100 miles on Lowestoft Promenade
If life was meant to be easy, there would be no such thing as jigsaws, we would just have paintings in a box.
Life is challenging by default, it’s up to us as to how we
manage the challenges, the choices that we make and the paths that we choose. Trying to make something that is manageable or
easy enough for us to do, more of a challenge and as close to home as possible, is what I had the aim of doing
and here is why (and how)…………….
At my local park, The Fen in Lowestoft, the same two Mute Swans have lived there for many years, successfully raising a brood of cygnets year after year. In August 2021, the male Mute Swan, Brucie, was
attacked by a dog which wasn't on a lead. It was taken to the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Rescue
Centre near King’s Lynn for 10 weeks of treatment. Between the time the Swan
left and when it was returned by the centre, the 9 cygnets the swans had brought up since the
spring had fledged which left the female (Gracie) on her own. She stayed at the
park for the majority of the time, she would sometimes fly off but then would
return again. When the male was brought back to the park, he was alone as Gracie had already flown off.
The next morning I returned to the park and saw them together, thankfully she had returned. I
punched the air with excitement and shouted “Yes!!”. An immediate reaction which reflected how I felt. With a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye, I decided that I needed
to do something in the way of a thank you to the centre that looked after
Brucie.
I had recently become fascinated by Beau Miles, an Aussie
who has a fantastic way of looking at things. He has previously travelled all
over the world, looking for adventures and challenges, but in recent years
concentrated on exploring the environment that surrounds him in his home town of Jindivick, near
Melbourne, Australia. His films are amazing, such simple things made into an adventure,
listening to him to talk is like me talking to myself, a very like minded
bloke. I listen to his videos and literally laugh out loud. Not just because I just find him funny, but because I totally agree with what he is saying. Here's one of my favourites;
While I was walking along Lowestoft Promenade one Tuesday evening, I noticed some people running up and down the promenade. I wondered how far the promenade was from one end to the other. I looked it up on Google Maps and figured out it was a fraction under a mile. The promenade also has a cycle lane, the idea of cycling a 100 miles on there came to mind. I’ve cycled 100+ miles many times, asking people to donate for me to just cycle that again would be near enough fraudulent as it isn’t a challenge for me. It would be the same as a furniture maker being sponsored for making a dovetail joint, it's something they do on a regular basis. Put a blindfold on the skilled person and it becomes more of a challenge, if somewhat dangerous, but you get what I mean.
Funny enough, being blindfolded wasn’t an option, but riding up and down
the same cycle lane for a 100 miles, on a 1968, 16kg Raleigh Superbe, with only 2 out of the 3 gears working and
mainly at night, seemed a lot more of a challenge, both physically and
mentally than 100 miles on a light bike in a big loop.
Before I started to plan and promote the ride, I wanted to make sure that the idea was stupid enough. The feedback that I got from Johnathan Lincoln, Jules Claxton and Dom Austrin was that my idea was definitely stupid, also a little crazy. “Rather you than me!” I was told. To me it didn’t sound that odd, but apparently it was, excellent!
I started the planning and promotion for the ride and setting up a Just Giving page;https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/100mileprom Shelley Goddard from The Friends of Fen Park was also great with promotion on social media as well as getting an article in The Lowestoft Journal about the swans and also my ride;
https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/swan-injured-dog-attack-lowestoft-park-reunited-8432424
I decided on a date (7th November) and a start time, 3pm. I couldn’t ride in the day with everyone walking in the cycle lane, me weaving in and out like a slalom skier. Bell or no bell, it would just be frustrating and too time consuming. With a 3pm start, I would have a couple of hours of there being people about and as the sun disappeared, then the majority of people would too.
The day of the ride soon came along. Me and my wife were planning to go out for
lunch beforehand, “How much are you going to eat?” she asked when we were deciding where
to go. A valid question to ask someone who would eat hardly anything before an all out effort in a 10 mile time trial. But today was the opposite, this was endurance, 7 hours of riding at a steady pace. My reply was,
“As much as I can”. A while later, a doubled veggie burger with chips and a
dessert was consumed and I was sorted, fuelled with proper food for the ride
ahead.
