Tatton Cycletta

It is rare for me to experience 6am on a Sunday morning.  I am usually asleep.
Yesterday was different.  Gillian and I,  along with our friend Emma, took part in our first official cycle event - a 55km route starting from Tatton Park in Cheshire, which is one of a series of women only cycle races in beautiful locations.  Click here for more info on future events..

I was woken by the radio alarm playing The Cure, and it was with uncharacteristic enthusiasm that I got up and danced to the shower, past my bike and gear which were prepared, labelled and ready to go in the hallway.  After a quick breakfast Chris managed to manipulate my bike into the car without having to dismantle anything and we were on our way at 7:30 in thick fog.

The event was incredibly well organised, and by 8:30 we had parked up, unloaded the wheels and found Gillian and Emma.  Nerves were setting in now as we waited for our wave to start.

Emma, me and Gillian - ready to go

Garmin ready - waiting to go

The fog was still pretty thick when we set off and it wasn't long before our hands were completely numb with the cold.  Still the scenery was stunning and we soon forgot about the cold as we were cycling down beautiful tree lined roads with the sun desperately trying to break through the fog.

On our way - very high viz!

We thought it would take us over 3.5 hours to finish so we were delighted to cross the line in 2:48:25 (including pit stop time!).  Feels great to have our first cycle under our belt.  We have done the distance we will cover on our first day in Cuba, so just the other 4 days to work on now!

Medals all round