Julia's Spinathon for Help For Heroes
Tuesday, 13 December 2011 07:06
Not content with raising money for Water Aiid a couple of months ago by paddling a Dragon Boat from Bath to Bristol as a novice paddler - Julia who is now Bristol's newest convert to Dragon Boat racing after racing at Henley has just completed a 24hr Spinathon raising vital funds for Help For Heroes...
Between the hours of 7pm Friday 9th December and 7pm Saturday 10th December, I and 8 other intrepid (and arguably deranged!) cyclists embarked on a 24hour non-stop 'spinathon' at... Green Park Station in Bath, just between the Farmers Market and Green Park Brasserie.
We will each hoped to be completing 24 full hours on our own spin bikes with no stops for sleep, sit-down meals or TV breaks... although the odd comfort break is permitted. All money raised from the spinathon will go directly to Help for Heroes through the 'Just Giving' page: www.justgiving.com/atlantic2brave
The spin event is part of a larger fundraising effort by George Clack a Bath Uni Fitness Class Instructor, who will be competing in the Woodvale Atlantic rowing race in 2013 with team mate Jess Brooks (both seen in the Just Giving photo).
At the start I had numb feet for the first 3 hours or so as it was so cold (-4oC Friday night and -2oC Saturday morning) and my pair of thermal trousers, two pairs of cycling shorts, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of gloves, 5 tops and ear warmer/ headband didn’t seem quite enough, although more would have prevented movement!
Julia far right of picture.
We were under cover so we were able to close the doors from 11.30pm for the night so we warmed until 5am when we had to move outside for the market stalls to set up. There was a good flow of people throughout the 24 hours but with 6 hours to go I was super tired and flagging a bit with the pain so I stretched my legs and asked one of the market stalls if they could donate some food and they generously donated organic gluten free carrot cake (which was apparently horrible), flapjack, Thai rice salad and wild rice salad (which is my favourite lunch snack!) It was nice to eat some real food as I was fed up of energy bars, pasta and my nutella sandwiches within 12 hours!
A few friends stop by to provide support and shake the buckets and I could see the end when we had 3.5 hours left so the adrenalin kicked in and I cycled standing up for the last few hours as I couldn’t face sitting down any more!
We gave away the Help for Heroes wrist bands to anyone that donated more than £2 and we think the total is around £2,500 with donations still being given now we have proven we complete the full 24 (of the longest) hours! It's not too late to give www.justgiving.com/atlantic2brave
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