I drove to one end of the cycle lane and parked, the car would be my base for the ride, the bike and all my
stuff for the ride in the car. Tools, spare clothes, a chair to slump in, pump, endless
supplies of cold pizza, Sorren, Jaffa Cakes, 2 flasks of coffee and coke. I had more than enough calories,
always have too many ready, it’s better than not enough. I had a spare bike ready at home, hopefully I
wouldn’t need it but if I did it wasn’t far away for me to get, I would literally walk there.
I arrived at my start line at the South Pier at 2:57am. From
seemingly nowhere, Chris and Jamie who visit Fen Park on a regular basis arrived and gave me a donation. It was great to have
people plan to come along to the start and a bonus to also donate some money.
They rode along with me for the first couple of miles then left me on my merry
way.
A while later I saw a familiar face, Neil Goward form Great Yarmouth Cycling Club (GYCC). “How are
you getting on?!” Neil asked. I stopped and had a chat with Neil. He said he was staying
around for a while, he was walking up and down the prom while I was riding it,
he shared words of encouragement as I passed. Nature was starting to call, I
left with the bike with Neil while I jogged, yes, jogged to the nearby toilet
block. When I returned, Neil said he was going to time me to see how long it took to go up the
prom and back, I smiled at this. Neil is a stalwart at the GYCC time trials, he
does the time keeping for them, a crucial and skilled role. I wondered if he had
his stop watch? “8 minutes!!” Neil
shouted as I passed him the next time. Unbeknown to me and Neil, I would use
this as a good gauge of my timings for the rest of the ride.
“Lincoln!” I shouted, joining infront of me was Johnny Lincoln, I knew he was coming along but not I wasn’t sure if he was to ride
with me, it was a welcome surprise that he did. We passed Neil again as he took
some photos and shared to the GYCC Facebook page.
I looked up to see someone taking a photo, “Hi Mark” I
shouted, it was Mark Ramsdale, another GYCC member. It was great to see Mark
come along to wish me well, I passed again a while later, “Do you want some chips?!” he asked, as tempting as it was I declined the offer.
About an hour and a half in, I was averaging just over
13mph, bang on target, this was the speed I had planned. The day before the
ride I done a 30 mile ride on the bike, to judge the speed I could maintain at
a steady effort. The 100 miles wasn’t a race, but I also had to get it done in a decent
time. With Lincoln riding with me, it helped to speed up a bit.
The light was starting to fade, the sky was changing colour,
from blue to orangey golden. The wind was dropping as I had hoped. People were
disappearing making it an easier ride. I looked up to see two silhouettes that
I instantly recognised, my parents! I stopped and gave them a kiss on the cheek and a hug, as I
always do and always will. It was wonderful to see them. I had called them earlier in the day
and mentioned the ride in the hope they would come along, and they did! A
couple of minutes of chatting, Lincoln telling my olds how their youngest son is a bit unhinged and we were off.
A short time later I passed a lady and took a double look at
her, “Christine!”, it was my mother-in-law. It was great to see her come to
wish me well on this chilly November evening.
We stopped and chatted briefly, she wished me well and then carried on again. “It’s crazy to
think that you’ll still be riding while I’m tucked up in bed later” Lincoln
said before heading off for his tea.
I stopped at 26 miles in at my car, I was planning to stop
at around every 25 miles for food and drink. In theory, I had broken the ride
into 4, 4x25 mile rides. At this point it was going to plan. After 10 minutes
of gorging on pizza and Jaffa cakes, I was off.
If you know Lowestoft Prom, you’ll know that there is a slight incline. I say slight,
it is if you do it the once. But today, I would be going up it
around 50 times on a heavy old bike.
I noticed a couple sitting on a bench waving at me (I now know it was Sonia and her husband), I waved and said hi. I didn’t know them but I
assumed that they knew what stupidity I was upto. The next time round I stopped and had a chat. They
thanked me for what I was doing as they often visit the park. They gave me a
donation to add to the rest. Then my family appeared, Dawn (my wife), Kyle
(step-son), Chloe (step-daughter) and her fiancé, Josh. It was great to see
them, I wasn’t sure when they were coming and it was great to see them all.
Kyle was on his bike, I headed off and Kyle joined me for a while.
Looking ahead I recognised a familiar dog, Maggie and then
it’s owner. It was Mick Hall from GYCC. “Hi Mick, I recognised your dog before
I saw you!” I said before I stopped and chatted before I got going again.
