Met up with another Tweeter - @chrisbpr who bizarrely enough lives about 2 mins walk from my house and did JOGLE last year. He has suggested some changes to the route, and they all made great sense. 


I have plotted it all on google and now I just need to work out a) how to get it all onto my Garmin Edge 705, and then b) how to get it all onto a map that can be viewable and people can go 'you don't want to go there' etc etc...


Also, definitely need more people to join us. So far we have about 5 people or so doing legs with us and pledges from 4/5 more but we need at least 13-14 people...watch this space.

New Rider!

Just had an email from an old friend who has confirmed he's keen to ride the whole thing with us - that makes three of us doing the whole trip. Great news.

3 Charities

OK, I am now writing about the three charities I am going to cycle for, and try to raise money for. One of them I don't know who it is yet but I have decided on two of them.

My mate, Simon, is one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet. The type of guy who's always got time for you, would drop everything to help you out and always has a smile on his face. When my wife was suddenly taken ill during pregnancy he was round in 10 minutes to look after the kids (at 11pm) so we could get to hospital. He volunteered to drive the support van for my trip and I am forever indebted to him for this. Simon's daughter has a rare syndrome called McCune Albright's Syndrome and I am going to raise some funds for her or for research into it (there is no official charity). She is only 5 and is currently in a full body cast due to having her legs broken and reset. You could never wish to meet a happier girl and if I can do something to help her life be better than I will try.

My second charity is Macmillan's. Two reasons for this. The observant ones of you will know that I lost my Dad, aged 47, in 1994, to cancer. Whilst he didn't directly use Macmillan's I have always been amazed at the 'service' they provide for cancer sufferers. The second reason is due to the courage and tenacity of someone I've never met. Twitter is a strange beast - I have people I now consider to be good friends, I have made jam for them (seriously), invited one to cook a dinner party for us, swapped (not very witty on my part) anecdotes with them, and bantered around football, family, kids etc...well, just after Benjamin (my second child was born) a twitter friend (Stacie Stewart, her off Masterchef - and dinner party above!) recommended I follow via #ff (on Friday people recommend people they follow with the hashtag #ff or 'follow friday') Jhalmitt (username not her real name - Jay!) who had had her baby two days after we had Benjamin. We immediately hit it off, and became 'twitter friends' (that is a really lame phrase - sorry). A few weeks later Jay mentioned her sister was running Race for Life and would anyone top them up an amount to get to a milestone, and when I read about it I topped up. Don't really know why, I just did. Her sister 'I985' (Amber) is 26 (I think) and is suffering from cancer, despite this she has just run 10k and raised over £9,000 in the process. She is a wonderful, inspiring person, you only have to read her tweet line to understand how happy we all should be with what we've got. Her positivity and that of Jay, and Amber's partner, Fiona truly does inspire me on a daily basis. I may never meet her, her prognosis is not good, but I am determined to rasie money in her memory, and that of my Dad - it will be an honour.

The third charity is undecided. My friend, and father of my daughter's best friend, Nick, is going to do the whole trip with me. He used to be a marine, is much fitter than me and now does security for ships Vs pirates. I am not kidding. I am making him do the trip blindfold just to equalise things a little. The third charity is to be his choice, frankly anyone who can stomach me for 15/16 days moaning about my arse, the weather, roads, the Scottish, Northerners, Southerners, the weather, chaffing of legs in lycra, sunburn, and the weather, deserves a medal. He can choose charity three.

So there we go, I still need people. Please let me know if you want to do a leg. I am trying to badger Dave Gorman, he of telly, book, tattoo, beard and cycling fame, but as he put in a tweet to me he gets 100's of requests to do this a year...and he's a busy guy...who knows though maybe he will come along, just for the craic. Maybe if we all send him a tweet asking nicely... :)

That's all for now - I'm not great at this blog thing. Please feel free to message me on here or via @moosola on twitter.

Itinery - Join me

Haven't worked out how to get all my spacing right yet on this thing...however the itinery is as follows:

John O Groats to Brora...63 miles Sat 26th May
Brora to Inverness......55 miles Sun 27th May
Inverness to Dalwhinnie..56 miles Mon 28th May
Dalwhinnie to Crieff.....57 miles Tues 29th May
Crieff to Lanark.........57 miles Weds 30th May
Lanark to Gretna..........65 miles Thurs 31st May
Gretna to Kendal..........54 miles Fri 1st June
Kendal to Wigan...........60 miles Sat 2nd June
Wigan to Shrewsbury......64 miles Sun 3rd June [Paul G]
Shrewsbury to Malvern....56 miles Mon 4th June
Malvern to Bath..........59 miles Tues 5th June [@nickdavies?]
Bath to Honiton..........62 miles Weds 6th June
Honiton to Launceston....59 miles Thurs 7th June
Launceston to Newquay....40 miles Fri 8th June
Newquay to Land's End....43 miles Sat 9th June [My Step-dad Ken]

I am looking for one person, either a friend, or anyone who just wants to do a bit of cycling, to join me on each leg. If you fancy it let me know - @moosola on Twitter

A year today...

Wow, so things move on. I have finally agreed the dates, set to coincide with Half Term (B1 will be at school next year - scary). All being well I will travel to Scotland on 25th May, and leave JOG the following day - Saturday 26th May. I will finish on Sunday 10th June. I will update the post below to reflect this.

I have been tweeting Comedian, Broadcaster and keen cyclist Dave Gorman about it and my desire to have one cyclist acompany me per leg. I listen to his show whilst doing my training and he seems like a decent guy, a note born out when I asked him for publicity for my last ride and he personally sponsored me. Here's hoping, although to be fair his career has somewhat taken off in the last few years and he tweeted to say, rather unsurprisingly, he gets loads of requests...

I have also bought a bike at last - a Specialized Secteur Apex - it arrives next Thurs.

Now just need to start on the logistics, route planning, sponsors, etc etc....exciting times.

And so it begins

It all started in 2009. Being a fat bastard back then (nearly 16 stone) I decided, without doing any proper training, to enter myself for a London to Paris bike ride. 300 miles in 4 days. I found it relatively easy although at times some of the hills were killers. In the process I raised over £4,000 for Pancreatic Cancer UK, all in memory of my Dad, who died when I was 19 - he was 47.

At the end of that blog I ponder what next...? And here I am - the best way, in my opinion, to do something is to do it, not just say you're going to. So I said, for a laugh, I'd to John O'Groats to Land's End...and now I am starting to the ball rolling. This trip is planned for June 2012 and so far I have one definite and two possibles, I have roped in my brother and a friend to do some driving in s support van, my wife will have her and the family's holiday at the end of the trip, near my Mum and Step-Dad's in Cornwall. I still have to think about which corporate partners to approach, bike, sponsors, charity etc...

Today was the first day of me taking some time out to consider the route and this is now the rough outline I am looking at (rough mileage per day after town/city name)

John O Groats
Brora 63 Sat 26th May
Inverness 55 Sun 27th May
Dalwhinnie 56 Mon 28th May
Crieff 57 Tues 29th May
Lanark 57 Weds 30th May
Greta 65 Thurs 31st May
Kendal 54 Fri 1st June
Wigan 60 Sat 2nd June
Shrewsbury 64 Sun 3rd June
Malvern 56 Mon 4th June
Bath 59 Tues 5th June
Honiton 62 Weds 6th June
Launceston 59 Thurs 7th June
Newquay 40 Fri 8th June
Land's End 43 Sat 9th June

So the ball has started rolling. This is all going to happen now, June 2012, just not quite sure exactly when or how.

GREAT.