Relearning the alphabet for WDM
Date: 9 May 2012
Lucy Hurn, south west London group
Last week Lucy from our south west London group kicked off her fundraising challenge with a difference: doing the alphabet the hard way. Here she explains.
I blame the WDM London groups Christmas social! For some reason, no doubt spurred on by beer, a few of us started talking about doing the Berlin marathon. Having found that was already booked up, our plan changed to Amsterdam. Which begins with an ‘A’. And that’s where it all started…
Because in some warped world in my head, if you decide to do a race beginning with an ‘A’, it follows you need to do something beginning with a ‘B’, and so on.
And so it was that a few weekends ago I found myself kicking off my alphabetically themed fundraising challenge for WDM with the ‘B’ in my series of challenges – cycling to Brighton from London. (Unfortunately the Amsterdam marathon isn’t until the end of the year, so I wont be doing them quite in order.)
Fittingly I was doing the trip with several other members of the south west London WDM group to meet up with some long lost members of our group who have moved to Brighton. Tim was the brains behind the operation and did a great job of navigating us through a route that not only avoided most of the busy roads and rain, but also took in the London Eye, Crystal Palace transmitter, some beautiful bluebell woods, a windmill, hearty pub lunch and a fair few hills.
We approached Ditchling Beacon right at the end of the ride with a sense of growing dread. Having been told over lunch that the hills we’d already done (the sort where you’re not sure if you’ll actually be able to get the pedal all the way round or will suddenly start going backwards down the hill) were not really hills in comparison with Ditchling, the wall of hill in front of us became ever more ominous!
It was definitely worth it to get to the top, with a brilliant view that the sun obligingly came back out for, although the wind was so strong it felt like we might take off when we got the WDM banner out for photos!
After a rest it was a long downhill all the way into Brighton to finally have some well deserved beers and even a quick swim in the sea.
So that’s ‘B’ done. Then its Crystal Palace triathlon in a few weeks, followed by Dunwich Dynamo in June (120 miles overnight cycle from London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast).
I’d love it if you could sponsor me and help me reach my target of raising £750 for WDM – you can donate online or by texting ABCD63 £5 to 70070 (you can change the amount you donate, there’s no additional cost to you or WDM). You can also follow my progress on Facebook.
If you feel inspired by Lucy and are considering your own fundraising challenge then check out WDM’s sponsored events page for ideas, including our own London to Brighton cycle ride, or get in touch with your own ideas by calling 0800 328 2153 or emailing [email protected].
