Well Done

Hi Badge,

Well, you got there!  Well done to you all.  I sent you a text earlier but there probably isn't a signal where you are.

No doubt you are celebrating this tremendous achievement.  Enjoy! 

Safe journey home tomorrow.

See you soon.

Sue xx

Yes, a deep fried Mars bar!

The Finishing Line

Well done Guys.  Tremendous feat.

 

Linda, Darren & Gemma

 

 

Made It!

Last Breakfast

Well today we said goodbye to Cedric (Cedge) as he's been called back
by Lance Armstrong to support the Radio Shack team ;-). Needless to
say he's been a bit like the 5th Beatle for us and we will miss him.
And now we're off!

Near Invergordon..tomorrow, Jphn O'Groats

So today started out really boring. A screw up with the hotel the night before meant we had to change hotels and got a late start. We were all really tired as we rode along the A82 for a second straight day. Suddenly we started getting passed by a few motorcycles with funny pink things all over their helmets...then a few more...then a few more. There must have been about 50 of them! They were without question one of the highlights of the day and really kept us going in the morning. So for all of them, here's a little more information about the amazing work being done by the Breast Way Round motorcycle club! http://www.breastwayround.com/

We also stopped at a great coffee shop along the way run by a lovely woman from Yorkshire. Then Barry had a puncture and another LEJOG (Land's End John O'Groats) cyclist dropped by who was doing the whole thing on his own in 7 days! SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE! There was one really tough climb today which is unfortunately the first climb that Barry had to get out of the big ring on his bike in the entire trip!

We ended the night in the Balintrade Inn near Invergordon where Paul's wife and Alex's girlfriend have joined us for the final day. We also bid farewell to Cedric and thank him for such great support throughout! We have 95 miles to go and two tough-looking climbs but tomorrow night it's John O'Groat's or Bust!

Long story but funny!

Glasgow to Fort William (and Ben Nevis)

Nice to have bagpipes up the climb into the Highlands...too bad he was
a bit of an ass. At least he made up for it by donating some change
to the foundation so he recovered himself nicely. He seemed to think
our trek would have been moe impressive on old crummy bikes.
Still...an amazing day! Two days left, 190 miles to go!

Barry Harwood.

Hi Bazza, just a quick mail to see how you are coping. Let me know how you are doing if you get a moment.

Andrew.

Yeehaa!

Fancy running into a Texas fan at Loch Lomond!

Off to Fort William!

Another great photo from earlier in the week

taken by Alex

Glasgow today, Glen Nevis tomorrow!

Well three days left. Short post as I must get some sleep. We have tons of piccies and will be posting many of them next week when we get back but I'll try to get a couple from Loch Lomond tomorrow and some of us riding. Unfortunately very heavy rain caused a slight technical hitch with my iPhone today but all seems better now. It didn't get wet but I think charging had a problem and perhaps some dampness caused an issue.

So today was old school navigation with a little occasional assistance from Garmin.

We're tired but doing well.

All the best,

James, Barry, Paul, Alex, Cedric

A photo from a few days ago I really liked! (taken by Alex)

In Carlisle now, tomorrow Glasgow!

Well in 9 hours we should be passing into Scotland. Today was our
short (break) day where we only did 40 miles but the temperature
dropped from 25+ the day before to 8 celcius. Oh and it poured! We
made it but it certainly was cold! So 500 miles down and about 400 to
go!

All the best,

Paul, Alex, Barry, James and Cedric (our super support driver)

Day 5 - Manchester to Ambleside

The centre of Manchester is a complete mess! One way roads, closed
roads, and mostly so confusing it makes Jedward look logical. Anyway
after we eventually got sorted and out of Manchester we hit a few more
problems. First Alex's gears were acting up then James had his first
flat of the whole trip. We managed to find a little pub called The
Spread Eagle and had a decent lunch before we hit the big climb of the
day. I'd guess the ascent hit a solid 15% for a while and it just
kept going up. We all made it up it on the bikes and amazingly Barry
did the whole climb in the big ring! After that we had the most
amazing decent over 4 miles with no traffic. Then we bad another
puncture followed by another another going flat on it's own while
fixing the other one. We made it to Ambleside around 8:00 and
tomorrow is a short day so many updates in the morning.

All the best and please donate,

Paul, James, Barry, Alex and Cedric

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 009

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 009
Date:		25 May 2010 4:17 pm
Map: (valid until Jun 24, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	54.041794º N
	Longitude:	2.419130º W
	Altitude:	1,549 ft

NOTE THE ALTITUDE! Highest point en route!

