99 problems but running aint one - 10th April 2015

Day 100 - 10th April 2015

99 problems but running aint one... this is just an indication that I have passed the 99 run marker and made it to 100 runs for the year. Such an achievement so far, but it still leaves me with 265 days left to complete this journey I am on.

Would like to say a massive thanks, thank you and thanks to everyone involved in what I am doing.  As of today I have raised £581.15 in the 100 days I have been running. It has touched me this week, I have had people donating that I have never met before which is such a kind gesture. People as far away as USA have also donated, fantastic work. It is an overwhelming feeling and it shows people do care and appreciate the work I am putting in. I set my target of £1000, in my head if I got a few hundred over the year I would have been happy, I am well past that and on my way to my target with 9 months remaining. Please keep sponsoring as much or a little as you can as it all goes towards a great cause.

Since the last time I blogged a couple of weeks ago, training has stepped up again but only on the cycling side of things. As already mentioned, I have hit the 100 mark for running and I am elated with this... Nearly 1/3 of the way through the year and still going strong... well a part from the fact I have been carrying an injury for over 2 weeks now. Since I last blogged 16 days ago I have only covered 23 miles, averaging 1.4 miles for the duration. Not wanting to mention injury, it has definitely slowed by progress down with gaining running miles. Not really worked out what is wrong yet, a sharp pain below the knee, down the outside of my leg and my calf are making me limp for the first few hundred yards of each run. Once I get it the flow it does settle down and I can run at my usual pace, as soon as I stop though it does start to hurt again. Anyhow, I will not be mentioning this again and I will carry on no matter what, nothing will stop me running this year.

In the past couple weeks, as always I have been partaking in the Cuerden Valley Parkrun. The week before last I had my first, first finish with a time of 19:42. Was great to get a maximum of 100 points for the run, even though I was still 2 seconds below my PB. My aim with this now is to try and finish first again but with beating my PB at the same time. Last week I finished 3rd with a time of 19:43. I haven't improved on my time now for a few weeks, which I was expecting. I cannot be running every day with no rest and improving on times week in week out, I will keep pushing though and hopefully get below the 19:40 mark, sooner rather than later. All in all I am very impressed with what I am achieving and will keep at it.

So to add up the figures, for the year I have run a total of 286.5 miles. This averages out to just over 2.8 miles a day, happy with this but at the moment this figure is slowly decreasing which I don't really want. Once I am back to full fitness the miles will be getting covered again. To reach my target of 1000 miles I will need to average 2.6 miles a day for the remainder of the year.

The cycling is a different story, the miles have been increasing by the day. With only 9 weeks left until the epic journey of cycling the UK begins, training is well and truly underway. As it nears the realisation of the mammoth tasking ahead is starting to sink in, I want be prepared so I can enjoy the cycling as much as possible.

The first of my training rides was the Cheshire Cat 2015, which was based In the Crewe area. In total the ride was 106 miles, taking over 8 hours to complete the event at an average of 13.8mph. On the day it was the worst weather I have ever cycled in. From the start it was raining and very windy, this was the story for the first 70 miles. At about the 50 mile mark I could have quite easily given up. There is no worse feeling that being wet and cold and having no options of warming up. Not being able to feel my hands or feet it became very difficult, I was having to change my gears with my fist as my fingers were too cold to manage this simple task. From the chemotherapy I don't have any real feeling in the tips of my fingers anyhow, so it made it one hell of a struggle. If I'd have had a puncture I would have been in big trouble. For the final 35 miles it was fantastic, the sun came out and I could get back to enjoying the ride itself. Was such a great feeling completing such a long distance for the first time and I thank Steven, Jim, Dave and Neil for inviting me a long as it was a great experience and has definitely set me up well for future rides. At the 20 mile point of the event, there is a hill called the Mow Cop, which is just short of a mile in distance and at the steepest point has an elevation of 25%. The aim is to get to the top without putting your foot down, most of us completed this except for Steven, unfortunately he was having technical problems and couldn't find the right gears. I did actually feel for him, even though he completed it the year before. To show us up though he went to finish the course 10 minutes before everyone else, so touché. Seriously though thanks for a great day, I would be very surprised if I got a harder days cycling on my trip. Just to mention at the finish line it did start raining again, and the good times returned. The car park was on a local field, so we spent a good 30 minutes pushing the cars out of the field at the end, was a nice warm down. As of ever, after I got home I was out running again and did one mile in just over 7 minutes.

Next on my list was a ride to Manchester, as I had an appointment coming up at The Christie the week after, I thought I would give myself a test ride. The ride overall was 71 miles on a pretty cold and windy day. I set off at 1pm and got there at 5pm, this was due to the fact I saw an accident involving a cyclist just in front of me, so I had to pull over and make sure everything was ok. After the ambulance had arrived and had given my details to the relevant people, I set off again about an hour later. This meant I had arrived later than planned and the café was closed, was pretty unhappy with this as I was starving. Snacks can only satisfy your hunger for so long. As it was bank holiday Sunday a lot of the local shops were closed. So I turned back and started to cycle home, nearest shop I saw was about 12 miles away, so I had cycled 50 miles without anything proper to eat. The sandwich, wispa, toffee crisp, pepparami and Lucozade went down very well. The cycle home was hard but was a good test of character. In total I had completed 71 miles in an average of 14.4 mph. The mile I completed after this cycle was in 7:48, so not too bad considering.

The biggest ride in April saw me travelling to Goodison Park, the home of Everton FC. My friend Steven has selected Everton in the community as his choice of charity, it is a leading sporting charity and is proud to deliver a range of programmes to promote health, education, social inclusion and equality of opportunity across Merseyside using the power of sport. http://community.evertonfc.com/about-us/ Steven will be promoting his ride through the website and travelling to Goodison on a number of occasions, so we thought it made sense to have a test ride just in case we needed to go again. This was Stevens furthest ride and I had only done one bigger to date.. I thought we both smashed it, 82 miles at an average of 15.7 mph - Not bad going really considering we had to deal with the dual carriage ways and busy roads heading into Liverpool. Overall it was a good day and great progress had been made by both of us.

This week I was back at The Christie for my yearly appointment, I had already practiced the route so it should have been easy to find... well it wasn't. I did well for about 25 miles, but leading up to Manchester I lost my way. Taking us down busy A roads, no need for it as it's just dangerous. We did eventually find our way and decided to pass through Salford Quays and head towards Old Trafford for a great photo opportunity. As a die hard united fan, it was the first time I had been there this season. Manchester United do a lot of great work and work alongside The Christie. Every Christmas I know players visit the hospital which must bring a big smile to a lot of peoples faces. After I had finished treatment, we was invited to play at Old Trafford and met legends such as Lee Sharpe and his celebrity love island girlfriend, Abbie Titmus......

