During the summer of 2021 myself and three other clients took on the challenge of the Three Peaks - which entails climbing the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales however, because we're a bit mad, we decided to cycle the 450 miles between them!
Training for this epic challenge started 16-weeks out, with the four of us having to learn about the gear we would need and source our first ever road bikes! It soon became apparent that we may have bitten of more than we could chew when we realised non of us had ridden a bike over a long distance before and knew nothing about the pitfalls of bike set up, chaffing and punctures - but anyway, we persisted with eager naivety.
16-weeks passed slowly, with mid-week short rides, gym training sessions and a weekend long ride, which progressed from 20-miles on our first outing to our first 100-mile bike ride! - a feat deemed an accomplishment by its own right but we couldn’t get carried away - we had to learn how to repeat the effort on a daily basis.
As the challenge crept up, we started to rack up some serious training miles on our ebay bikes and the fundraising began. Our support team leader, Paul, even did his own 100-mile stationary cycle outside of a local shop and was featured on local radio to help drum up some support.
Our start date finally arrived and this is how our week went;
Day 1: Drive into the Scottish Highlands and climb Ben Nevis
Day 2: Cycle 100 miles from Fort William to Glasgow.
Day 3: Cycle 100 miles from Glasgow to Gretna.
Day 4: Cycle 50 miles into the Lake District and climb Scafell Pike, Englands tallest mountain.
Day 5: Cycle 100 miles from Scafell Pike to Warrington.
Day 6: Cycle 75 miles from Warrington to the edge of Snowdonia National Park.
Day 7: Cycle 25 miles to the base of Snowdon and climb the highest mountain in Wales!
What an epic adventure and a week I’ll never forget!
I just wanted to acknowledge the titanic efforts and say a massive well done to Suzanne Bailey and Tracey Lawrence (who both crazily started out as PT clients but are now dragging me along behind them) and George Hayes for completing this epic challenge, and say a huge thank you to Paul Lambert, Karla and Stewart for kindly volunteering to support us during our adventure and raising their own donations!
Together we raised over £10,000 to be split between Scotty's Little Soldiers, a small charity who support and provide opportunity for the bereaved children of fallen armed forces soldiers, The Stroke Association, Myton Hospices and Glenfield Hospital Critical Care Unit, who took care of one of the participants family members when she was in need.
Thank you so much for your donations and encouragement!
We couldn’t have done it without you!
Amazing! I didn’t know this was going on, I would of donated! Smashed it guys well done!