Four months ago it seemed like an excellent idea. Cycling from Bristol to Paris over 4 days. With a group of like minded people. How difficult could it be? And my daughter Sarah agreed, it would be a great adventure, just at the end of her A levels, at the start of her summer break.
But now we are just 7 days away and I feel a bit like I do when I’m waiting my turn to go on a fairground ride, you know, a mixture of excitement and scary stuff. And it doesn’t help to know that there are quite a few people in the group who have trained far far more seriously than we have.
We have perfected our excuses..Sarah has been studying hard for her exams (she has) and I have been really busy at work (I have)..but the thing is that when it comes to the crunch next Saturday morning at 7.30 am we are going to have to get on that ride and just grit our teeth and go for it..assisted no doubt by those yucky gel things and strong black coffee.
We Carden girls are made of strong stuff, what’s a mere 350 or so miles of uphill and downhill on the roads of England and France?
And by the way, we’re hoping that some of you nice people reading this will please sponsor us a few quid for our favourite charity, St Peter’s Hospice..