Day 10 - Chorley to Kirby Lonsdale. 52 miles, hilly bits 2600 ft, 1 x meltdown

Planning for this trip has taken meticulous plotting on a cocktail of OS maps, Strava and Garmin. In some cases, Alan has added 40 plot points per junction. I didn’t dare ask how many junctions were between Land’s End and John o’ Groats. Yet, despite all this, 2 minutes after leaving, what had been a road was now a no way through building site. The builders turned their backs as soon as they saw us, and as Christine put it, lots of places to park your bike but not one of them would help…

For a while now the hills have been backdrops to our cycling, however we’ve turned from them in the nick of… Today, there was no more squirming away.

We started rating hills while training, from Free Hills to All The Gears. Free ones had a sufficient down hill run up that no effort was required to reach the top. All the gears meant you crashed through every one, desperately trying to find an easy enough gear to make it.

Today’s hills were All The Gears. They started relatively innocuously, with gentle-ish climbs - except they didn’t stop. And then came hairpin bends on a gradient that surely required grappling hooks. While the others gritted their teeth and tightened their calf muscles, I fought to keep my panic at bay. And lost. So Alan gently coaxed me round each bend, knowing just the right level of encouragement and words that were needed. He was so calm, his voice soft and kind that as long as I kept listening, I could do it. He let me stop when I needed to, told me when to breathe in and when to exhale and with his help I made it up.

I feel more than a little ridiculous. That I was dumb enough to think I could cycle Land’s End to John o’ Groats from a near standing start - let alone in 5 months. And it reminds me of how utterly inadequate I felt when caring for Simon. Neither of us knew what was going on with his illness, what he needed and how to cope. The only thing we could do was get through it day by day. And if we could do one day, we could do another. Except he became sicker and more incapacitated and dying in the middle of a pandemic meant there wasn‘t the medical support available. Nor friends and family allowed.

Today’s lessons:

1. If you can’t find the strength in yourself, if you’re very lucky you will find it in others.

2. Lancashire’s hills are so beautiful you will want to make them your friends.

3. When the only food on offer is a few miles away, Richard is the best Deliveroo rider. Ever.

Thank you and goodbye Cheshire and Lancashire.

Goodnight.