The End (Land's End)

Well, dear Pasty Run Readers - the end is nigh!

We made it! On a gloriously sunny day in Cornwall, Chris and I set off through the mist out of Chapel Amble and eventually made it to Land's End - to be waved across the finish line by Daddy, Penny, Antonia, Uncle John and Aunty Pam, Hannah, Owen and Giles: what a welcome! For the last time, the vital statistics of the day are as follows:

Distance travelled: 60.1 miles
Time taken: 5 hours 43 minutes (including stops)
Weather: mist, with the sun burning through quickly
Wind: none
Worst bit of the day: the rolling nature of the countryside
Best bit of the day: need you ask?!?!

Chris and I started out from Chapel Amble at about 7.40 am - as we wanted to cycle as far as possible before the sun burnt through the morning mist and the holiday-makers came out in force. The climb up to Wadebridge from Chapel Amble woke us up, to be followed by a rather large hill on the way up to Whitecross on the Wadebridge By-pass.

And that was the pattern of the day! There were very long up-hill sections which kept on looming before us along the A30 to Penzance and when we weren't going up ... we were going downhill, which was only spolit by the knowledge that we had to cycle up-hill very shortly! There were very few sections of the road that were flat and it made the cycling quite tiring.

The A30 was hairy at times, the holiday-makers were obviously in a rush to get where they were going and the day was marked for us by cars and caravans whizzing past us. The best answer to that was to adopt quite an agressive position in the road, so that the cars actually had to slow down to pull round us both - I am sure we were the reason for lots of tailbacks yesterday - but at least we remained in one piece!

It was strange cycling down to Land's End - our target was so near that we did not want to stop for long and our stops with Daddy to take on food and liquids got shorter and shorter. Chris also set a blistering pace and I think we cycled this section the quickest.

The last 10 miles between Penzance and Land's End were the hardest... the hills through Drift and Sennen were killers, but we did not have to stop up any of them, as I think the adrenalin was driving us on! About 1 mile from the finish, the countryside flattened out and Chris and I went for the sprint finish... we rounded the corner and could see the Land's End complex stretched out ahead of us. We could also see our welcome party waving from the finish line! Chris and I sprinted the last few hundred yards and crossed over the painted "Start/finish" line... all done!

As a change from our usual post exercise protein drink we had a couple of glasses of champagne to celebrate, took some photos and then wended our weary way back to Chapel Amble.

Last night found us in the Blue Tomato for a celebration with some of the lifeboat crew - with pastys washed down with champagne... perfect!

As a postscript to yesterday: the lifeboat crew had organised a surprise for me today (Sunday)... which Chris and Daddy managed to keep a secret ... We went down to watch the Lifeboat crew practice and it turned out that I was the third crew member for the day! I had to get in a drysuit and was all kitted up with lifejacket and helmet and then spent an hour on the water with Dave and Simon - two of the crew at Rock Inshore Lifeboat station.

What a fantastic experience - I even got to drive the boat, see all of the sights along the Camel Estuary and we took a long drive over to the new Lifeboat Station at Trevose Head, which is an amazing building with a slide launch for the boat (I am sure it must be called something technical)... I felt like a Blue Peter presenter!

It was a totally unexpected thing to happen and I felt really honoured that they spent the time to take me out for a ride and to see a little bit of what they do as part of the lifeboat crew at Rock - fantastic!

I am now about to get on the train up to London, to get ready for work tomorrow... so I must now hang up my cycling shorts (remembering once and for all that lycra is a privelege and not a right) and say thank you so much for reading this blog and for sharing the Pasty Run with me. I have had an absolute ball and I would recommend the ride from JOG - LE to you... if I can do it, so can you!

Pip pip and goodbye

Becca x

PS - we have raised about £11,000 for the Rock Lifeboat station (excluding Gift Aid add-ons!), but I will let you know the final figure - so do stay in touch via email, snail mail and phone!