Well, I did it ...

So, I completed the Prudential Ride London 100!  And it was definitely a success because you lovely people have helped me raise over £2700 for Sands so far.  That money will be spent to support people like me, who are grieving the loss of their baby and don't know how to carry on.  It will be spent training healthcare professionals in how to make the whole process just that little bit easier, like our lovely Helen.  Or it will be spent figuring out how to help keep babies safe.  Either way, I think you are all awesome so thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Having said that, I have to admit that the ride wasn't what I hoped it was going to be.  It started off pretty well - I woke up at 5:15am on the morning of the ride feeling pretty good.  My dodgy guts had settled down and I felt like I had my energy back.  Nick (being his normal lovely self) dropped me off at Richmond station to get the special charter train to Stratford that the race organisers put on.  Just to reassure you ... we didn't leave the kids home alone - Lizzie (Nick's sister) was there to manage all three on her own (I'm slightly worried we may have put her off kids forever!)

I arrived at the station and it was full of other riders, pretty much all in charity jerseys, with bikes of all shapes and sizes.  Apart from the fact that most of them were doing the 46 mile route (which made me panic that I'd got my timings wrong and was going to miss my start time!), it was great to be in the midst of all these keen cyclists!  They called our train and we wheeled our bikes through the gates and onto the train. I sat down and tried to eat my breakfast (overnight oats with banana and yoghurt) and study the course map again.  I was feeling fairly nauseous with nerves so it wasn't easy ...

Half an hour later, the train spat us out at Stratford, from where we needed to cycle to our start area in the Olympic park.  Based on how long you estimated you would take to complete the ride, the race organisers allocated you a start time and group.  I had estimated 7hr, 15 mins (the most you could estimate was 8 hours) and was allocated a start time of 8:44am with group black L. The start times range between 5:44am and 8:52am for the 100 mile event, so my time was pretty late. Finding the right start area was suprisingly hard - not well signposted at all.

As soon as I walked into the start area, I realised that everyone around me was older than me and looked significantly less fit, and started to think that maybe I should have put a shorter completion time when I entered!  After 30 minutes in the pen, the event staff at the front lifted the rope across the road and walked us down towards the actual race start.  Half an hour of walking along with our bikes, wondering if this toilet would be the last one before the start (and should I take advantage of it?!) later, we finally we got to the start.  The announcer started playing a Chemical Brothers song, counted us down from 20, then there was a huge blare from the horn and we were off!

The first 40 miles towards the Surrey Hills were pretty simple.  We started on one of the dual carriageways from Stratford towards the centre of London - along a flyover which was very odd to be riding along on my bike!  There weren't many spectators on this leg - a few stopped to see what was happening but not a lot. Through the centre of London, along the Thames to Chiswick Bridge.  I was overtaking person after person and struggling to find anyone to draft off as I'd planned because no-one seemed to be going as fast as I wanted to.  Then I found this older Italian dude in an Angry Birds cycling jersey (!) who I drafted behind for a while.  After a few minutes I took my turn at the front and a few minutes later, he moved back in front of me.  I was super happy to have found someone to cycle with and he seemed to be too. We chatted a bit and agreed to stick together for a while.

The route then went over the bridge and into Richmond Park, where there was a water and food stop.  It is beautiful.  I stopped to top up my water bottle and realised that I'd managed to lose my friend already! So, after a quick refill, I got back on my bike and carried on.  I was going pretty fast at this stage so figured I was probably ahead of the times I'd predicted.  All good so far.  The next stage was through Kingston and out past Hampton Court.  Going through Kingston, the support was brilliant - loads of people, including lots of charity groups, all cheering and making loads of noise which gave everyone a boost. Then, going over the bridge I spotted Nick, Mum, Dad, Lizzie and the kids all waving and cheering which was amazing! I wanted to stop but was on the opposite side of the bridge from them separated by a lot of cyclists.  After the bridge, I turned left towards Hampton Court and immediately saw my aunt and uncle waving a big Sands placard.  It was so nice to see familiar faces!

After Hampton Court we headed out towards East Molesey, Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge.  The support thinned out again as we got out into the countryside.  It was all going really well until we hit a fairly narrow lane and had to stop.  We were moving but barely and it took quite a while until I got to the front of the blockage and realised it was just weight of bikes going over a narrow bridge which was causing the hold-ups.  That over though, I pressed on - up Newlands Corner with no problem.  I stopped at one of the hubs to go to the toilet, fill up my water and electrolyte bottles and eat one of my flapjacks, and promptly regretted it. It was hideously busy and took what felt like an age to get through the crowds and out the other side.  I decided that was enough break so set off again towards Leith Hill.  Again, I was passing person after person, spending most of my time shouting "on your right!" as I overtook.  Don't get me wrong - I wasn't the fastest person on the course but frankly I wasn't that far off in my section (which says a lot about how far back I was!)

Going up Leith Hill got quite frustrating as a lot of people couldn't make it up and had got off to walk, some from almost the beginning (and Leith is pretty long so that's quite a walk!)  If you have to walk, you're meant to stay to the left, but there were so many people walking, they were taking up a big chunk of the hill, which made it pretty difficult for those still on their bikes.  I stuck to the right though and was doing okay until suddenly, pretty near the top of the hill, my chain snapped and my pedals were suddenly free-wheeling on a fairly steep hill.  Not ideal.


I had passed a mechanics stop about 100m back so had to walk my bike back down the hill and get in the queue.  Both the guy in front of me and the guy behind had snapped their rear derailleurs which made me feel lucky - at least mine was easily fixable.  Their's probably wasn't (by a side of the road mechanic) unless they were extremely lucky.  The queue was pretty long and slow-moving so I tried to fix the chain myself with a quick link I'd bought when my chain had snapped commuting to work the previous week.  No such luck - I just could not figure it out.  So I had to wait and watch everyone cycle past me. About 40 mins later, the mechanic finally got to me and fixed my chain really quickly (with the right tool which made me feel slightly less stupid!)