My appointment was just a general check up to see how I am doing. All the tests came back well and I am as fittest I have ever been. I invited Steven a long and he was more than happy to come along and get a tour of The Christie hospital that has been involved in more than 1/3 of my life. Going back to The Christie opens my eyes every time and makes me realise how lucky I am. To see children, teenagers and young adults going through treatment, it does make me feel upset and brings back certain emotions. On the other side though with the treatment nowadays a lot of them will have a long healthy life to look forward to. Easy saying that when you're not going through it any more, but always good to look on the bright side of things. It has made me want to put even more work in and put my body and mind through as much as I can. The harder I work, the more I maybe able to raise which will only lead to good things. It's about respect as well, I have had a lot of money put my way so far for the charity, I want to show them I am working hard and that they have sponsored me for a good reason.

Anyhow, as we arrived on the ward, the nurses were very impressed that we had cycled from Preston, but even more impressed with the lycra outfits. They couldn't get enough of it. Only joking, but the lady I saw for the appointment was really happy with what we was doing. I thought it was great for Steven to come along and see in first hand what I was raising money for. Once the appointment was over, we had a bite to eat then back on the road again. We got lucky as it was a really sunny day. One of the problems on the way home though was lorries and dry dirt, not good when you're breathing it in and getting it in your eyes. For this day we travelled just over 72 miles at an average of 15.7 mph. The pace of our rides are getting quicker and I believe setting us up very well for the LeJog trip in 9 weeks. We have a number of rides already planned in that will test us even more, time to attack the hills. 70 miles on the flat is far different to 70 miles on the hills.

Just to summarise my first 100 days, loved almost every minute of it. Cannot wait to be 100% fit again so I can push on with the running. I have enjoyed my first club 10k race, cycled over 100 miles for the first time, plus met a lot of great people so far that have given me encouragement all the way. I have a massive task of cycling the UK soon which is my main focus and really enjoying the build up to it. Come the end of June though, my aim is to get involved in as many running competitions as possible and to starting racing properly for Red Rose Road Runners.

Summary - Running

January - 31 runs - 116.8miles.
February - 28 runs - 85.3 miles.
March -  31 runs - 71.5 miles.
April - 10 runs - 12.9 miles.

Total - 286.5 miles.

Summary - Cycling

January - 211.9 miles.
February - 378.3 miles.
March - 240.5 miles.
April - 360.1 miles.

Total - 1190.8 miles.

Please feel free to sponsor me, thanks to everyone that already has. Please share as well :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

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Week 12 - (Day 84) - 25th March 2015 - The Gambian Adventure

Day 84 - 25th March 2015 - Back On Home Soil

Hello and welcome back. It has been a good few weeks since I have blogged and it is good to be back in action. Even though I haven't been updating as often I would have liked recently, I have been training harder than ever and have still continued with my running every day. As always I will give you a brief summary of my progress with how many miles I have covered and how it has been going. Just a brief mention, all together £515 has be raised so far in less than 3 months. My target is £1000 so I am well on my way to this, thanking everyone who has donated. It is those that donate that make the real difference.!!!

At the moment I have currently run for 84 consecutive days with only 281 days remaining until my first rest day, not long to go now. Not that I am thinking that far ahead, I am enjoying what I am doing so want to make the most of this year and keep pushing myself to see what I can achieve. So after 84 days, I have run a total of 263.4 miles which is a daily average of  3.1 miles, roughly about 5km every day. I have also cycled 702.1 miles in total this year, I am very happy with this amount so far. It accumulates to 965.5 miles and about 84 hours in exercise, it doesn't seem too much on paper, but it definitely is. As I am cycling Lands End to John O'Groats in less than 12 weeks, my cycling will now have to take priority over the running. Even though when I do run, I put everything into and still want to do well in every event I partake in.

On the cycling side of things I will now have to start building in training both before and after work, as well as weekends to get as much saddle time as possible. With the clocks going forward soon and Spring on our doorstep, it will give me much more time to get out and about and get the miles in. Over the next 4 weeks I am aiming to cycle at least 100 miles a week and then step it up every week until the beginning of June. The week before my cycle I will basically rest up, eat and try and put on an extra few pounds which will help me over the ten days. Easier said than done when I will still have to cycle to and from work and run every day as well. The challenge is becoming very real but the nearer it comes the more excited I get.

On the 4th March I took my training overseas to the African Continent. I visited The Gambia which is situated in the North West of Africa. As I have already been visiting The Gambia for over ten years, I already had planned out where I would be running and rough distances. This was all depending on how many Julbrews (local beer) I would consuming during the week, turns out it was more than I expected, but I was on holiday so I was allowed. I arrived in The Gambia at about 3pm, as the other 11 people had already been drinking for about 10 hours it was hard work not getting involved, I knew I had to go for a run later on so I was well behaved.

On the first day I went running at about 6:30pm, being located on the beach front I thought this would be the perfect place to kick off my running. To be honest I was feeling tired and a bit dehydrated from the 6 hour flight, so didn't want to push myself too hard. When everyone else was round the bar, I was running down the beach, which wasn't the worst place to be in the world. I only did one mile on the first day, it wasn't on my own either. I had been running about 1 minute until I met a local guy called Abdou who asked if he could run with me. He had stopped his press up routine to come and join me and I actually enjoyed the company. I got talking to him at the end of my run and I explained what I was doing with regards to running every day. Straight away he said he would run with me every day no matter what time of day it was. I promised him that if he came with me I would give him my running shoes at the end of the holiday, but only if he turned up every time. If he missed one session then that wouldn't be happening. At that time he had some old converse trainers on that had clearly been worn for a long time. I asked him and he said it was the only footwear he had at the moment and hadn't had any new shoes for about 3 years. So I felt good straight away that I could help him out. I left him saying I would either be running at about 8am or 6-7pm at night and he agreed he would be there.

