Justyn Time Fundraising Extravaganza

Sometimes bobbing along in the ocean of life you just have to ride the wave’s that come along.  This week I rode a huge wave which turned out to be a great blast and a fantastic drive for my fundraising.

A couple months back I mentioned to my boss (Steve) how I was wondering if I could set my bike up on the turbo trainer in the courtyard at work together with my Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance banner and ride my bike down there for a few hours over a lunchtime.

There is a lot of foot traffic through the courtyard and I figured I could talk to people as they came past, share my story and would give good publicity about my fundraising and hopefully generate a few more sponsors.

Steve enthusiastically suggested I should be down there all day!  We should get another stationary bike set up and we make it a challenge to see if volunteers from the office can “beat Justyn” and go further than me in a day!!!

I quickly pointed out that it would be very easy for the combined volunteers to beat my distance as everyone else could just sprint for a short period whilst I would be doing the whole day so would be pacing myself so we abandoned this idea. 

However my boss was now enthused to hold some kind of sporting challenge at the office to boost my fundraising and a colleague (Matthew) who had come in whilst Steve and I were discussing it was really positive about what we could do and was subsequently tasked to see what could be arranged.

Without going into the huge amount of preparation that went into the day Matthew took the bull by the horns and having engaged with the relevant area’s at work and roped Val, Toni, Charlie & Debbie into helping in addition to Steve enlisting the support of everyone in my team we held the “Justyn time charity challenge” at the office on Wednesday 23^rd August.

The day revolved around a sporting challenge for people to put teams together and cover as much distance they could across a running, cycling and rowing machine with the team covering the most distance across the three machines in their 15 minute slot being the winners.  We charged an entry donation of £5 per person with no limit on the number of people the teams could consist of.

In addition Matthew, Val & Charlie managed to get a load of donations for a raffle which included a nights stay at a Devere Hotel, 2 childs bikes from Halfords a £40 Evans cycles vouchers and much more.

We held a “Bake off” challenge inviting people to enter cakes with the donation then being used for a bake sale.  Matthew also managed to blag a load of cupcakes from the hummingbird bakery which has just opened in Guildford.

To make it all a fun event we also had an ice cream van for the day with the company funding staff to have free ice creams whilst inviting donations and the courtyard was decked out with bunting and we had a PA system providing music next to the sports equipment.

In addition we got permission to make it a dress down day at the office with people to donate a £1 if they wanted to dress casual / sportswear. 

   

The day was a phenomenal success.  The sports challenge was a positive hive of activity all day with healthy competition and friendly support and banter ever present.  Everyone gave it their all and I witnessed some fantastic athletic performances.  It was a very close result with the winning team (Kurtis, Olive, Rich & Alan) covering 20.64km and the 2^nd and 3^rd places covering 20.6km and 20km respectively.

There were some fantastic bake entries but slightly awkward for me Joy’s peanut butter chip cookies won (she also entered a lemon and poppy seed cake as well as Tiramisu cupcakes) and Val, Toni and Debbie manned the cake sale also selling raffle tickets all day.

My team went round the office collecting dress down money and selling raffle tickets at the same time as well as entering onto the sports challenge.

The day was a resounding success with huge amounts of generosity displayed left right and centre showing huge support for the charity.  We raised a whopping £1730.96 on the day and got positive feedback both during and after the event.

The event puts my current running fundraising total at £3030.95 for Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance, surpassing my £2500 target and has had me riding a euphoric wave of happiness and positivity ever since.

Huge thanks to everyone who took part, contributed and assisted in making the day what it was with extra special mention having to go to Matthew without whose dedicated drive, positivity and ability to smile, ask for things and get them, it would never have come off.

So Much Pain for one moments Stupidity

Todays blog entry was going to be about how splendid my preparation is going as with just 4 weeks to go now I have been doing around 300 miles a week for the last for the last 8 weeks, made up generally of around 150 miles in the week over three or four days and then a hundred mile ride and a fifty-ish mile ride over the weekend.

Generally feeling tired most of the time but not too bad considering and my body seems to be accepting this regime with my dodgy knee’s coping with the strain.  Appreciating that 300 miles over five/six days is nothing like the 969 miles over nine days I will be asking of my body shortly, but feel I have done all I can to get my body ready for the mileage.

Further good news is that following a hundred mile ride yesterday I took the opportunity to sleep in the tent in the back garden last night to test out my new sleeping bag as clear skies forecasted a drop in temperature overnight and I figure it’s going to be cold as we head up north in September so need to make sure I am going to be warm enough.

Slept quite well although can see that getting the temperature is going to be tricky each night as whilst my upper body will be feeling the cold, my legs will be radiating heat from the days exertion so made good use of the ability to open the zip from the bottom of the bag last night, allowing my legs to poke out of the bag with my body still covered up.

Unfortunately I was a complete numpty today.  I was 20 miles into a 60 mile route when I stopped to select a pre-determined course to follow for the rest of the ride as was entering an area I do not know so well.  I would normally have selected the course by navigating through the menu’s on the cycle computer whilst riding along, but I felt I should be cautious and stop to do this in order to avoid potential hazards of trying to do both at the same time.

I was on a country lane, in the middle of nowhere stationary with my left foot unclipped from the pedal and supporting me on the floor.  I selected the course, pressed go and was letting the computer calculate the route when I heard the noise of an approaching vehicle.  Being considerate I thought best to get myself over to the side of the road as I was a couple foot over from the verge at the time, so I took a step to get out of the way.  

Problem is that I stepped over with my right foot, that’s the one still clipped to the bike!  Next thing I know I am on the floor with the bike half on top of me (I am still attached) and my right elbow pressing hard onto my ribs.  I was winded by the fall and when I do try and breath there is a whole load of pain in my chest.

I could hear the vehicle getting closer so untangle myself from the bike and hobbled to the side of the road.  The vehicle passed and I finally manage to get my breath back to find I am greeted by a whole load of pain, which unfortunately I have experience of from many times* before and know what this means.

So either my ribs are cracked or bruised and I am up for a whole lot of pain for the next week at least but hopefully it is just bruising and the pain will start to subside after that and I can get back on the bike without too much discomfort within a week. 

*For anyone who does not know I rode skateboard in big concrete bowls and pools until I was 37 and have taken lots of hard body slams onto the crete, many with an elbow digging into my ribs with the pain that follows this and no ability to do much about it other than rest.