T minus 5

Only 5 days to go now until we head off to Penzance- the ride starts the following day (Tuesday).

Thoughts turn to whether we've done enough training, whether the bikes are in good shape, packing....I hate packing. I'll probably forget the bike.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. A bit of background is in order.

This ride has been a long time coming. Alan probably suggested the idea of a major fund-raising event 3 or 4 years ago- maybe he could see the public sector budget cuts coming (probably exited his share portfolio at the same time). He certainly knew that his unit in the Nottingham Children's Hospital needed kit which it probably wasn't going to get from the NHS. So the purpose came before the event- we decided we would do something to raise money for the unit.

It had to be something which would be a proper challenge. Somehow approaching your mates to support you in your first parachute jump or to do a 10k run didn't quite fit the bill.

A marathon was out of the question (for me at least) and I'd already done a few triathlons so there was a lack of novelty there. We have both done a bit of cycling over the years and Alan has even done a bit of long-distance cycling. The concept of the "End to end" ride was something we'd discussed from time to time, but dismissed because of the amount of time involved.

Luckily, at the time (not now ! But that's another story and I wont bore you with it) I was working with a group of ex Deutsche Bank friends in the City- the sort of environment where taking an extra couple of weeks off wouldn't raise too many eyebrows (actually, there was a meaningful chance that they wouldn't even notice I had gone). Alan meanwhile was prepared to eat into his holiday entitlement for the sake of the unit. So, around the back end of last year we bit the bullet and signed up to ride from Land's End to John O'Groats. Perhaps out of fear that nobody really would notice I had gone I mentioned my plans to my colleagues and to my surprise one of them, Neil Lawson-May, rose to the challenge and declared that he would join us.

So there you have it. That's why we have spent a disproportionate amount of time (but, I suspect, not enough) over the last 8 months cycling around the streets of Nottingham (Alan), Hertfordshire (me) and London (Neil). That's also why I've just spent an hour trying to make my gears work properly and spraying my bike liberally with the super oil substitute which the bloke in the shop swore would work through rain and shine and not clog up with gunk at the first sign of rain. As I speak, my waterproof jacket is in the washing machine with half a container or re-proofer in a vain hope to make it actually repel water.

Come next week we will get on our temporarily clean bikes in Land's End and spend the next 12 days, with no rest days, cycling over 1,000 miles to John O'Groats (to save you the bother it works out around 85 miles a day). I have never cycled over 80 miles on 2 consecutive days, let alone 12. Makes me feel distinctly queasy just writing about it. At the same time, I am incredibly excited. It's great to be able to embark on a real adventure and I am sure that it will do us all good (assuming of course that it doesn't finish us off).

For those readers who have supported our appeal, many thanks. It's the fact that we have so far raised over £23,000 for a really important cause which will make the pain worthwhile. We will update the blog once en route and as we head north. At the side you will see a link to our Just Giving website and our Twitter feed- this includes automatic mapping of our progress (at present, just some of my training rides) if you click through on the Cyclemeter links (sometimes this doesn't work, but if you click through to the Twitter site it does !).

We will do our level best to entertain you. If you have a moment to send comments/criticism/banter in return, so much the better.

To infinity and beyond.........