fitted and went to find somewhere to eat whilst that happened (the Decathlon café turned out to be two vending machines so we headed across the road to B & Q), The Café there is ?plumbers heaven? set in an ?idyllic spot? at the end of the aisle containing bathroom suites, the view is wonderful for people in that particular trade (apparently!). Anyway, it provided us with the refuelling that we needed, back at Decathlon with the Rack fitted I spent some time trying out various pannier positions whilst the bike mechanics tried to find a spot to secure the computer to Mark?s already gadget loaded bike. My new rack, although better than my previous one unfortunately offered no more points to secure the panniers, and after quite a long period endeavouring to get them more stable we decided that the rack needed an attachment to stop them swinging ? both Mark and Ken had their own ideas of what would work best ? Mike whispered that listening to Ken?s ideas might be the better option ? and that Mark?s plan to use wood, plus copper & lead piping might not be the best solution with the amount of welding work required! Before we left we also collected the new bright yellow cycling tops, which will hopefully be seen on July 18th in John ?o Groats!! ? wha?ts a bit of punctuation between friends!

We arranged that we would call at Mark?s business premises on the way home and see what we (Ken) could sort out re the rack. I managed to secure the panniers well enough for them not to move on the way home, but this meant they had to be quite close to the seat end of the rack which also meant that my heal caught them at regular intervals! We ?chose? a slightly different route home so as not to miss out on cycling through Whythenshaw and Benchill (quite quickly ? partly because Mark now had a speedo!) and a nice section of busy dual carriageway to Altrincham! Incidentally, during our rides we have found runners to be the most friendly of other road users, perhaps they recognise our trainers, whereas fellow cyclists very rarely acknowledge us. Motorists, however, quite regularly take the opportunity to beep and wave at us, and we had a number who took the trouble to do that on Sunday! A word of advice to any motorist who does this is don?t get caught in traffic shortly after you?ve done it ?

as Big Mark will come and stare at you ? face like thunder!

On the way back the weather changed quickly and passing through Bowdon the rain started, it was soon heavy enough to put jackets on, for those who hadn?t taken them out of their panniers before we set off that is! A slight error there, a Cheshire A-Z was hardly going to help keep me dry but I guess I knew exactly where I was getting wet. Unfortunately, it didn?t just rain it absolutely hammered down ? another reminder of how difficult the weather could make our ride ? we were soon totally soaked ? and heading towards pneumonia for Dystonia! Luckily by Knutsford conditions had improved a bit and through Pickmere and on to Wincham it got brighter again (it actually hadn?t rained!). At Mark?s business premises Ken set about equipping my bike with some pannier protectors, which he managed to do with plastic piping, plus jubilee and zip clips, think twin exhausts and you?ll get the picture! They work a treat, and definitely make my bike stand out from the crowd! Former world record holding cyclist Graeme Obree, famously used parts from his washing machine to help speed his bike up ? so I feel a bit like him, except he always had dirty kit ? for some reason!! A nice gentle cycle home from Wincham and training was completed!

The ride starts on 4th July. Hopefully, we will be back in Northwich, part way through the our journey on the afternoon of Friday 10th July and our plan is to head to the Kingfisher Pub on Kingsmead that evening from 7.30 onwards ? it?s an open invite so please come if you can ? the support, interest and sponsorship has been fantastic so far and we hope we can maintain that (and even add to it) during the course of the ride. So it would be great to see as many of you as possible in the pub on that evening. On Saturday 11th we will be riding to Lancaster and a number of you are going to accompany us that day I know, and some the next day in the lakes, which will be great for us, the more the merrier! In Lancaster, which is the mid point of the ride we are going to stay with Jane?s mum, which seems a highly appropriate place to stay as like Mark?s dad she is a Dystonia

sufferer, and is certain to act as a great motivation for us to do the second half of the ride!

Well, that?s pretty much where we are up to ? we have now had the bike?s serviced (and credit checked presumably!) by Stuart, the financial services man, who in all seriousness has done a great job and also given us some good advice re maintenance during the ride and what tools we?ll need. We?ve pretty much decided what we are taking and Mark?s wife Helen is giving us a lift to Crewe station in the early hours of Saturday morning and all being well we should be in Penzance by lunchtime. Then we?ve got 9 miles to go to get to Lands End to the start, Mark is keen to get a taxi there, and having seen the undulations on that section It doesn?t seem a bad idea! The first day offers the biggest hills of the entire ride, so a lift to the start might be good! if anyone knows the phone number of Penzance Bike Taxi?s ? please let them know that there is a previously pavement pounding plucky pair of pretty poorly prepared, pneumonia plagued, pedal pushing plumbing, people with pannier protecting pipes and punctuation problems prepared to pay peak period Penzance passenger prices for powered propulsion pre particpating in physically painful (potentially pleasurable!) performance.

Hope you?ve enjoyed the blogs! - If you have, Please don?t forget the charity aspect! just a reminder!!! we?re doing it for Dystonia! So if you can please help a very worthy cause!

www.justgiving.com/lejog-bigmarkandgoffy/