One challenge at a time

Firstly a massive thank you to everyone for their support and encouragement. I am totally humbled by it. Only 2 days in and already I am battered and suffered a serious low yesterday.... on the verge of calling it a day on the race. But messages of support... especially from those who have done this and suffered in kind have really helped. When they say they were scared too... it helps cos you dont feel so silly blowing the whistle every 2 seconds. I have spent the day recuperating and trying to eat lots of calories in preparation for the next few days. I have studied the maps and it looks like another long couple of days with the possibility of camping out again. I have to say that I am full of trepidation... the fear of meeting a bear at night is not a nice one and it makes me hesitate when looking at the days to come. The mossie bites have been really annoying me today so I found some bite cream which takes the itch out a little bit. The lady in the pizza place last night said it...

My nights sleep last night was not the best. Having passed out about 11pm .. I awoke at 1am to the sound of roaring engines. Logging truck number 1 of the night sped up the road... lights blazing. This continued on the hour every hour. At about 3am my air mat deflated... leaving me on the hard stony ground. At 4am it started to get light. At 5am I needed a wee! Crawled out of the bivvy... bear spray still in my hand. The good thing about being in the middle of nowhere (aside from the logging trucks) I didnt have to worry about dropping my shorts at the roadside. I didnt want to go into the forest particularly... bears are active at this time of the morning. I started packing up my bivvy and was just packing my bike bags again and stuffing down a blueberry danish for breakfast when a truck drove up. One of the forestry guys was just coming to work. He called me both brave and craZy for camping out in bear country by myself and asked if the logging trucks had been through overnight. Haha...

...mine anyway.... where do  I start!! Leaving Banff felt a lot like leaving home... leaving safety and known surroundings for somewhere new. I headed to the start of the trail where I took several deep breaths and set off... optimism coursing through my veins. Although it was only 6 am... the sun was already beating down and the midges were out in force. Now when I call them midges... I dont mean your average Scottish ones... nope I mean 10p sized ones with bites that leave itchy yellow bumps the size of 5p pieces... not exaggerating.  Anyway I passed through the bit of trail that I had done the day before feeling the joys of life out in the fresh air... the open road. Compounded by turning a corner to see some kind of deer in the middle of the trail! With one bound it was off but boded well for seeing all kinds of wildlife As I wound my way round the spray river trail.. the mountains loomed above me in all their glory... some breathtaking views. The trail had become more...

Hold on to moments of peace As life runs by And go with crazy when all around Seems so sane Fight the Fear, Jump in whole, commit yourself Live every moment and breathe every breath Along with me This advice I must live by Keep smiling as the stars will shine It is written in the Scriptures for life" The verse that I wrote for the Guiness book of records single for LHS 'THE Scriptures' has been ringing round my head all this evening... reminding me to take a breath today before 'The CraZy' starts in the morning. It was as I was walking by the Bow River that that song and the flow of the river synched seemlessly with this moment in time.... But I'm getting waay ahead of myself.... As you know I hadn't had much sleep in the last 48 hours and I sunk into bed at well gone midnight after an exhausting travel schedule. I didn't sleep that well... waking up at 0230 convinced that it was at least 0900. Another awakening at 0545 before f...

Haven't the last 48 hours flown... one minute I'm in Wales... the next sitting at Gate B47 contemplating the next month.... I have been following the race as the riders wound their way down the trail and have been blown away by their stories and pictures. The attrition rate seems pretty high so far.. injuries... weather... and mechanicals breaking the dreams of those who have dared to step up and over the edge out of their comfort zone and risk failure (in their eyes maybe... not mine) for the chance to say that they took on the Tour Divide and won. There are many definitions of winning... and that is a personal thing that each racer will define in his or her own mind. It is as yet undefined in mine but will probably become clear with each pedal stroke along the (hopefully) dry and dusty tracks... all I can ask of myself at the moment... is that I put my heart and soul into it... and see where the cards fall. The last few days ... apart from enforcing my sleep deprivation tr...

3 weeks today I will be flying out to Canada to start this years particular brand of CraZy.. known as the Tour Divide Race. This weekend was my penultimate chance to get out on the bike and what better excuse for a change of scenery than a trip to Wales to walk from beach to beach in preparation for the By Your Side Walk. As is becoming habit... I was on nights again this week.and post shift on Friday the day was packed with packing swabbing kit for both the walk on saturday and ready for the I.O.W festival. This meant that not only did I get no sleep Friday day but that when it did come... it was after midnight... Roll on 3.5 hours when I got up... or at least that was the plan 😞 In reality... the alarm must have gone off but it seems that nothing short of a loudspeaker in my ear would have woken me. Cue panic at 6am when I woke up!! Given that a 5 hour drive cannot be safely turned into a 3 hour drive... I instead drove to the end venue for the walk and set up for swab...