For the next couple of days I was on the beach for pretty much 8am, after a few drinks in the evening this was quite hard work and got harder as the days went on. As I walked onto the beach on both days, Abdou was sat on the beach about 50 yards down waiting for me. He had already been there for 30 mins doing his warm up, he was committed I have to give him that. We went on a slow and steady 2.5 mile and 1.5 mile run on the individual days. To make it a little competitive, we had a 100 metre sprint finish. It was like a scene out of rocky 3 at times... Rocky vs Apollo, Rocky winning every time, the script this time was rewritten in my favour. Don't think his shoes were designed for sprinting on the beach. He kept with my on both runs even with them only being short distances. These were the first proper runs of the year I have actually run with someone else so it was good to be able to relax and have a chat whilst doing it. Running on the beach was hard work though, the way the beach is set it was either soft sand or recently wet sand, both hard to run on. Was all good fun though.

On the 4th day, I thought I would mix it up a bit. I had planned to go football training with my long term friend bassirou who I had met in the Gambia when I was 15 years old. Since we met he had pretty much been my best mate over there. He had always looked after myself and my family each time we had visited and I couldn't thank him more for that. Bassirou is a coach for about ten local junior teams, ranging fro 5-16 years old. Coaching them 4-5 times a week and spending as much time as he can improving their footballing skills. As I had been and helped him for many years, I had asked Stuart Cunningham to come and join me. He was a friend of my dads and it was his first time in The Gambia, so I wanted him to experience the real Gambia, get involved and to get away for the tourist side of things. We set of that morning at 8:30am for a 9am start for a 2 hour session. We got a local taxi, I should have really known the full address to the playing fields which would have made it easier. We ended up going to 3 football fields before we found the right one. The journey there was fantastic, as we had ventured through the backstreets of all the local villages, Cunny was taken on a tour of The Gambia which a lot of people don't see. The taxi driver even said we was the first white people he had taken to this football field. Cunny seemed a little nervous to say the least, but there was never any issues. Sorry Cunny, I honestly knew where we was going, just wanted to take you on a trip. If you have never been to a third world country, it is an eye opener. Houses aren't houses, they are huts. Families live together in compact spaces and sleep together. Drainage is down the sides of houses in some places and litter isn't collected and recycled like we are used to. As I have been many times before it isn't a shock for me anymore, but it could well have been an eye opener for Cunny.

Anyhow, once we had arrived at the correct playing field and met by Bassirou it was a lot more comfortable. We was greeted by about 40-50 children of all ages and within a couple of minutes we was both handed bibs of different colours and was straight involved with a game of 3 touch football of about 8 a side. As we was on different teams I think we had something to prove to each other. It was a competitive 40 minutes and us English boys weren't used to playing in the heat, but our good stamina played a part and the locals started to fatigue as well. I can speak for both of us when I say we was loving every minute of it. As cunny says, they didn't like a strong tackle.

After the 40 minute warm up and losing about 2 litres in sweat, it was time for the 11 a side game, which was against 16 year olds, all taller than myself. Me and Cunny were asked to play up front in a 4-4-2 formation. As Mike Bassett says, 'England will play 4-4-2'. From the kick off we was on the attack, the keeper and defence struggling to clear their lines resulting in a corner. From the corner chaos was caused resulting in another corner. They escaped a couple of goal mouth scrambles and clear to say the opposition was on the ropes. From nowhere though, a couple of nice passes from defence to midfield opened us up down the right hand side. The striker was put through and goal and against the run of play with their first shot they went 1-0 up. We was not happy, but it was good football that had led to the goal so no complaints could be made.

Within a few minutes the pressure was back on and we was on the attack. A whipped in ball from the right landed on Cunny's head but the defender put him off, the connection wasn't clean as the ball trickled wide. He then went onto have a moment of magic with another near miss. After some nice play in the midfield, Cunny squared up the defender, a few side steps and the defender didn't have a clue what day it was. He opened his body up and curled a shot towards goal that just flew wide of the post, great play though. Eventually after another 5 minutes the amount of possession we had paid off, some great play from the local boys down the right resulted in an equaliser with a few minutes on the clock. It was a hard fought battle and it went down to golden goal. Soon we was on the attack and our attack was too strong for the opposition. Some very neat footwork from Cunny set up the chance for an attack, we broke free and a ball was slipped in behind the defence, I had timed the run to perfection and hit a sweet strike through the keepers legs to complete to come back. It great English style, we ran off celebrating and making the most of the victory in which a few of the spectators got involved in - Have to say just taking parting in this was another great experience and one to remember!! This definitely classed as one of my runs as I covered over 4 miles within the session in temperatures above 25oC.

The next day I went running through the local village and completed a 5km run, on the sandy streets next to the tarmac roads it was very hard. Really enjoyed it as it wasn't my normal run and was great to mix it up. The final few days I spent on the beach covering just over a mile on each of the runs. I have to admit the drinking and the fact I was on holiday started to catch up with me. I really struggled to run at any pace and was glad to see them over and done with, half of me was really looking forward to getting home as It was like all my previous hard work was being destroyed in a week of binging. On the last day I was on the beach at 7:30am, hungover and tired. Abdou was waiting again for me which I thought was brilliant. I had checked, even on the days I hadn't been on the beach, he waited for me to turn up - #commitment. I left him with my trainers and a pair of running socks, I gave him a few quid as well which would help towards a bag of rice to feed his family for a few weeks.

I have had to miss out the full 11 a side football game we also played in. England vs Gambia... Gambia won 3-1, but on a cold winters night in Preston we would definitely get the better of them. I have attached a link below if you want to watch highlights of the game.

https://youtu.be/nSpGoTcZla4

Overall the Gambia trip was one of the best I have had so far and hope to repeat it again in the next year or so. The running went well and I returned home injury free, hopefully the heat training would pay off. Being hungover, drunk, dehydrated and tired aren't the best states to go running in, suppose it meant the running back home would only get easier.

Once I had returned home, it took me about a week to return back to normal fitness. I did Cuerden Valley Parkrun 3 days after the holiday in a time of 20:35, which was 50 seconds slower than my time before I went away. Deep down I was fuming with this as I had trained hard pre holiday and it felt like it could take me weeks to return to normal. I went to the track session with Red Rose Road Runners that week and my times within the session ended up slower as well. On the timed mile I was a good few seconds off my previous best as well which was also disappointing. After that I knew I had to get back into the running and train hard, which I did.

