Hi all,
First of all thanks for joining us. I've had many people ask me how this all came about and thought a good way to start this blog was to share the background story. Paul Levitt and I met in 1989 in Pennsylvania at a summer camp. (I'm in the middle and Paul is in the white and blue shirt next to me) It's safe to say that we became instant friends. Paul only worked at the camp for the one summer but visited my friend Tyson (no shirt and black tie next to me) several times over the next few years in Austin. About 14 years ago we lost contact and despite my move to the UK in 1999, I couldn't track him down until I stumbled upon something while searching for him on Google last year. Imagine my surprise when I found a picture and a picture of my friend looking very different. Paul explains the story well on his site http://www.paullevittfoundation.co.uk/index.php?page=survivorstories so I won't try to repeat it but I was thrilled to find out he was alive and kicking 5 years after his ordeal. Paul and I finally met up in Kingston last year for the first time in about 14 years and it's safe to say our friendship picked up right where it left off. During that first meeting we discovered that we'd both become quite avid road cyclists and discussed some of the exciting things we had done. Paul had done two big rides for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the US while I had done several trips in Europe. Discussion immediately turned to one thing we both wanted to do: Land's End to John O'Groats. We are now a team of 5 that will cross the entire country and several others will join us along the way for a day or two. First to join Paul and I was his Dad, Cedric, who will drive a van across the country ensuring we can handle anything! Our second joiner was Barry Harwood. Paul regularly finds himself trying to stay on Barry's wheel during morning commutes by bike to and from work. I think it's safe to say Barry is our strongest cyclist and has provided the push we needed to ensure we're fully prepared for the ordeal ahead of us. Finally there's Alex. Alex is a good friend of Pauls' from Austria who is a snowboarder and runner but demonstrated he could adapt to a bike pretty quick.
And that's really it! It's hard to believe we're only 3 weeks away from really doing this! We've worked our tails off and trained in some pretty horrid weather but Paul is good at reminding us why we're doing this: 1) To help some great charities who not only helped him but help people in their fights against cancer and leukemia every day and 2) because we're alive, healthy and lucky to be alive therefore need to celebrate the life we have by trying to do things that truly challenge us.
21 days before we start pedalling! All donations welcome! While preference is a check or cash contribution to the Paul Levitt Foundation, we will also be setting up a Virgin Money Giving Page as well in the next day or two.
Peace
