I’m about to turn 39 years old. It’s just hitting me that I am getting on a bit. Next year I’ll be 40 and in eleven years from now I’ll be 50. Eleven years ago I was 27 and had not long been married. Since then, my wife and I moved to Sussex and we became parents, to two fantastic daughters. I’ve changed jobs a few times, lost an uncle and my father-in-law, my parents also divorced and my mum has recently been battling and overcoming cancer.
This is not a tale of woe, but you never know how much time you’ve got, and what life’s got in store for you. I remember my Grandad saying to me a few years ago, “Grandson, I’ve got no answers for you, just live your life and do what ever makes you happy.”
With that in mind I wanted to do something challenging. But what exactly? I thought about the various challenges that other people have done. For example, running the London Marathon; that’s an inspiring thing to do, but I couldn’t manage it with my dodgy left knee, so I ruled out. Then I thought about a parachute jump. That would be an amazing thing to do. Trouble is that I haven’t really got a good head for heights and I’m not sure that I could throw myself out of a perfectly good aeroplane. So, what could I do? I couldn’t think of anything that really gripped me that was also realistic. I needed to find something that was achievable, challenging enough and most of all – enjoyable.
Then, during a conversation with my brother, a couple of years ago, about the exploits of James Cracknell and Ben Fogle’s various endurance challenges, we found the answer; cycling the length of Britain from John O’Groats to Land’s End. I was going to go on a bike ride, a very, very long bike ride.
JOGLE by bike 