That weekend I ran the Parkrun again and managed to set myself a PB in the valley with a time of 19:40, 55 seconds better than the week before, which did wonders for my confidence. The day after I took part in my first event being part of Red Rose Rode Runners. It was the 'Jacobs Leg It' 10k race at Edge Hill University. As I had only run that distance 3 times this year, I was really unsure how I would find it. On the day it was a great atmosphere and my body was feeling good. I set off at a good pace and managed to keep it up through most of the race. My final time was 38:52 which was another PB for myself, taking off over a minute and meeting my target of getting below 39 minutes. I finished 16th out of a total of 380 people which I thought was a great achievement. I also attended the track session again tonight with RRRR and set a new PB for the timed mile. My time was 5:17 which was 6 seconds better than my previous record. So even though I have had a week on holiday, it has taken me 2 weeks to get back on track and I am back on it again now. Who needs rest days?

There is still a long way to go with my challenges but I am pleased with my progress so far. I have some hard times ahead but I will keep pushing myself harder as the year goes on.

As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.

You can also contact me a follow my journey with the details below.
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2 Months - (Day 59) - 28th February 2015 - Digging Deep

2 Months In - 28th February 2015

Good morning, evening, afternoon, what ever time of day it may be. I have been slightly delayed with publishing this weeks blog, so decided to make it fit it win the end of the month. Once again I am back to update you on the progress of my challenge, I have completed 2 months now and I am still going strong. 59 runs in total so far this year but I have to say this last week has been a bit of a struggle. I have been struck down with a common cold which has made my running and exercising much harder than usual. When you're a bit under the weather, the last thing you want to do is to go out running/cycling. I have kept up with it though and plodded on, hopefully this will be the only hindrance I shall experience this year as it has really annoyed me. I have not been able to enjoy the running for the past few days, a part from this though everything is still going very good.

I record all my runs/rides on the Strava app and it is great for stats. The rule is - If it isn't on Strava, you haven't actually done the activity. On Strava for the 2 months so far, it has worked out that I have completed 68 hours of both running and cycling. Distance wise I have covered a total of 792.3 miles, 202.1 miles of running and 590.2 miles of cycling. I have achieved 133 personal records, beating previous times set already. Plus my individual activities total 157 overall at the moment. When it is all written down, it does make me feel good about what I am doing and the hard work I am putting in. The Amazon river is 4000 miles long, so I have covered 1/5 of this. It isn't easy at all, like I said previously though, I think back to the hard times and realise that running isn't hard at all compared to what I have been through and what people are currently going through. I'm doing it for a great cause so that is all the motivation I need. For my target of a 1000 miles of running, I am well on my way to achieving this and I hope to smash it. My plan is to make it through to October/November injury free, then for the final couple of months I will push myself harder than ever to cover as many miles as possible. On the 31st December for my last run, I will be considering a marathon, or maybe something further.

Since I last updated my blog, I have still been very active with both running and cycling. With the Saturday Parkrun, last week I ended up with a time of 19:49, which was 5 seconds slower than my previous best. I am still happy with this result though as I want to consistently get below the 20 minute marker and build from there. My competitive side though is slightly disappointed as I always want to improve, it will come with time. I ran the Parkrun again today in a time of 19:45, 1 seconds slower than my PB. With not feeling the best for most of the week I was very pleased with this. I still think if I had pushed just a little harder over 10 yards I would have had a new PB. IT is all good progress and I have now managed a sub 20 minute time for the past 4 weeks. Once again it was a great atmosphere with great support all the way - Even managed to get my friend Scott Nickson down, he may have been sick at the finish line...but that just shows a massive effort. I am hoping he will get the bug and come down more often.

After joining Red Rose Road Runners last week, I finally made it down to my first track session at the sports arena in Cottam. I have to say I loved it, there is something about running on the track that has set me off again, wanting more from running. The session involved a set of warm up drills - Which I have to say have made my legs ache more than any other time this year. This was followed by 4 x 400m laps of the track with a minutes rest in between. Finally we finished with a timed mile which is 4 laps in total, my time for this was 5:21 which I was delighted with as it was my fastest mile to date. With me not feeling 100% though I really think I have it in me to go below 5 minutes, we shall see. This is another target that I have in my sites and will look to beat in the upcoming weeks. As there are some really good runners that attend these sessions it will only make me become a better runner - All good fun as well, even though everyone has a competitive side.

On my bike, for the last 3 weeks I have covered over 100 miles each week which is making me feel a lot more confident about my summer bike ride. I ventured to Whalley last weekend after the parkrun and covered 35 miles on this session. I am targeting the hilly areas for my training as these will be the real testers come June time. I am starting to realise even more that this a massive task I have undertaken. Cycling 100 miles won't be an issue, it is then having to get up with tired legs and continue the process for another 9 days. Also the small task of running a mile after each of the bike rides, I am training hard though so hopefully it will all pay off. After the Parkrun today I spent an hour on the bike at the gym and covered just over 18 miles, still not feeling the best I forced myself to get some more miles under my belt. It will all be worth it come June 12th, bring it on! I know my training partners are getting on board as well. Steven has been working hard with both running and cycling. He has recently been away to watch Everton FC play the Young Boys in the Uefa Cup. Think the water over there contained 40% alcohol content, may have felt this for a few days. He was straight back on the training though with spinning and running, then I nice warm down with a trip to Brussels to test the local water again. Jordan I know has recently returned from a Hamstring injury and he is now back on the running. I'm sure he will get on his bike before June and do some training, knowing him he will turn up on the morning and proceed to cycle 1000 miles with no effort. :) He is also sampling the local water in Brussels and will be working his forearm muscles for the weekend.

 

Back on to my sob story for a short while, been looking through the diary again to put things in order. As I left it last time I had been diagnosed with Stage 2B Hodgkin Lymphoma which had a 90% survival rate - good times. Once the diagnosis had been made after all the tests, it was then explained about the what treatment I would be on and for how long. Prof Eden explained that they would start me off with 4-6 cycles of chemotherapy depending on how I was reacting to the treatment. Each cycle would last 4 weeks, some of the cycles it would be 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, giving my body time to recover from the treatment. If this all worked, then I would finish with 2 weeks of radiotherapy at the end. This would be a total of 10 days of treatment for this over the 2 week period.

 

I will go onto explain the full details of chemotherapy and what drugs I was given, I shall do it at a later date though. With chemotherapy, it is designed to target and kill the cancerous cells which have already formed in the body. It also affects the healthy cells which is what causes the side effects. Prof went through in full details of what these would be and I have listed a few below.

 

• Fatigue
• Tiredness
• Nausea and Vomiting
• Hair loss - not just off the top of your head, literally every hair you may have
• Increased infection
• Bruising and bleeding
• Loss of appetite
• Tender Skin, weak and brittle nails
• Memory loss and concentration issues
• Sleep problems
• Fertility issues

Once all this had been discussed, I was told that treatment would begin within a week. With the treatment being so soon, I literally had no time to think about anything, it was just all action. I think this helped though, as overthinking can sometimes do more bad than good.