The cyclists coming past me had pretty much dried up now which was a bit concerning - it turned out they'd diverted the rest of the cyclists past Leith Hill.  I wasn't entirely sure why - whether something had happened or we were just coming towards the time when they'd need to open the roads again.  Either way, I was pretty worried about the time by now so set off down the hill with my fingers crossed (not literally, that would be very dangerous!)  A few minutes later, I figured out the problem when I cycled into the back of another hold up.  This one was much worse than the first.  Turns out there had been a fairly serious crash and ambulances were in attendance.  Whilst we were there, I got a message from my sis, who was waiting at the top of Box Hill with my 5 nieces (who were entertaining themselves by practising cheers for when I finally cycled past, and yelling "oggie, oggie, oggie" to all the passing cyclists!), to say that they'd been told by race marshals that the rest of the riders would be diverted around Box Hill as we had now passed the cut-off time for that section and they'd need to re-open the roads.  I was so unbelievably disappointed.  I wasn't going to be able to do the full route and Donna and the kids, who had been waiting to see me for about 2 hours by this point, weren't going to.  Some of my other relatives were waiting to see me at Dorking as well.  I felt super guilty that they'd put so much effort in to support me and I wasn't even going to be able to get to them.

Once we eventually got started again, I tried to make up the time and was doing okay until we hit another hill and my chain snapped again.  This time I had no quick link to fix it and couldn't see any mechanic stops.  I phoned Nick in tears because I was convinced my ride was over.  Then a lovely man stopped to offer me his quick link and his partner said there was actually another mechanic stop 300m further down the road.  So I speed-walked my bike up to the top of the hill and met a race marshal who said I could possibly still continue if the mechanic could fix my chain quickly.  But when I asked the mechanic he said he wasn't able to as they were now sweeping up riders from the back of the ride and I'd have to get on the van.  At this point I begged.  And, lovely man that he was, he agreed to help.  The sweeping van was waiting for me at this point so, when my bike was done I sprinted back to the road and got on my bike.  For the next mile or two, I was literally the last person in the ride with the sweeping van was behind me cheering me on through their loudspeaker!


After that, I was pretty nervous about my chain so tried not to push my bike too hard - the chances of me finishing the event seemed pretty slim though, to be honest.  I was so aware that I was carrying so many babies' names with me and really wanted to get them all to the end.  Again, I overtook person after person, only stopping to fill up my water or go to the toilet. The rest of the route was less eventful thankfully - my pedals froze twice because the chain stuck and I had to stop and try to fix it, hence my bike spending a fair bit of time upside down.  Always in the most awkward of places as well.  But thankfully, my chain didn't break again.

Going through Leatherhead was the most frustrating section as there is a very short but quite steep hill which almost all the riders had stopped to walk up.  There just wasn't enough space on the road to cycle so yet again, I had to get off my bike and walk.  Then on to Kingston where we were stopped for a long while for traffic.  There were some lovely event staff there though, chatting to us all and trying to keep the mood cheery.  But, by the time I got through that, I was feeling pretty deflated - I just wanted to get to the end.  Heading out of Kingston though, someone shouted "Susanna!" - it was the Sands cheer team  which gave me a very much needed pick-me-up.  And after Kingston, I was heading to Wimbledon and the last hill of the ride.  There were lots of spectators here, cheering us up the hill, which was great.  I was hoping to see my aunt and uncle again at the top of the hill - they'd brought me some extra food which I hadn't thought I would need but, because of all the delays, was now really looking forward to.  Annoyingly, although they were there (and had been for a few hours by this point - very dedicated!), I somehow managed to miss them and their lovely big Sands banner.

The last section, heading back into town, went pretty smoothly and felt relatively fast.  And finally I got to the Mall and, heading up that towards the finish line, saw Nick.  He looked so proud - it totally made my race :-)  I was so relieved when I crossed the line, I literally punched the air!  At numerous points, I had thought that my bike wouldn't make it to the finish line so I was really happy that I had got there.

Because of the number of cyclists, it was super slow getting from the finish line to grab my bag from the luggage lorries and then back out to find Nick and the kids.  So, by the time Nick eventually found me (not sure my directions were that excellent!), I was done - it was about 5pm and I hadn't had a proper meal since breakfast so my energy levels weren't great.  To round things off nicely, we'd also been told that a crate of medals had unfortunately been missed off the lorry, so they didn't have any left and we would get it later through the post.  As you can imagine, I wasn't in the best state!

So, all in all, it wasn't the ride I was hoping for.  Hence why it has taken me a while to feel up to writing this post.  But there were still a lot of positives - it really was an incredible event to be a part of.  The support I had everyone - the lovely team at Sands, my friends and family, Epsom Cycling Club, the RAC cycling club - was absolutely amazing.  I feel completely blessed to have so many lovely people in my life!  Of the race itself though, I think my best bits though were the following:

• seeing my family and friends cheering me on, particularly at the Finish Line;
• getting to ride on closed roads for the whole route;
• the number of children, families and old people (we passed a few care homes on the route!) cheering us all on - all super enthusiastic and so lovely to see so many children getting excited about cycling;
• the numerous examples I saw of human kindness - so many cyclists offering each other spare parts/help changing inners/encouragement up the hills;
• most weirdly of all, someone yelling at me half way round "Go Susanna!" then 5 seconds later "Are you Lena's sister?" (I am!!)  Small world as ever.

So thank you to everyone for all the support, comments and sponsorship - you made the race for me!  And the biggest thank you of all to my lovely Nick - I am very lucky to have you :-)

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SusannaSpeirs