I'm really glad I've got this one out the way, I always knew it was going to be tough as I only had 3 weeks from the end of the running challenges to get ready.
It's fair to say it was tough and by far the hardest of the challenges to date which I put down to lack of training and preparation.
As the saying goes "fail to prepare, prepare to fail!"
It wasn't my fitness that was a worry and certainly I knew mentally I could get through the 100 miles it was purely the conditioning of the legs and given the amount of hills this was definitely my achilles heal!
But after 7hrs and 46mins I completed the 103 mile course and I one piece, just!
By that I mean that after roughly 65miles my knee was telling me no more hills but unfortunately I had to push through it with every hill which meant going even slower than I normally do up them.
All in all I'm pleased I got through it especially as I had only had 5 hours sleep and I had to leave just after 5:30 to get to the start.
Despite the hills the route took us through some beautiful countryside and villages and the weather even surprised us by staying dry and then in the afternoon breaking into blue sky's and sunshine.
The support was great at each of the feed stations with the last one being supplied with wonderful home made cakes. Apparently the lady had been spending the last course of weeks preparing them to feed the 1100 riders which included Phil Spencer from Location location location and using my celebrity radar (with a bit of help from my wife) I hunted him down at the end and got my picture with him!
Celebrity stalker strikes again!
The night before was the joint birthday party of Eva's grandparents Martyn and Viv. It was a great night and they had asked that instead of presents to donate to my challenge in raising funds for Springboard.
It was very humbling with their kind words as they introduced me at the guests at the start of the night.
The pot now stands at just under £2,500 including gift aid which is amazing as we approach the halfway point.
So now I have 3 weeks to rest and sort my knee out before taking on 134miles of welsh valleys and more bloody hills!
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