Bad luck ends Lejog dream
I recently embarked on a big twowheeled challenge, and almost as soon as it started it also ended. I was riding from Land’s End to John o’groats, completely self-supported, on a mixture of gravel, singletrack and road as part of this year’s Gbduro. With the added element of needing to carry all of my food for the duration of the event, I set off on a 35kg bike and headed off into the unknown.
Although I knew that there was a high probability of not completing an event such as this, I also refused to let myself consider that I might not make it to the finish line. I think that if you commit to a journey as epic as this one then you have to believe you’ll be able to pedal all the way to the end. Perhaps this was naive, or maybe it was just necessary optimism.
I injured myself on one of the long off-road descents, and it showed me how quickly a perfect day can go wrong. I was riding incredibly cautiously, and I didn’t crash, but in one split-second I hit a rock and sustained a minor injury. Unfortunately, minor can turn into major when you continue to push your body to the limit. I knew almost instantly that I would no longer make it to John o’groats, but I continued to try. I needed to have no regrets, and to do that I had to exhaust all my options. I ultimately realised that I could have suffered through another couple of hours, but certainly not another 1,700km.
This is such an extreme challenge, and it perfectly illustrated how months of work can be undone in one moment of bad luck. It’s a strange feeling to be completely immersed in an adventure that has taken over your life, and then to almost instantly go back to everyday reality. I had plenty of time to think about this as I made my way home, and I realised that this wasn’t a failure. Just making it to the start line was a success for me, and that’s all that matters.