Long Way Downhill: August 2012

JoGLE in Memory of Sdn Ldr Ant Downing

On the 22nd December 2011 Sdn Ldr Anthony Downing was seriously wounded when the vehicle he was travelling in was caught in an explosion south of Kabul. Ant was flown back to the UK where sadly he died of his wounds at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Ant was my brother, an exceptionally good man and an inspiration to so many, myself included. From an early age he tried to push himself to see what he was capable of. Whilst he was at school he competed in endurance events in running and cycling and as an adult went on to such feats as cycling across America in 25 days a number of Iron Man competitions and completed a Double Iron Man too.

At his funeral the idea of retracing his wheel tracks on a ride across the USA was talked over with many of Ant's friends. I said on a number of times I would like to give it a go. This ride however is not quite so ambitious; it is a training ride to see if I have it within me to cycle long distances. Ant completed the Lands End to John O' Groats trip on his own in 1999. The journey should be approximately 874 miles, hence the target for the fund-raising. My friend Chris Tremblett and I shall be doing the journey in September the other way around mainly due to logistical reasons.

We have been told on a number of occasions that going North to South is the awkward way to do it as we will be pedalling into the wind every day. However, Scotland is high up on the map and Cornwall is at the bottom so although it's a long way it will all be down hill. How hard can it be?

Very, I suspect...

Friday 31 August 2012

T minus 15 days

Well a bit of progress to report; a just giving page has been set up and you can find it here. Thanks to those who donated already, and for Mag for promoting it, it's very kind of you all indeed.

Today I'm heading to the National Arboretum Memorial in Staffordshire where tomorrow there will be a small service held for Ant. Hopefully I can do a bit of work on the flyers whilst I'm on the way too.

Thursday 30 August 2012

T minus 16 days...

With sixteen days to go, the ratio of things to organize to those completed is alarmingly large. In the words of Commandant Lassard there are many, many things left for us to do before our work is completed...

So far the to do list consists of:

Get fit enough to cycle 80-100 odd miles a day. (more me than Chris)
Plan a route
Rethink luggage carrying on the bike
Join the YHA
Box up the bikes and arrange collection with the courier for the bike delivery to Scotland
Book train tickets from Inverness to Wick
Start a blog (natch!)
And a Just Giving page
Design and print flyers and a few posters

And the somewhat sparsely populated completed list:

Book flights to Scotland

Chris and I have a busy few days...