I was told in the next few days I would have to have a central line fitted and a trip to the sperm clinic - from watching American pie I had high hopes for the latter trip. I didn't have a clue what a central line was at first. A central line is a long thin tube that is inserted into a vein in your chest. This is usually done under a local anaesthetic, this is how I had it done.They are used to give chemotherapy treatment and pump the drugs straight into your body. It saves having a needle put in every time you have treatment. They made a small cut in the skin near the collarbone and thread the tip of the line into a large vein above the heart. The other end of the line is tunnelled under the skin and comes out on your chest. I had this procedure done and it was weird, I had a plastic tube hanging out of my chest for the next few months at least. Later down the line this became a pain in the rear end but I had to get used to it being there.

As I just mentioned, fertility could well be an issue after chemotherapy. So the day after I had my central line fitted, they sent me off to the sperm clinic to store some away for future days. As I have arrived, the nurse greeted me and led me off into a room, just me and her. She was literally about 70 years old. In this room she showed me some magazines, give me a little pot and told me I know what I have to do and left me be. I have to complain about the magazines, they were definitely from the 70's and from what I saw razor blades weren't a common item back in those days. I think the most awkward thing was then having to take my tub back to reception (where my mum was sat waiting) and handing it over to the nurse. We did both laugh about it though. Later that day I got the results and I had a great sperm count, made me feel proper manly. They advised to leave it a couple of days and then return again to give another sample, the nurse must have fancied me. The purpose of this all was quite serious though, there was a chance that I may end up infertile and in the future this would be the only way of actually having children myself.

 

Right, I have talked on enough now - The next step of my journey would then be to start my chemotherapy and the hardest months of my life would be starting. For now though, I won't be blogging for a while, as I am taking my training to the African continent. I am going on holiday to The Gambia, looking forward to a nice break but I will still be running every day. Hoping to take part in the Gambia Parkrun, Gambia 10k and Gambia half marathon. None of these exist but these are the distances I want to cover in the week I will be away. Bring it on, it's only about 37oC every day so I will have to be getting up early to run.

 

Any how, thanks for reading once again and thanks to everyone for donating - Over £430 already.

As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.

You can also contact me a follow my journey with the details below.
Facebook - Karl Michael Hodgson
Twitter - @teddyhodgson
Instagram - teddyhodgson
Strava - Karl Hodgson

Week 7 - (Day 49) - 18th February 2015 - Against the odds

Week 7 - 18th February 2015

Hello, Hallo, Bonjour, Hola and Marhabbah - As a number of my blog views how been outside the United Kingdom, thought I would open with a hello in a few different languages. Great to see that the views are widespread, even though it could well be just English people I know already that are living abroad. I have a great following in USA, I can kind of guess at who will be reading my blog, so thanks to my friends in Visalia and Fresno! Also a big thanks to Cassie and Melissa Freeman for the support and encouragement. Since day one they have both wished me well and supported everything I have done - Kudos for that!!

Welcome back once again - It has been another busy week with the running and cycling, definitely the hardest week so far this year and I have had to dig deep to complete the activities I have undertaken. I am quite impressed with what I have achieved so far, 49 days of consecutive running with cycling involved as well - I must be slightly mad. As I was saying last week, with my ten days of cycling in the summer I have had to decrease my running miles and increase the saddle time on my bike. This week I have ended up running 16.3 miles, totalling 177.6 miles this year. On the bike I have cycled 129.5 miles this week, totalling 461.1 miles. This week has been a slight realisation for the task ahead, seven weeks in and I haven't cycled half of the total distance I will be acquired to in the summer. Good time ahead....

Activities

Starting with the Parkrun again, this week I have set another PB with a time of 19:44. It still amazes me that I am running every day, pushing my body to its limits, yet I am still improving. That is my fourth PB in as many weeks and I hope to continue this improvement come Saturday. I have to praise the people who run and volunteer at Cuerden Valley, as no matter what level of runner you are, you still get the same amount of encouragement by everyone there - such a great atmosphere and event to be involved in week on week.

In relation to Parkrun - I have attached a link below with regards to Pita Oates. On top of all the hard work she does at Parkrun, she also takes the time every Tuesday dinner to host the LCC running club and she has definitely helped myself and everyone involved to get fitter, healthier and change our lives - Keep it up! 

http://www.chorley-guardian.co.uk/news/local/pita-making-great-strides-with-passion-for-parkrun-1-7110880

This week I have joined Red Rose Road Runners, due to Pita's commitment towards myself I couldn't see myself joining any other club. Or should I say, I dare not join another club. I am looking forward to getting involved and representing at local events. Within the first couple days of me joining RRRR, I have already been enticed into a one mile race which is up at the sports arena on the 25th February. This should be great fun and I cannot wait for it. It will also be an eye opener for myself to see the level I am currently running at and how much I can improve. A lot of people from the club have already welcomed me and I will make sure I make effort to attend the sessions as often as possible and run with pride.

On the cycling side of things, I have definitely upped the intensity of my training this week. James Farrow and Steven wheeler invited me on a nice and easy 70 mile bike ride - Yeah right. I have to say this was the most challenging physical activity I have ever done. Setting of from Leyland, we covered over 72 miles travelling through Belmont, 'Nick o' Pendle, Padiham, Clitheroe, Ribchester, Hoghton and then back home. The total ascent on the ride was just short of 7000ft, reaching speeds of 50mph on the descents though which was brilliant and makes the climbs worth while. I had to stop once on the 'Nick o' Pendle' climb, which took me over 11 minutes to cover 0.8 miles. James and Steven left me behind and I have to give them credit as they smashed every hill with relevant ease, or so it seemed. I will be taking part in the Cheshire Cat at the end of March which is 105 miles, by the time this comes around I hope I can make up some ground on them both. Was a good day out though and enjoyed the views of Lancashire, even though most of my time was spent with my head down pedalling and panting looking at the ground.. I am glad I have done it now though as my furthest ride before this was 35 miles, so was a good test of my fitness. It leaves me 4 months to improve my fitness to tackle the ten days on the bike.

