The Beginning

Some of you folks will know me- my name is Ryan Fitch, I'm 21, a psychology student and I like to ride my bicycle (much like one Mr F. Mercury). Despite protests from my legs and long suffering bicycle, I've signed up to do a coast to coast bike ride in April. Coast to Coast- Dundee to Ardnamurchan point (somewhere so remote I had to google maps it). It's going to be 222 miles of hills, pain and sweat.

For the uninitated, I give you Scotland!

As much as I like to cycle, I've never done anything like this before- and I am s*** scared! So this blog is to be my diary of how I am getting on. Right now, my bike is a wreck, and so am I. By april 2nd, I hope to be lighter and stronger. Here's hoping!

But I am not doing this by myself, or for my own entertainment. The entire journey is to raise money for D.A.R.E, and there will be 15 of us! Not entirely sure what the acronym DARE stand for, but they're a group here at the University of Dundee who raise money to do all sorts of nice things like dig wells and build orphanages in various third world nations. And the best thing is that all the money that we raise will be going directly to the charities they support. The folk going out pay their own air fare and costs and stuff. So it's not a "Gap Yaaaaahhh" thing (see below video :-D). You can find the D.A.R.E Website here

So here I go. I'm never going to be Chris Hoy any time soon, but capable. That's the aim- capable.

Current Mileage (according to 2 week old bike computer)- 89 miles.

Average speed on home run: 13mph

Current running mileage: 1.82 miles on runkeeper.com (my username is ajohndoe.)

Current weight: Scales say [NO COACHLOADS]

Current mantra: “Pain is temporary... eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

Things wrong with bike: Brakes don't work, wheels are not quite round, bar tape is coming off, rust everywhere.



Woo! Yeah! Ouch! Oooeerrr!