DAY 1 - of the Smiley Milers Tour (said in the style of big brother)

The day started with breakfast at 7am - porridge and cooked breakfast. The B&B in Wick was great and definitely recommended, we were very well looked after. Note: Laura would like Elsbeth from The Clachan B&B to read bedtime stories to her as her lulling Scottish accent was restful and, funnily enough, Scottish!
However, nobody we speak to seems to be able to get the weather right!! Arrived at John O'Groats to fantastic weather (well when we say fantastic, what we mean is FANTASTICALLY WINDY, COLD & WET). Not the best start...in addition, given this is a major tourist attraction it was a really under-whelming as a place i.e. It was a dump! However, the lady in the shop was very nice and obviously lonely given she wanted keep talking to us! We did meet two very nice men from the Isle of Man who Dave seem to get on with very well. We had our customary photos next to the reserve sign and the lovely scenic view of the hotel (which by the way was about to be demolished). We set off got ten metres down the road and then had to stop as the heavens opened and they continued to be open for pretty much the whole 88 mile! We rode for 50 miles and the huge hill we were dreading yesterday wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be but it was bad enough...Even though the weather was against us the wind was with us and Dave’s wind definitely also helped! We eventually arrived at Helmsdale after 50 miles and found the most wonderful cafe/restaurant - Gilberts. The owner turned the heating on to dry out our clothes, he had the most wonderful food. We had leak and potato soup & cakes which were delicious, in fact the cakes were so nice Dave eat mine as well! We also found out what a small world it is as the owner's mother-in-law lived on the street Dave did when he was a lad (just before the bomb damage!). The owners also gave us a £20 donation – thanks to Gilberts (www.helmsdale.org/gilberts-tearooms-restaurant.htm). We set off again and got wet again!! We were riding back steadily to Tain until the man we like to call 'cockleg' got a puncture but had lost the spoon that he had brought with him for taking his tyres off, then Dave managed to over stretch his muscle and struggled to shoot off. It was actually his hamstring along with the fact we had kicked him because he made a bad joke:

“What do chickens like to sing in Tain?”

”Let me Hentertain you!”

We made it to Tain 17:30 covering 88 miles in 5.34 hrs and a 16.3mph average. Tomorrow is 67 miles to Fort Augustus but is set to be quite a bit hillier!!!

See you tomorrow.

The Smiley Milers.

Well done on your first day – love to all (Editor in Chief) xx

Arrived in Wick - One More Sleep 'til JoGLE...

Left Dumfries 9.30 after a wonderful breakfast from our hosts (Jen and Dave's friends). Damian was sick in the night so not good prep for the long drive upto wick but as the day went on he has got better. Jen also suffering with her neck probably brought on by being the van for so long will have to take it easy tomorrow. Dave is just stiff as usual which is a bit embarrassing for the rest of the group (as usual)... It took us just over 9 hours to drive to wick arriving at 18:45 to Elsbeth the lovely b&b lady. The accommodation in wick is lovely ( www.theclachan.co.uk ) she has setup our breakfast for 7.15. The drive upto Wick showed us the roads we would be cycling down well at least for the next 1.5 days and there are some long climbs and one very steep and very long hill which we all just used some choice words about when we seen it. We are all just wanting to get on with it now and in a few hours time we will be. We are aiming to start around 9ish tomorrow as we think the miles tomorrow are going to be nearer 100 than the 88 miles we planned. We will update tomorrow on how accurate our plan really was. we are sat in Weatherspoons now having our dinner and will be heading for a an early night to get ourselves ready. Here goes and we will update you tomorrow. The Smiley Milers. P.S. We have also seen that people are still sponsoring us and we are now likely to be in the region of £11k raised...just fantastic!

And they're off - to Dumfries...

Well, they've gone! No doubt you'll hear from Damo later but for now it's me, Lynn (the wife), to give a little update. They finally hit the road about 4.30, excited, anxious even a little tearful (some more than others!!). The van is FANTASTIC - Mr Gathers did them proud with that one - all the blood, sweat & tears paid off! Anyway - chatting to them, the thing that has really meant so very much to all the team is that so many people have wished them well, wished them luck and encouraged them. They have been overwhelmed - a big thank you to everyone!!

Just thought I'd include an example of a more creative form of support that came in from a couple of people with technical skills beyond their years (they don't pay you enough!).

Thanks again!

Sleep well, SmileyMilers!

