Difficult Times

There is a saying that God only tests the strong. Now, I'm not really religious, but, this does sound a bit petty. Having said this, clearly the team is strong, because we have all been tested over the last few weeks.

From the previous posts you can see that our training has been going pretty well, with some good progress from the team. We've also been progressing our fundraising ideas and firming up the logistics for the Maratona in July. Team spirit was high.

Unfortunately, this wasn't to last. On Friday the 24th February, after a team meal on the Thursday night, Steve phoned me with some bad news, our friend and team mate Nick had passed away. The next few days were very difficult as we all struggled to come to terms with Nick's untimely passing. Over the last few weeks we have dealt with this loss in different ways, but, in general we have all used it as a motivator for training and improving our Strava segment times during our unstructured rides, just the way Nick would.

Nick was a great bloke and a good friend and if he was reading this he'd be sure to be taking the mickey out of me for being a wimp, so enough of this emotional guff.

As a team we had always planned to ride the Mad March Hare sportive on the 4th March as a gentle introduction to sportives, well at least that was how Steve was selling it. The week running up to the event had nice weather and was looking good for the Sunday ride. Unfortunately, on the Sunday morning it was cold and wet, but, we decided to carry on regardless (it's what Nick would have wanted).

We set off as a team into the Worcestershire countryside and, even though it was cold and wet, we were all enjoying the ride. Half way through the ride, though, it started to get tougher. As we approached the major climb on the route the temperature dropped, then Simon's chain broke, then just to add insult to injury it started to snow. By this point we had become split up. I stopped at the feed station after the climb to wait for Simon and Mark. At this point, I wasn't able to remove my gloves as they were so wet I knew I wouldn't get them back on again. After a five minute wait and, as I started to shiver, I had to carry on on my own through the snow and wind - my Garmin was reading 2°C at this point. For the next 30 miles or so the ride was a battle of mind over body. There were a number of occasions when I considered turning off the route and heading for home, but, in the end I stuck it out to the end.

By the time I arrived at the finish, I no longer had enough control over my left hand to shift gears. However, as luck would have it, my legs were so cold I couldn't turn the larger gears anyway. It took over an hour to fully regain the feeling in my fingers so that I could actually pick things up properly.

We all completed the course and out of 500 people who signed up and the 180 who took part we all got respectable finishing positions. Simon and Mark had an especially tough time, as towards the end they made a wrong turn, which, not only meant they had extra distance to cover, but, also another hill to climb. Add on top of this that Simon's chain broke again and Mark pushed him the final mile to the finish.

Our first team fray into sportives, while not the most enjoyable, taught us a valuable lesson. We now all know how to suffer and we clearly have the mental strength required to complete the Maratona.