T minus 1

By the time you read this, I'll be driving down to Land's End in a hire car, back seat folded down and with my bike in the boot. I wish I could explain how I've felt this last week - nervous, bordering on anxious, would be a good start. There is so much to do and so much that can go wrong. Plus the weather forecast, at least for the first half of the ride, is far from ideal - there will be headwinds, and my rain jacket is going to be getting a lot of use.

Above and beyond all that, though, are the unavoidable doubts: firstly, that I haven't trained enough; secondly, that I'm just too old/unfit/weak to be able to do all this; thirdly, that I'll be too slow unclipping my cleats on a steep incline and so take the slow, undignified fall of shame sideways onto the tarmac (or into a ditch... or under the wheels of a passing lorry); and lastly, mostly, that there are more important things in life that I have neglected, and continue to neglect, in doing this.

But anyway... in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. Or three thousand pounds plus, since that's the sum I've raised for The Alzheimer's Society so far, in doing this. Subject to phone battery and network coverage, I'll try to post some kind of updates here, and on JustGiving. Plus there's always ResultsBase, where I'm assured a very numbers-oriented update will appear for me here. Oh, and it'll all be on Strava, of course, if that's your bag (and assuming I have enough phone signal to sync my GPS device).

So, in summary, here are some links if you want to follow along:
JustGiving • ResultsBase • Strava • The route