As always, even after this ride I was straight into my running shoes and off for a run. I covered 1.5 miles around the block, legs felt very heavy but still managed it at a decent pace. I found it strange that even a couple of days after, my legs didn't really ache at all. I found my arms and neck seemed to ache the most from breaking and being in the same position - 'Saddle time' is definitely needed. Running every day is definitely improving my fitness and ability to deal with long periods of exercise - Bring on the summer!

Back to the big C for the next stage of the story, time to go through and refresh the memory. Following on from talking about all the tests I had to undergo, I was then scheduled in for another meeting with Professor Eden to find out all the results. I already knew I had cancer, this was the big one to find out exactly how severe the disease was and to what extent it had spread around my body. As a young 17 year old I was slightly nervous, it was like going in for my GCSE results again. At the time I had never thought much into it, being that age I still learning and oblivious to things, which was good in a way. Prof went through all the details with myself and my parents. Showed us all of the scans and where the cancer was. He went on to explain that the stages of the cancer ranged from 1A - 4B. 1 being the most treatable and least aggressive, 4 being the hardest to treat and the most aggressive form of the cancer. I was then told I had stage 2B Hodgkin Lymphoma and that it had spread to the lymph nodes but no further. This was great news after what he had just spoke about, felt like he was building it up for hours, but it must have just been a few minutes.

So that was great news and you could see he was at happy as the rest of us with the results. With the later stages of the disease, there is much more chance of it being within vital organs and bone, this is where it can get complicated and difficult to treat. The survival rate with stage 2 was about 85-90% at the time, so it was great to hear this but at the same time there was the other side of things. There was still a chance that I may not make it, treatment may not work, things may not work out for the best. This was hard to take in, but I did and I dealt with it very well. I mean, 90% are good odds, you would definitely take your chances on most things with those odds. 90% chance of Preston North End getting beat by United in the FA cup... we all know how that result turned out! Rooney...!

Next on the cards was the treatment side of things, what treatment I would be having and for how long. Also the side effects to the treatment and the ways it could effect me short and long term. I shall go through all of this is the next week with full details!

Thanks for reading once again and thanks to everyone for donating - Nearly £400 already. Chuffed with this amount - big time!!!!

As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.

You can also contact me a follow my journey with the details below.
Facebook - Karl Michael Hodgson
Twitter - @teddyhodgson
Instagram - teddyhodgson
Strava - Karl Hodgson

Week 6 - (Day 42) - 11th February 2015 - Fitness Galore

Week 6 - 11th February 2015

Welcome back - Just a quick thank you to everyone that has sponsored me so far, over £350 raised in 6 weeks, great to see. Also, like to say thanks to everyone for their encouragement over the last few weeks as well. Everyone has been so nice and it does make a difference to me, may not show it but it is much appreciated.

Scott Nickson, if you every read this - I have taken your advice and bought some new running gear, just because you bullied me into it. I will not be changing the orange hat though, no chance!

Six weeks down and everything is still going really well, 42 runs in total so far and it seems to be getting easier. It is definitely part of my routine now and I don't even think anything of having to go for a run after work and at the weekends. I have calmed down a bit with the running this week as I have to maintain my fitness for the full year, I would be devastated if I had to miss even a day with injury. I am now in full training for my LeJog tour in June, so I am replacing the miles in my running shoes for time on my bike. Even though I am doing fewer miles running, I have still run 21.8 miles this week which takes my total to 161.3 miles for the year - (average 3.75 miles a day). On the bike I have covered 76.7 miles for the week, totalling 331.6 miles so far. As I will be cycling 1000 miles in ten days in the summer, I will need to take my cycling to another level to complete this epic task - I am loving it though.

I have to say I am definitely the fittest I have ever been and my fitness is improving week on week. On 25th October 2014 I ran my first Parkrun in the time of 23:12, really struggled with this having to stop twice throughout the run, for myself I wasn't happy with this at all. 15 weeks later I have achieved another PB with the time of 19:56 finishing 3rd out of 150. This is 3 minutes and 16 seconds faster than my first attempt. I had set 20 minutes as my yearly target for the Parkrun but I have beaten this 6 weeks into the year. I am genuinely surprised at how fast I am running and how good I am feeling about it all. I know it is only a case of beating times, but when you are setting targets and reaching them it is a great feeling.

This Sunday I took to the bike with Steven Willetts - member of 'The Wheel Deal' team. We cycled 34 miles in the freezing fog, visibility was shocking, literally only being able to see 100 yards ahead of us. We climbed 2000ft through Pleasington, Blackburn and Langho which was a great test, but this will only be a third of most of our rides come June - so we will have to start increasing the miles but it is a good start. Steven, please wear more than just shorts and fingerless gloves next week, especially when the temperature is 2oC.

After the ride I went for my daily run, I set off feeling fresh. I ran 5km in a time of 18:59, which is another PB for myself. I had set 19:00 as a marker for the year but even after cycling 34 miles I managed to beat my previous record by 11 seconds and achieve another milestone. I am going to have a good think and set some goals that are going to be hard to achieve, this way I can keep pushing myself hard throughout the year. 6 weeks ago I never knew I would be beating the ones I had already set. I have to say thanks to Pete Battersby as he has been telling me for weeks now to settle down with the running and to have my rest days of running just a mile on certain days - It has definitely benefited me this week. Kudos Pete, Kudos.

So to carry on my story from a few weeks ago - As it was a good few years ago I have had to resort to my mums diary to get exact details and to put things in order. I have to say it was quite a tough read, not reading what I personally went through, just some of the notes my mum had made around the time. So it was the 17th May 2006 in which I found out I had cancer, a few notes from my mum read - 'must stay strong for Karl', 'still trying to get my head in gear' and 'Sky box being fitted'. Least I know she had her priorities right. I said last time I would never truly know how my parents felt, but I'm starting to find out now as I go through. Anyhow, 5 days later I was taken into the YOU (Young Oncology Unit) which was based within The Christie hospital in Manchester. I was under Professor Eden who I met with my parents, what a guy he was. Definitely the most intelligent man I will ever meet.  In the meeting he spoke about going through some more tests that week to find out the extent of the cancer and if it had spread throughout the body. Think this was the most nerve-wracking time for me, not knowing what was going to happen and how seriously ill I was. Realistically it was a case of yes everything will be ok, or the other end of the spectrum in which it may not have been caught in time - Which wasn't really worth thinking about, at 17 years of age though it's not what you think you'll be going through.

In the space of a few days I had countless number of tests, it was ridiculous. 

