The Countdown is On

With just four weeks to go till the big challenging adventure, anticipation is surely building; a sense of excitement is already in the air.

Will I still be up to it in my advancing years? Will I have all of the logistics and planning sorted out to ensure a smooth ride? Oh, and did I mention that this is a charity fundraising event as well as a physically demanding cycle journey? That`ll be quite a public profile thing, so will I reach the target set? Lots of questions are piling in on this upper-end septuagenarian.

On 24th April, I`ll reach the giddy age of 78 into my 79th year, no less. Some people would say that’s the kind of time to be taking it easy a bit, to be avoiding too much stress. Yet here I am planning an intensive experience in the form of a 24-hour cycle ride; not your usual OAP kind of activity, now is it?

The way I look at it, though, is that I`m still pretty fit, albeit a bit overweight. I can still do something useful. I can do something that might, just might, inspire people to loosen their wallets a bit, in order to raise the funds that our charity needs for its life-transforming work in a rural part of Kenya. Altogether, a very positive use of my senior years, I`d say.

So, the training will continue apace, the planning will be refined, the publicity build-up will move up a gear or two, and as the deadline for action draws nigh, I`ll be ready for it, in every sense.

What is the challenge then? Come on, let's have some detail to it?

I live in Linlithgow, in central Scotland, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots – though I`m not quite sure what that has to do with it, on this occasion. I`ve got a major part of Scotland`s canal infrastructure running right through the town. Canal equals towpath, equals cycle route which is flat, relatively smooth, and pretty predictable. It's also traffic-free. So at noon on 25th April, the day after my birthday, a small gathering at the Canal Basin will wave me off eastwards for the start of this 200km 24 hour blast. I`ll cycle in that direction, much of the way to Edinburgh, as far as the River Almond aqueduct, at least. Then I`ll about turn, and cycle west, back through Linlithgow to the famous Falkirk Wheel. There, I`ll leave the Union Canal behind, and join the Forth and Clyde Canal for my onward journey west through Kirkintilloch, Glasgow, past Bowling and destination Dumbarton will emerge during the hours of darkness. But of course, that’s not journey's end, oh no. Because I`ll then turn the bike round, and pedal all the way back to Linlithgow, to reach the Canal basin at noon on the 26th. That truly is journey's end.

The logistics I mentioned include regular planned mini food and drinks stops, and the opportunity to nip behind a bush for you know what. My hours of darkness cycling Buddy by the name of Elspeth will have been with me throughout the night, which I`m in no doubt will have made a huge difference to both morale and safety.

Right now, I`m working on plans to develop the social media feed throughout the venture, so that folk can follow my progress, hour by hour, or landmark by landmark. This will build awareness, and hopefully generate that inspiration I referred to earlier. Because inspiration from this somewhat eccentric senior citizens will surely liberate lots and lots of donations.

That is both the theory and aspiration.

I`m getting ready, are you?