Halfway along the prom is the Clearmont Pier, with the
standard amusement arcade, ice cream stand, coffee shop and bar. People naturally
mingle here, so every time I passed the “Cyclist Dismount” signage on the
ground I slowed down. If anyone ever asked why I don’t stop, I’d explain that
I’m not a cyclist, I’m a human on a bicycle. I’m not sure that would go down
well, but there you go.
For the first few hours, every time I passed the Clearmont
Pier, the amount of people about dropped, just as I knew they would. It’s as if
my mind was taking a photo of every time I passed the pier like a GoPro on its
time lapse setting.
I noticed that some of the people who were still about kept looking at me a bit oddly, probably asking themselves why that bloke keeps on biking up and down. Is he lost?
I then noticed Ant Field and Katie Freer, some more excellent support from GYCC. They both stayed for a while, walking up and down the prom, encouraging me on my way.
“Hi mate!” I said, I spotted Lee from Bikespeeds. I had been messaging Lee earlier in the day and knew he would appear at some point, another familiar face that I was glad to see. “How are you getting on?”. I explained that I was 31 miles in and was going fine. “I’ll take some photos and put on social media”. Excellent I thought, the more coverage the better as there’s more chance of more donations. Lee stayed for quite a while. Later on I saw someone laying on the ground in the distance, thinking someone had fallen over, but no, it was Lee lying on the ground trying to get a better angle. Lee was celebrating today as his YouTube channel now has 1K subscribers. Checkout his channel for his and his son’s, Simon’s, excellent videos;
A while later Lee told me that there were some teenage kids causing some grief along the prom, attacking a random person. It was a bit disconcerting, but my worries about this soon disappeared as I concentrated on the task in hand.
Dawn and the family were sitting outside the Hatfield Hotel,
adjacent to the prom, sipping their drinks underneath a patio heater, good on
them. Every time I passed I‘d hear whoops and shouts of encouragement. Kyle
would randomly appear to ride with me, before riding off ahead, stopping and
waiting for me to return. I wondered what he was thinking about his step-dad
and his stupid antics, perhaps he’s just used to it by now.
A while later I passed the hotel to hear Kyle shout “ Go on
Jesus!!”, I cracked up laughing as I knew exactly what he was on about. The
night before we had seen a band called Little Red Kings. They were really
good, we also mentioned how the guitarist looked a bit like the stereotypical depiction of Jesus, and that is
it, that's the connection, I guess you had to be there but I found it hilarious. I'm looking forward to going to another of their gigs soon. Check out the Little Red Kings below:
Just before I stopped at 50 miles, I stopped for a coffee at
the hotel with the family. The warmth of the patio heating was good. Down the coffee as quick as possible and
get off to the car for some grub was the plan before I got too cozy. Kyle rode with me and I arrived
at the car hungry and ready to eat more pizza at 7:30pm. I was feeling fine at
this point, I knew I would. The battle
was going to be the second half, into the monotony of the night.
Just like clock work Jules Claxton arrived. “ Mate, I brought you a beer but I guess you don’t want it?!” he asked me, he couldn’t have been more wrong. I asked Jules if it was out of date, a standard joke after he brought some beer on a kayaking trip which was out of date and was disgusting. Dawn and Co arrived from the hotel and we all chatted while I ate as much pizza and as many jaffa cakes as I wanted, washed down with a cool beer.
As we chatted about the ride and me pointing out the absence
of a bike in Jules’ car for him to join me, Jules got his photography equipment sorted. Before I
knew it, Jules was in professional mode, bossing me about, getting Kyle to hold a flash, while I sat on a chair with
my feet in the boot of the car. The shots came out brilliantly.
