Debbie’s blog: 30-04-09

Mountain Mayhem: solo. Like all crazy ideas it built up slowly. A bike rep I know does them all the time. Customers entered teams. Friends said ‘We’ll do it too.’ I decided that one day I would do a 24-hour race… on my own.

Of course I did nothing about it except talk, and the chances are that but for my sister that’s all it would have been: talk. A year ago my sister watched a friend run the London marathon. She went home, texted me to see if I wanted to do it, and entered. I declined but it set a seed in my brain. My sister, whose idea of a good day out was to go shopping (and then shop a bit more), was going to run 26 miles 385 yards. It was a big challenge and I wanted to top it.

So I started talking even more about doing a 24-hour solo. Friends got up a team of four. I half-heartedly started training a bit. I thought about which race to enter. Suddenly it was October. I had started house hunting. Maybe it wasn’t a good time to do it after all? Then I made a big mistake. I told Mark Grange what I was planning to do! Would he give me a few tips? That was that. Mark became my personal trainer. I got a training diary. I got weighed. He measured my body fat content. I bought a turbo trainer. I dug out my old road bike. I had to watch what I ate. Joy of joy, I lost weight! This was great. I got fitter.

Then I bought a house, did it up and moved. I got woman flu, which is not as severe as man flu but pretty nasty all the same. My training went off the boil.

Finally the move was complete. I got over my flu. The snow and ice went. I did my first big challenge: a 10-mile route as many times as I could in eight hours. It went well – too well. Mark was pleased and I was smug. I could do this!

And now, well, it’s only weeks away to Mountain Mayhem and I need to move up a gear and train and train. Anyone fancy a 10-hour mountain bike ride any time?

On Sunday 26^th April my sister completed the London marathon in 4 hours 34 minutes, two days after her 50^th birthday. Go girl! I’m very proud of my big sis. Hopefully she will be equally proud of me in June. I’ll let you know.

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