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 007

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 007
Date:		25 May 2010 11:56 am
Map: (valid until Jun 24, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	53.669966º N
	Longitude:	2.329199º W
	Altitude:	968 ft

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 006

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 006
Date:		25 May 2010 9:42 am
Map: (valid until Jun 24, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	53.483169º N
	Longitude:	2.234815º W
	Altitude:	0 ft

Next stop...Ambleside

lands end to john o'groates

Hi ya lads

How’s it going, take it the weather isn’t helping too much, still its going to get a little cooler towards the end of the week that should help a bit.

Glad to hear your all working as a team, good luck today hope all goes well. Oh and by the way Barry i don’t suppose you could just pop back and sort out a little problem we have with an invoice. good luck again see you soon

Kind regards,

Graham & Scott

Fraser's Timber Merchants Ltd

Ham Wharf, The Ham

Brentford Middx TW8 8EX

Day 4 - Birmingham to Manchester

I won’t lie…today was hard. We’ve cycled four days and put in about 350 miles or so. For all of us, this is the most we’ve cycled in consecutive days and it’s scary that we have about 85 miles tomorrow and one pretty big climb. The legs feel good but we had a scare this morning with Alex. His knee started to go this morning but thankfully having a physiotherapist with us (Paul) paid off! He worked on the knee, taped it up and Alex made it through the almost 80 mile day (our lightest so far).

Now it comes down to pain thresholds and whether or not legs give out. I always knew that days four, five and six would be the hardest so one down and two to go. Tomorrow we have four climbs which should break up the monotony!

We’re all fine and please keep the donations coming in. We’re riding, you just need to pay! ;-)

A shop destined for failure ;-)

Well done Chaps keep going

Well done chaps,

What a hot weekend to be starting on this task.

Good luck and stay safe!

I will have another cold beer and toast your progess!!!

jb

Bristol to Birmingham complete

We had a great day! We have lots of great pictures to share but need
a little time to get them on. A special thanks to all the kind folks
at The Phesant Inn near Welland who were truly generous with
contributions. Today we had two flats and a broken cleat but dealt
with these little problems quickly. We really worked as a team today
and managed to find a great route on the way. The Hatters Hostel in
Birmingham looks a little dodgy from the outside but it's quite nice
and has the most comfortable beds so far. We also had a great dinner
and Paul's good frien Alex popped over for a bit and will ride with us
someday when he's feeling better! On to Manchester tomorrow!

Cheers,
Paul, James, Alex, Barry and Cedric

Worcester!

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 005

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 005
Date:		23 May 2010 10:14 am
Map: (valid until Jun 22, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	51.544254º N
	Longitude:	2.567611º W
	Altitude:	367 ft

Hello

Hi Badge,

Hope you all had a better day today with not too many punctures and broken 'bits and bobs'!

Jim has said put him down for the same amount as me on your form.  We are very proud of you for what you are doing and why you are doing it. 

Wishing you all the very best for the next few days.

Sue xx

Off to Bristol

Day 1...DONE!

3 flat tyres, two broken spokes (and a wheel rebuild), one broken bottle cage and one dead bike computer battery and a broken polaration filter on a Very nice Canon Camera (but not as nice as a Nikon (according to the guy who took our picture at the sign)...but we made it! As we approached the hotel we managed to hit the hardest climb of the day! Ouch that hurt! So we left Land's End around 10:30 after all the initial pictures and even before we departed we had the first crash, Alex slipped a pedal. We got some great photos which we'll get onto the site over the next couple of days. Our driver turned out to be the real lifesaver today along with the guy ar Bodmin Bikes who rebuilt Alex's wheel.

The weather was fantastic and it really made a difference for us. When we stopped to get the wheel fixed we also went to Sainsbury's to get a snack and some supplies. The ladies in the cafe were wonderful and a nice guy collecting for the RAF gave us a donation! We also had several people contribute to the ride while we were on one of our several puncture stops.

It was a great day but I think we woke up a little to the challenge this is going to be. All in all we rode about 95 miles, climbed over 4000 feet, easily hit downhill speeds above 40 several times and really worked as a team. More tomorrow night but for now WE'RE TIRED! Thanks for following and please remember to donate.

Paul, Barry, Alex, James and Cedric

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 003

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 003
Date:		21 May 2010 5:44 pm
Map: (valid until Jun 20, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	50.622092º N
	Longitude:	4.421431º W
	Altitude:	758 ft

First flat

But it's a beautiful day!

MotionX-GPS Track: Day1-Okehampton

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following track:

Name:		Day1-Okehampton
Date:		17 May 2010 3:25 pm
Map: (valid until Jun 20, 2010)		Google Maps
Distance:		103 miles
Elapsed Time:		00:00.0
Avg Speed:		0.0 mph
Max Speed:
Avg Pace:		00' 00" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		0 ft
Start Time:		2010-05-17T14:25:15Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	50.066212º N
	Longitude:	5.700890º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	50.732590º N
	Longitude:	3.996210º W

And We're Off!

9:50 am and here we go!

Scouting out the start and taking in the view.