A while later, riding towards the Clearmont Pier, I noticed someone clapping me as I passed, “Dom!” I shouted. It was Dom Austrin and his girlfriend Manda Timby, I knew they were coming along but I wasn’t sure when. Dom said he was going to dust off his bike and join me, I guess he couldn't find the duster. I stopped and had a quick chat, at this point I was on about mile 57, I said to them my aim was to stop at mile 75. I told them that Jules was further up the prom, so they went ahead and stood with him. They all gave me shouts as I passed them every 8 or so minutes, according to Neil. A while later at mile 61, all of a sudden the saddle became an issue, more specifically the sudden uncomfortable feeling in my lower bum/top of my thighs became an issue. The Saddle is a leather Wrights saddle and is the main reason why I bought the bike earlier this year, for the bargain price of £25. The saddle is a work of art, it’s got springs that make you feel like the bike has a constant puncture, but it’s comfortable, or it was. On the one incline on the prom, I started to stand, something that I didn’t really want to do as I wasn’t sure the bike, or to be more specific, the crank arms would take my weight and pressure form me standing time and time again. But I had little choice as I realised that it was the incline that was causing the issue as their was more pressure on the saddle.
I passed Jules, Dom and Manda at 9:20pm/65 miles and told them I was stopping for a break. I was starting to feel hungry too. Although I had a plan of stopping every 25 miles, I had told myself to stop if I was feeling the slightest bit hungry, ideally I shouldn’t feel hungry at all. I didn’t want to get into the cycle (no pun intended) of not eating enough. Something I still fall in the trap of doing. I sat and ate some more grub before I disappeared behind the car and unceremoniously slapped a load of nappy rash cream on my sore bits.
Knowing that Dom is good at maths, I asked him to look at my
average and figure out a rough time that I would finish, “Somewhere around
12:30pm” he said. I was happy with that.
I remembered at this point that I brought some earphones. I don’t condone riding with earphones in, but riding on a promenade which was now being used more at this time of night by cats rather than humans, I excused my decision, I needed to zone out. Before the ride I had download a live set by Biffy Clyro, an excellent choice of some shouty rock’n’roll.
I headed off again with my earphones in, passing a road that leads upto the prom, headlights flashed from a car, looking down at the registration I realised it was my dad! Another excellent surprise, he came back to see me again, my mum stayed at home in the warm and I don’t blame her. I spun round and went to chat with him and thanked him for coming out again. I told him the others were up the prom, I headed off and he went to find them.
For a few more miles I passed my Dad, Jules, Dom and Manda
as they shouted words of encouragement when I passed. “Go on my boy, you’re
nearly there” I heard my dad say, I looked down and I was at 71 miles, nearly
there but still a long way to go. I was now starting to struggle.
A few miles later I stopped and chatted with the assembled
supporters, guessing they would soon be going. I thanked them all and we said
our goodbyes, now for the difficult part. With no one else to come along to
join me. I was left alone. Part of me was glad, I could just dig in and get it done and I could be as grumpy as I liked. Another part was longing for
some company, someone to ride with me. One of my worries was the monotony I thought I would feel of riding up and down the same bit of tarmac or whatever
it is. But in a way, it took away any variables. I knew exactly what was coming
up. It wasn’t a route where I didn’t
know what to expect, unsure of junctions or not knowing if a hill was a round
the corner and obviously there was no traffic.
With the prom, it was sterile, clinical I guess, a cheap alternative to a velodrome. I had started early on in the ride, turning at one exact point on the northern end of the loop, passing through the same two bollards every time. The only thing I had to concentrate on was to keep the average speed steady and to just spin away, adding the miles on, 1 by 1. I started staying in the easier of my two gears more and more as it was easier on the tiring legs. I was starting to feel the need for food again so stopped at mile 81 at 10:53pm.
I text Dawn as she had asked how I was getting on and gave her a rough time of when I would finish. 10 minutes later after some coffee and food it was time to go again. 19 miles to go, nearly there. Earlier in the week, I was in Fen Park where the swans live and I found one of their huge feathers. I picked it up and before the ride, I attached it to the top tube of the bike. In a way, one of the swans was kind of with me. At this point in the ride, whenever I was really struggling, generally every time I hit the incline, I would just touch the feather with my hand/glove. A psychological boost and a reminder why I was there.
Those last 19 miles were a bit of a blur, not much happened,
but why would anything happen late on a Sunday night on Lowestoft seafront. I did start to
hallucinate. I looked up at one point, I was sure I saw someone standing
against a fence, but as I reached what I thought was a person, there was no one
there. Once again, the tired and exhausted mind playing tricks. I really did
think I was losing it at one point when I saw two people with a hedge trimmer,
cutting a hedge at 11:30pm. These were actually real people, I think.
