Guildford to Barcelona Charity Cycle Ride, 11th August 2010
Does anyone else get seriously bored when they go on holiday in the summer and just sit on the beach and do nothing for a week? Well this year it stops. Joel and myself (Pete) have taken it upon ourselves to do something a bit different this summer, we have decided to cycle to Barcelona from Guildford and raise some money in the process.
Now this may have started out as a bit of a joke with us laughing about just how much training and preparation a trip like this would require but, the months have passed, we have done the training, the preparation is ongoing and we are actually going ahead with this stupid/fun/crazy/heroic* (*delete as appropriate) cycle ride.
Training for this event has been progressing steadily for a while now. We both recently travelled to Tromso, Norway; 400km inside the Arctic circle where Jo ran the incredible Midnight Sun Marathon and I completed a 10km race along the coast of the island. Jo has also recently introduced himself to the trials and tribulations of Triathlons and competed at the recent Windsor event. We both participated in the Jigsaw 20:20 Duathlon at Dunsfold in Surrey last month (June) and are also signed up to compete in the Nokia Scotland Coast 2 Coast event in September. A grueling 13 hour race that will see us cycle, run and kayak our way across 109 miles of Scottish countryside in a single day event.
All these events and training for future events bring us nicely along to our Summer challenge. All of this following our recent 3 day, 250 mile round training trip from Dieppe to Paris, Jo and i will have a quiet week resting up ready for the ride to Spain.
The Guildford to Barcelona challenge will commence next week on the 11th August, 2010 and will be completed in just ten days. A trip that will see us power down the West coast of France, around the North of the Pyrenees before riding South to Barcelona, where we intend to enjoy a well earned beer and paella, before flying back to the UK for work the following day.
Being the clever web developers that Joel and I are, we have built a small website for sponsors, donators and internet browsers to track our training and follow our journey.
Amazingly, we have also acquired a GPS tracker, courtesy of the very supportive team over at Trident Sensors, which, via satellite modem, will update our location every 30 minutes so you will be able to almost instantly track where we are on our route. Although, with the device weighing in at an epic 600 grams, negotiations as to who will carry this unit are still tense.
And…
Yes we Tweet! You can also follow both Joel and myself on Twitter for the latest updates, training achievements, journey check points, disasters and any thing else related.
As a result of all the planning that has already gone into this trip and the effort it will require, we felt it would be only sensible to try and raise some money for a deserving, local charity.
We have chosen to support the Jigsaw School based on Dunsfold Aerodrome just outside of Cranleigh, Surrey. The school caters for the needs of children with autistic spectrum disorders and related communication disorders. Jigsaw rely heavily on fundraising initiatives to continue to develop, expand and resource the available facilities. The funds raised make a huge difference to the children’s lives at school, as well as improving the whole family’s time at home.
If you can sponsor our trip in anyway with donations to our charity of choice, then you’re involvement would be very much appreciated.
Donations can be made on the Just Giving webpage we have set up here:
http://www.justgiving.com/barcelonabike
MONEY RAISED SO FAR: raised
Tags: surrey, charity, guildford, barcelona, cycling, jigsaw, gps
Tweet