Lynn
xx

The Night Before (Damo)

Well this is it, the night before we leave for Dumfries and then a small sleep over friday and heading upto Wick on Saturday ready for the Sunday morning start. I am all packed and rearing to go although I have just had a minor panic at the thought of leaving my wonderful children (Isabelle 3 and Olivia 1) and of course Lynn (the very supportive wife). I have now got plenty of photos of them to take with me to look at over the next 10 days until I see them again in Monmouth.

I am now very excited at the thought of starting on Sunday and even though I have made the most organised packing list available to man I am still sure I am going to have forgotten something (note to self: don't forget the bike). What is a great feeling tonight is the fact that we will be starting our challenge with the knowledge that we have surpassed our £10,000 target and we are actually on about £10,500 and counting....how fantastic is that. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people that have very kindly sponsored us and have been so generous with their support of us....so thank you to each and everyone of you....you know who you are.

Also thank you to Hampsons Van hire for giving us so much support with the van, CalMac Ferries for funding all the costs of our ferry crossings, EON for providing us with cycling gear and more importantly match funding, Quorndon Brush Ltd for such huge sponsorship and Andy for providing the signage on the cycling tops.

I plan on sending a blog each evening covering the days events and hopefully some photos as well so please come back regualrly and provide comments as we like to know people are reading our blog.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my wife Lynn who has put up with me for the last 6 months spending every waking hour either training, planning and organising or talking about this challenge...and also for her support in completing some of the actions....particularly pulling together the JOGLE info folder which provides us with all the details we need to know to get us from one end to the other....

I will sign off now and the next blog you read will be of us having started our journey....here goes....

Toodle pip for now
Damo

60 Mile Training Run (Damo)

Managed to get out yesterday for 3hrs 50min and did 60 miles....pretty pleased about that as it was my last major training run....obviously felt like I had ridden 60 miles after it and into the evening but that didn't stop playing with the kids and going to the pub for dinner and a couple of the old recovery amber nectar :)

Felt pretty good yesterday riding and am now convinced that the reason I always feel better at the weekend is that in the week I am normally woken by the kids in the night (regardless of whether Lynn or I get up to them), I get up at 6:15am, go to work and then come home and try to ride 30 mile upto about 20:30...no wonder I feel knackered more in the week. Anyway bags are half packed, a couple of cheeky 10 milers this week just to keep the legs moving and I am ready for blast off. Also we are about £700 off our £10k target which is just fantastic and I hope we will get there before the challenge but if not I'm sure we will get it to £10k before we return.

Actions wise I still need to do the last 2 days waypoint mileage splits for the route cards which takes a couple of hours and then Lynn and I (more Lynn because she's good like that)...have to pull together the info folder for the whole journey. I still need to just call round the accommodation to make sure we are still booked in...not so worried about that as we have tents and can go anywhere if required....really looking forward to the camping bit of this now as I haven't camped in years and used to do it all the time when I was growing up..so all in all I feel as ready as I will ever be knowing that the first few days are going to be sore and probably the middle bit.....and come to think of it the end!!!

Can't wait now, I am very excited.

toddle pip.
Damo

Night off (Jen & Dave)

Tonight we've done sod all and loved it!! We can completely relate to Damo's comment about just wanting to get on with it ... training is getting extremely boring - especially when it is overcast and wet!!!! Last night we did a 45 miler but only because Jen has no memory of routes - if she could remember how long the route was she would never had agreed to such a ride of an evening!! Went for tea with Laura and Jon afterwards and had a lovely take-away ruby-murray - great training food!!
Discussed various things with Laura and Jon in anticipation of our group meeting on Monday night.... we're all really excited!!
Laura has had to have the day off next Friday when we leave for Scotland as she thinks she will be so excited she may get on the nerves of those she works with!! Jon is also off work that day so the sooner we get the van the better!! JOG here we come!! Soooooo looking forward to it - but Jen is also v nervous!!

Training 1.5 weeks to go (Damo)

Managed to get out and do 29 miles tonight my average was down but given this was my first proper outing in a week I was fairly pleased. Still a tough training ride as the physical side was hard due to having got up twice in the night with Issy and got up at 5:45 for work. The mental side is just tough as I just want to get on with it now. The 29 miles I did tonight was mainly tackling as many hills as I could and as 19 miles and just after doing 2 climbs I came to a big climg and could have turned left down the hill or right to go up the hill....and yes the competitive spirit got the best of me and I turned right which I am really pleased about as it added another 10 mile to the route and I did it. The legs are feeling it tonight but I think that is because I havent really rode in a week and so hopefully a few more days riding and I will be back to where I was a couple of weeks ago. Short update tonight and sorry its not that cheerful but looking back hopefully it will show the ups and downs of a memory for preparing for such a challenge. Off to finish the detail for the route cards so toodle pip. Damo