What are you doing it for?!

'What are you doing it for?!'

This is the question I've been asked over and over from my customers as I've told them why they won't be seeing me for the next two weeks.
Although I can easily talk about the training, the route, equipment and challenges we expect to face, what I'm doing it for wasn't the question I was expecting!
I guess there's often an expectation of a charity cause to donate to.

On Monday I'll be embarking on a ten day JOGLE ride trough the U.K.
For the uninitiated the JOGLE is an acronym for John O'Groats to Land's End, the opposite of a LEJOG!

My partner for this adventure will be Heather, and we'll be covering around 1,000 road miles over 10 consecutive days with no rest days.

This is the longest, toughest challenge I've done, averaging 100 miles a day whatever the weather throws at us, which currently looks wet and windy in Scotland!
We've been planning, training and practicing this adventure since Easter last year. We've worked through a few hiccups and now we are finally at the start line.

Why the 'upside down' end to end route? Heather's family live at the extremity of Britain's West Country not far from Land's End so support and motivation is getting closer each day.
I'm told by many that according to the map it's clearly downhill all the way North to South. My brain has a niggling feeling we'll be cycling into the wind the whole way, but Heather has reassured me that she's not concerned and that she'll be quite sheltered from the wind being close behind me in my slipstream!

We've got backup for the first time for this trip, Heather's dad Rob is kindly driving the support car full of snacks and bike spares. Mechanical bike failure is my biggest worry because some of the time we'll be in remote areas and our schedule doesn't allow for downtime! We've got spare wheels and cables and tools packed.

So what are we doing it for?!
For the challenge.
For the adventure.
To see if it's possible to push ourselves.
To test ourselves at the limits of our capabilities.

We're doing it 'just for fun!' :)

(Library photo courtesy of Flickr)