• Blood tests - To see what my white/red blood cell count was at.
• X-ray - Used to find out the stage of the cancer and how far it has spread.
• CT scan - 3D scan of the body, in my case upper body/chest. Can break it up into different sections once again to determine to stage of the cancer.
• echocardiogram - uses sound waves to create a picture of the heart. Was used to test the strength of my heart before treatment.
• LFT (Liver Function Test) - Same principal to test the strength of it and to see of the cancer has spread to this area.
• Bone marrow test - Bone marrow contains cells that help produce blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Your white blood cells help fight infection, your red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients, and your platelets enable the blood to clot. Marrow has both solid and liquid parts. If the solid portion of the bone is sampled, this is called a biopsy. The procedure was undertaken to check the spread of disease and hoping it wasn't found it this area. This was the one I was dreading, it involves putting a needle into the bone of the pelvic area and extracting the marrow which is in the centre on the bone. The needles can range between 1-3 inch. When I was having my procedure done I was given gas and air and I don't remember any of it. Beforehand I remember getting changed into my little gown and then getting into the foetal position on the bed. The nurse was brilliant beforehand, joking with me and having a good laugh. She mentioned before the gas and air that she would make sure she get me to tell her that I loved her. I thought she was just messing about, she wasn't. As I came to afterwards, my mum explained what went on. I told the nurse I loved her on several occasions, supposedly, I will never know - Just unfortunate she was married, otherwise I had pulled. The doctor at first actually struggled to get the needle in, asking my mum to help the nurse out with holding me steady. Must have been an ordeal, but I only have good memories of this due to the nurse that looked after me before and after the procedure.
  

Once all these procedures had be been undertaken, it was then a waiting game to find out exactly what cancer I had and to what stage it had progressed to... nervous times. I shall follow on in my blog next week to what happened after this - Trying to keep the blog a little shorter and easier to read... well...

On a lighter note - Jordan and Steven, the team t-shirts have arrived for The Christie Leg of the LeJog tour. It shall be a proud day to have you wearing those shirts and helping me support a top charity, bring it on. Steven is training hard, he is out running and doing a lot of cycling at the moment. Jordan has recently returned from a hamstring injury and will be back to full fitness before we know it. He has been weight training and back running now.

Thanks for reading.

As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.

You can also contact me a follow my journey with the details below.
Facebook - Karl Michael Hodgson
Twitter - @teddyhodgson
Instagram - teddyhodgson
Strava - Karl Hodgson

Week 5 (Day 35) - 4th February 2015 - Introducing the LEJOG team

Week 5 - 4th January 2015

Well the January blues are long gone and February is upon us, 35 runs down with 330 to go and still feeling fresh. This week I have pushed myself much more than previous weeks, I wanted to test my fitness levels and to see what I was physically and mentally capable of. I have run a total of 30.9 miles this week which brings my total up to 139.5 miles for the year. I have also cycled 64.1 miles this week which is a total of 254.9 miles for the year. On Saturday I set another PB of 20:38 at Cuerden Valley Parkrun, beating my last PB by 5 seconds from the previous week (the seconds all count). By the end of the year I want to get a sub 20 minute time, with Cuerden Valley Parkrun being 'Lancashiretough', it will be a hard task but I will hopefully get there. Sunday, I went and did a half marathon off my own back, covering 13.9 miles in total. My time for this was 1:33:59 - I had set a goal of 1:35:00 to reach this year, so as I have already achieved this my new target will be 1:30:00. My previous PB over this distance was 1:42:34, so I have smashed this record and I was delighted with the time. Even though I should be getting tired and slower, I seem to be doing the opposite. I have found myself being more awake on most days and my times/running distances are improving every week. On Monday I went for a venture on the bike, travelling through Hoghton, Pleasington, Samlesbury then back to Walton Le Dale. Was a comfortable 28 miles ascending 1500ft in total with some great views along the way. As I am running every day, it was straight off the bike and into my running gear. I only did 1.5miles as my feet were frozen from the ride, but I got through it, nice and easy warm down.

To mix things up I have also signed up to 'Tough Mudder in September and 'Cheshire Cat' in March. Tough Mudder is a 12-14 mile run with obstacles every mile or so, obstacles include the mud mile, swimming in and under ice water and electric shocks. This will be a great challenge and will test my fitness in a whole new way. Peter Battersby and Alex Dodd will also be joining me on the day, I know they are both working hard on their fitness at the moment. Alex, keep it up as you will need the strength to help me pull Pete over the walls. Jordan Dashti? You getting involved? Stevo Casino, how about you as well? The Cheshire Cat is a 105 mile bike ride through and around Crewe. Climbing a total od 5500ft on the route, this will surely be another big test for me. On top of this, I will then have to do at least a mile run that day, so planning will be key to make sure I can keep my word. Think the plan will be to either wait until midnight then do my run then, or wait until after the bike ride.

The Team - The Wheel Deal

A few weeks ago myself, Jordan Dashti and Steven Willetts had a dream about riding from Lands End to John O'Groats for charity. As we have all recently got into cycling I thought it was just the hype of a new hobby - it wasn't. This Sunday we had arranged a team meeting at Starbucks to go through all the plans and to have a realistic discussion about it all. We had the a full map of Britain, Laptop and IPhones on the go at the same time to get the vital information we needed. After a large coffee and much debate, we had finalised the route which totals around 1000 miles, travelling through three countries and ascending a total of 17,000 meters. Mount Everest is just short of 9000 meters high, so this puts into scale the mammoth task we will be embarking on.

Just a few days later having all worked hard, we have planned the official route, booked all the hotels and sorted transport out to Lands End and back from John O'Groats. The journey will be over ten days, averaging about 100 miles a day throughout. We will have no support and we will carry all our supplies with is on our bikes and backs. This in my eyes adds a different level of difficulty to the challenge, this could well be the hardest physical and mental challenge we will ever be apart of. Nether the less, we cannot wait for it and all three of us are doing it for very worthy causes. In the lead up to and after this event we will try to promote the three charities as much as possible, this is the main reason we are doing this in the first place. It will be a great sense of personal achievement completing this task, but if we can change peoples lives and quality of living on the way then that will be the real achievement for us all.

Profiles

Name - Karl Hodgson
Age - 26
D.O.B. - 23.08.1988
Sports - Football, Rugby, Squash, Golf, Cycling and Running.
Random Fact - Met Ryan Giggs, Carlos Tevez, Gerard Pique, Nani and Anderson at The Christie. Couldn't find my camera on the day - Took an underwater camera that I found instead. Note to self, it's called and under water camera for a reason - No pictures came out, gutted.
Club - Manchester United
Chosen Charity - The Christie - http://www.christie.nhs.uk/the-christie-charity.aspx
Previous Charity work - Running the Manchester 10k and Great North Run for The Christie.


