Scott Westwood

Lands End to John O'Groats

25th - 31st August 2006

In aid of the Walsall Hospice Appeal

Preparation

The idea to embark on the “end to end” came to me at the turn of the year after reading ‘The End to End Story’ by John Taylor. John runs Bridgetown cycles and is father to Lynne who is president of Walsall Roads Cycling Club . To say that Lynne is a keen cyclist is an understatement, she currently holds the female world record for Lands End to John O’Groats as well as the thousand mile record (Link Here). I ran the idea past Lynne who in turn gave me the confidence to embark upon the trip.

The idea remained at the back of my mind for a couple of months until I saw a poster at Bescot Stadium (home of Walsall F C) advertising the fact that a local charity were looking for funds to help build a hospice in Walsall. The thought of being able to raise money for charity whilst fulfilling the dream of riding the end to end was very appealing and so the preparation began at the beginning of June.

The initial decision to be made was the duration of the ride. I didn’t want it to eat into too much of my annual leave entitlement but at the same time I needed to be realistic about the distance each day bearing in mind that I would be carrying my own clothes / spares etc and this would certainly slow me down. I decided to complete the trip over seven days which would equate to approximately 125-130 miles per day. I also decided to use the bank holiday weekend at the end of August so that the Monday could be used instead of using annual leave. So the dates were set, travel down to Lands End on the 24^th of August, complete the ride over seven days and travel back from John O’Groats on the 1^st of September. So, with the time off work booked the ‘idea’ suddenly became a reality. I contacted the ‘Walsall Hospice Appeal’ explaining what I was about to embark upon and asking whether they would like me to raise funds for them. Obviously they responded positively and sent a number of sponsorship forms on to me. I decided not to commence the activity of securing sponsorship until near the date of the ride when, hopefully, there would be an element of media coverage also.

Considerable time was spent on organising the logistics of the ride in terms of how I would get to the start and back from the finish, where I should  stay en-route, what provisions I should take with me etc etc. It took substantial effort to arrange the trip. My wife offered to support me for the length of the journey but I felt it unfair to ask her to use six days of her leave entitlement driving approximately 1800 miles. We decided on a compromise and she offered to take a couple of days leave at the start of the trip in order to transport me and the bike down to the start point. I divided the route up into seven equal (well equal-ish) stages in order to determine my end point of each day and in turn find suitable accommodation (suitable in terms of having secure bike storage and not having to walk too far to find an evening meal !!). At the same time I also looked into the options of getting home from John O’Groats. The best option seemed to be by train and so this was also booked although the idea of a 13hr train journey the day after finishing my ride did not appeal to me at all.

The preparation for the  ride consisted of me continuing to race between June and August but putting a little more emphasis on increasing mileage / time in the saddle at weekends. I also managed to cycle back from work (Warrington – Hednesford, approximately 80 miles) several evenings in July and August. As I could not take full panniers on my bike (frame not designed to do so) I purchased a mini version known as a  ‘rack pack’ in order to carry my provisions and I was surprised about the lack of space in this system which would mean me not travelling light but very light !!

The kit I would carry would be as follows:

• Energy food for 1 day (2 bars, 4 gels and of course…. Jelly Babies)

• Small tool-kit.

• Spare tyre.

• 3 * spare inner tubes.

• Carbon dioxide tyre inflator and 3 * CO2 canisters.

• Mobile phone.

• Small front and rear ‘emergency’ lights.

• 2 * water bottles containing carbohydrate drink.

• Directions for each day.

• Money & bank card.

• Travel wash.

• Spare cycle shorts.

• Toothbrush and paste.

• Shorts and T-shirt to wear of an evening.

• Footwear (flip-flops).

I decided to post provisions that I would need for each night  (i.e. travel wash) and during the following days ride (i.e. energy bars) to each B&B in advance. This proved to be a worthwhile exercise as I did not have to carry unnecessary weight.

During the weeks leading up to the ride I advertised for sponsorship as well as contacting Andrew Poole at Walsall Football Club in order for them to advertise the ride / ask for sponsors via their web-site and match day programme. Andrew not only carried out these tasks but also passed information on to a number of local newspapers. This together with a press release that the Walsall Hospice Appeal had circulated gave the event a degree of coverage in many of the local newspapers. At the time of writing this, I know that the charity have received several donations on the back of this so a big thanks must be given to those who promoted the event and those who sponsored me as a result.