The last hour became more difficult, 14 miles of misery. I
broke it down, all I had was 7 attempts of the hill, the rest was relatively
okay. I started to dread the hill and started to count down every attempt. I
thought about just staying on a flat part of the prom to make the miles up, “No
one else would know” I literally said to
myself. No they wouldn’t, but I would.
I carried on, sobbing at times out of exhaustion. I started
to feel the need for food but I knew if I stopped in the last hour, it would be
harder to get going again, it would be easier to push on. As it was near the
end of the ride, I could push on with nothing left to lose. I guess it’s where my skills from time
trialling help, I know that the last
part of a time trial you can just go for it, use all your energy up because
it’s the end and it doesn't matter.
The miles slowly ticked down, or up, Biffy Clyro continued to
play in my ears and at times I would loudly sing along to keep myself occupied,
I couldn’t care if anyone heard, but there was hardly anyone about anyways. I was
glad but also disappointed that it was nearly over. It had been a great ride,
with so many people supporting me, both by being there, donating or sending
messages or a bit of all of those. I got to my car with exactly 100 miles on
the Garmin at exactly 12:30am. I carried on a bit further to make sure I went over 100. I stopped
at the same point, at the same wall as I had all evening. I went to swing my leg
over the saddle and nearly fell over as my leg cramped up.
Oddly enough, there was no rapturous applause. No shouts of
congratulations, just the still of the night and my knowledge that I had done
something pretty fickle while at the same time raising money in the form of a
thank you to an organisation that helped an animal that has brought pleasure to
a lot of people in Lowestoft. And, as far as I'm aware, I'm the only person to ride 100 miles on Lowestoft Prom in one go, what a claim to fame!😅
I visit Fen Park and the swans near enough every day, it’s like an extended garden for myself and a lot of other people, some people who visit there don't even have a garden, the park is their garden. I regularly do litter picks around the park, I’ll use a long extendable window cleaning pole to get discarded vodka bottles from the lake where they have been chucked in. If I can I’ll fix something if it’s broken, make and put bird boxes on the trunks of tree’s in the winter, ready for the blue tits to explore them and hopefully nest in them in the Spring. I’ll contact the local authority to report something if it needs dealing with.
A couple of months ago near the park, I spotted a hedgehog on a path, completely still, curled up in it's protective posture. It didn't look great, I didn't think it was alive. I knelt by it's side, wondering how I could get it somewhere to lay to rest in piece. I stroked it along it's quills, going with the flow of them so I didn't prick myself. To my amazement it flinched, a glimmer of life! I kept stroking it, the more I did the more it moved. I won't share all the details but it wasn't in a great way. I picked it up and put it in a box that I got from Chloe (as she lived nearby) and took it home. I phoned a local vets, explained the situation and they said to get the hedgehog to them ASAP. Kyle and I jumped in the car and got to the vets. After their assessment, they decided the most humane thing to do was to put it to sleep. We tried to save it, but it wasn't meant to be. At least it had a dignified death, rather than sitting in the hot September sun, not being able to move, suffering, slowly dying.
These things don’t cost money to do, it’s just time. To some degree, we all have time, there’s no need to make it. The smallest of actions can make a huge difference
I don’t do these things for appreciation or recognition, I do it as a sense of duty to rectify some of our fellow humans ignorance towards nature and wildlife. I'm not sure of the reasons for the hedgehogs ill health, but I'm pretty sure it was inflicted by human activity in some way.
“Those who have done the least to cause this problem, are being the hardest hit” was my favourite, and at the same time, the most striking line for me from David Attenbourgh’s opening speech at the Conference of the Parties (COP)26. It’s a great quote which could be interpreted in many ways.
Of course it's about climate change. It could be about humans, without going all Greta Thunberg on you, as David says, some countries that cause very little pollution are feeling the extreme effect of climate change, a prime example is Madagascar. Not the glorified animated film, but the country; https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/madagascar-catastrophic-drought-claiming-lives-global-action-urgently-required
Or David could mean animals, wildlife, nature in general. Nature (predominately) doesn’t need humans, but we need nature. Nature sometimes needs us when we mess up but generally it would be better off without us. The wildlife centre were fantastic in bringing Brucie back to great health, he’s reunited with his partner for life.
https://www.rspca.org.uk/local/east-winch-wildlife-centre
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