Name - Jordan Dashti
Age - 27
D.O.B - 02.09.1987
Sports - Football, Football, Football, Badminton, Cycling and Running.
Random Fact - Scored the greatest goal ever at Old Trafford. At least 45 yards out, I was the only person to witness it. Caught him doing a few kicks up as he then proceeded to touch the ball to his right hand side and open his body up. From nowhere he's eyed up the net and put his laces through it, ball curling from right to left it clipped the under side of the bar and hit the side netting - Unreal scenes.
Club - Manchester United.
Chosen Charity - The Space Centre - http://www.thespacecentre.org/
Previous Charity work - Raised over £10,000 last year for the space centre, cycling across certain parts of the UK. Also taken part in running events and completed the Liverpool Marathon.


Name - Steven Willetts
Age - 26
D.O.B - 13.03.1988
Sports - Football, Rugby?? Squash, Cycling and Running.
Random Fact - At the age of 10, maybe 11, Steven was on the programme 'Robot Wars'. He was on the show twice with Predator 1 and Predator 2. Unfortunately they came up against Hypnodisc in the first round who went on to win on numerous occasions - Still quite an achievement though. Meeting his favourite Corrie star Craig Charles along the way.
Club - Everton
Chosen Charity - Everton in the Community - http://community.evertonfc.com/
Previous Charity work - Taken part in number of distance runs including the Liverpool marathon in which he raised money for The Christie - Good lad.

Lands’ End to John O’Groats – 12th June – 20th June 2015


Day 1 – Land’s End to Launceston – Friday 12th June 2015
Day one of our epic journey will see us travelling from Lands End to Launceston. We will be flirting with the beautiful Cornish coastline and seeing some epic views on our way.

Distance – 94.4 Miles – (Not including the 10 miles from the hotel to the Lands End starting point.

Time – 7 Hour 24 Minutes

Elevation Gained – 7,432ft.  
Day 2 – Launceston to Glastonbury – Saturday 13th June 2015

Day two of the journey see’s us travelling from Launceston among the fields of Barley... I mean Somerset, finishing just outside of Glastonbury Sounds like another nice ride.

Distance – 85.5 Miles

Time – 6 Hour 42 minutes

Elevation Gained – 6,024ft  

Day 3 – Chilton Polden – Hereford – Sunday 14th June 2015

Day Three we will be travelling to Hereford from Chilton Polden (just outside Glanstonbury). We will cross into Wales on this leg ticking off the 2nd country out of three.

Distance – 89.2 Miles.

Time – 7 Hour 10 seconds

Elevation Gained – 6,140ft.   
Day 4 – Hereford – Liverpool (Rob Garths) – Monday 15th June 2015

Day Four – This is the day we start moving towards home territory. We will start in Hereford and work our way through Shrewsbury and on towards Liverpool. Longest leg of the trip but the flattest so far. Rob Garth has given us a room for the night as well, much appreciated Roberto.

Distance – 118.5 Miles.

Time – 9 Hour 18 Minutes

Elevation Gained – 5335ft.  
Day 5 – Goodison Park – The Christie – The Space Centre – Tuesday 16th June 2015


Day Five – This will be the Le Charity Leg. Travelling from Goodison Park to meet the stars. We will then venture to Manchester to the Christie; I will take you on a personal tour of the place. After this, we will head back to Preston to the Space Centre, we shall be welcomed home and home will be welcomed. – Only half of the journey though, the homecoming should be an emotional one. Beards and long hair await.

Distance – 78.4 Miles – Without the Journey home.

Time – 6 Hour 9 Minutes.

Elevation Gained- 3292ft.


Day 6 – Preston – Carlisle – Wednesday 17th June 2015

Day six... SHAP day. 2nd toughest day in my eye – climbing over 1200ft in 15 miles. Apart from this though the route is pretty flat and downhill from the 59th mile. Should be easy going after this. Heading to Carlisle we will have a great day and views through the Lake District.

Distance – 91.5 miles

Time – 7 hours 11 minutes

Elevation Gained – 4779ft  Day 7 – Carlisle – Glasgow – Thursday 18th June 2015

Day Seven – We will venture from Carlisle up to Glasgow – The route is a little shorter than planned but ste’s fellow evertonian friend has welcomed us in with open arms, what a guy!! One of the flatter routes we have but will still be a big challenge.

Distance – 87.3 Miles

Time – 6 hour 51 Minutes.

Elevation Gained – 4280ft.  


Day 8 – Glasgow – Fort William – Friday 19th June 2015

Day Eight – This will be a long day, but riding through Loch Lomond and up to Ben Nevis will make this one a special one. We will finish at Fort William which will have great views on the lochs and Ben Nevis as well, great place to stop. We are now on the same Latitude as British Colombia – If you went west... Canada would be your next stop.

Distance – 115.8 Miles

Time – 9 Hours

Elevation Gained – 5899ft  
Day 9 – Fort William – Lairg – Saturday 20th June 2015

Day nine, we will be on our penultimate leg. Heading from Fort William to Lairg, there will be 2 major climbs – Only over a couple of miles but these will be testers to say the least. Apart from these is it pretty flat, but up and downs throughout. Bring it on! JOG isn’t far away.

Distance – 107.3 Miles

Time – 8 Hour 20 Minutes

Elevation Gained – 6618ft.  

Day 10 – Final Day – Lairg to John O’Groats – Sunday 21st June 2015

Day ten, last leg, unreal scenes ahead of the final ride. We will work through the Scottish highlands, first 15 miles are uphill. After this it will be pretty much all downhill, massive relief. JOG JOG JOG.

Distance – 94.4 Miles

Time – 7 Hour 20 Minutes

Elevation Gained – 5323ft.  


With the final route planned and most things sorted, it will now be up to us three to carry on training and to get as fit as possible come June 12th 2015. If you have got this far you are still interested, which is good! If you want to come an join us on any leg of this event, please get in touch. We want to promote this as much as possible and would welcome any support. If we could get as many cyclists setting off from Preston to Carlisle on day 6, this would be epic.

As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)

https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/

If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.

You can also contact me a follow my journey with the details below.
Facebook - Karl Michael Hodgson
Twitter - @teddyhodgson
Instagram - teddyhodgson
Strava - Karl Hodgson

Thanks - Karl