3.763%

So Paul is doing body fat measurements on all of us to assess before
and after. He did a body fat measurement on me (James) and I am
starting at 3.763%! The average for a man is between 13-17%!

MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Wypt 001

PLF Team Location uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G or 3GS and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Name:		Wypt 001
Date:		20 May 2010 12:04 pm
Map: (valid until Jun 19, 2010)		Google Maps
iPhone/ iPod Map:		Maps Application
Location:
	Latitude:	51.446424º N
	Longitude:	2.812437º W
	Altitude:	322 ft

 

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2. 
   
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4. 
   
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And yes we even packed the kitchen sink!

AND WE'RE OFF!

T Minus 33 Hours!

First if all, our friends at Atlas Van Hire came up trumps with a van PERFECTLY suited to the challenge! Perfect for four bikes, luggage, upto 6 people and looks like it will make a comfortable 2nd home for the next couple of weeks.

Alex arrived from Austria this evening and we all met up at Don Fernando's in Richmond (another great sponsor) and had a fantastic dinner. We all wore our very bright neon cycling shirts and even the ladies donned the unflattering fashion statements for a few moments for a photo. Tomorrow morning at 9ish we set off for Land's End and our first stop: the White Sands lodge in Sennen.

While looking a bit into the history of LEJOG I discovered something that humbled me: US Navy Pilot Rick Ryan did the entire route in a wheelchair in 8 days, 10 hours and 9 minutes. Some of the records for this route defy belief. One guy has even done the whole route on a skateboard!

Cycling 100 miles a day isn't actually that hard for us but doing it day after day will be the real test. I have amazing respect for the people who have accomplished this task and bigger ones. Stay tuned!

Good luck

Good luck Bazza u can do it we'll miss u at work jim & Kirsty
Sent from my iPhone

The Support Car!

Glad we trained...we've got lots of climbing!

I thought this was an interesting one to share just to give everyone an idea about the challenge which lies ahead. Thanks to a friend at work (Cheers Lee!) I now have my iPhone filled with a full navigation of the entire route! While doing the conversions I discovered a nifty option to look at the elevation changes along the way. Below is the profile of each day! At the highest point we will climb to 1497.4 ft. This wouldn't be bad except it's starting from 180 ft and climbing solidly for 4 miles from the moment we get on our bikes on Day 6...and believe it or not, that's our easiest day! Click on the maps below to see each in full view:

Profiles continued

Best of luck

Good luck Barry,

 

I hope all goes well for you.

 

Regards

 

Jonathan

 

Jonathan Burge | Business Development Director | Octink

M: 07534 097048 | T: 020 8232 6800 | F: 020 8232 6801
Jonathan.Burge@octink.com | www.octink.com 
Crown House | 30 Commerce Road | Brentford | TW8 8LE

Octink has worked on a number of major events across the UK: Chelsea Flower Show, UK School Games and Goodwood Festival of Speed. Find out how we can help you run your event smoothly.

 

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Lands End to John O'Groats blog- BARRY HARWOOD

Good luck Baldy Bazza! We are all backing you up! Make sure those legs are shaved and more importantly make sure you take your sense of humour!

Hana Cutajar | Account Director | Octink

Paul in the News!

Paul was on Radio Jackie today! Click HERE to listen to Paul speak about the ride!

ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

First of all I would like to thank everyone who has made a contribution so far and encourage anyone who hasn't yet to take a minute right now and make a little donation to this great cause. http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/PLFUK

So I'm sitting in a McDonald's in central Amsterdam at the moment trying to juggle several balls: My day job managing some great projects at European Directories, ensuring that all of the travel arrangements are definitely confirmed for next week, last minute equipment purchases are on the way, etc. I must throw a special thanks to European Directories for an outstanding contribution and to our friends at Xaton for an excellent contribution.

Last night I was thinking about the gravity of this trip for me personally. For me this has been a dream for a long time but it's only fun, in my opinion, if I have great friends to share the experience with me. Paul has been a friend for a long time and it's safe to say we've all gotten along very well and become quick friends. I think friendship is often easier to establish when everyone is pulling towards the exact same goal and I find this is true in all aspects of life. It's also been a huge personal challenge. We all have demanding jobs and schedules, families to balance, general life to deal with and plugging in a personal commitment like this is no easy feat. While others went out on Fridays and Saturdays, we were disciplined. We trained in rain and cold throughout the past several months and at this stage are as ready as we'll ever be.

I know we're four lucky guys. Paul, Barry, Alex and I have supportive friend, families, co-workers, colleagues and patients (Paul's a Physiotherapist) who have taken interest and encouraged us throughout. Next week we ride off for all of them and if you're reading this, probably you.

There's a lot more to come and photos along the way. Technology is great these days and I'm pleased I'll be able to bring all of you along virtually and look forward to messages of support.

Cheers,

James

The Story So Far

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