In an all too familiar occurrence of cycling related peer pressure and against better judgement; in the week leading up to Christmas I got sucked into taking part in the Rapha Festive 500 challenge.
I'm sure that you are well aware of the Rapha Festive 500 challenge, but in case you have been living under a rock; Rapha sets a challenge to pedal off the indulgences of the festive season by riding 500 kilometres between the 23rd and 31st of December.
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| McShiney and I ranking up the kilometres |
For your efforts you receive the adulation of your peers (or maybe the relief of not being ridiculed by them), the satisfaction of knowing you completed something you set out to do and most importunely the badge from Rapha (above) in recognition of your accomplishment.
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| Both the SL3 and SL4 were called into action to complete the Festive 500 |
500 kilometres, sure sounds like a breeze... think again. If you can ride solid blocks of ks everyday it should be no issue. If like me you have to juggle work and have a number of family Christmas events (and are trying to get over an illness... maybe not so much like me) then the Festive 500 challenge becomes more like... well, a challenge.
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| Christmas day puncture |
My plan of attack was just to ride when I had the time and energy in the hope that I would bank enough kilometres to get there in the end. Thankfully at least in Australia we are in summer and our days are very long with weather that is normally pretty good for riding this time of year.
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| On top of Arthur's Seat |
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| Riding at dusk |
My attempt at the challenge is broken down as follows. Granted it's not pretty, but I got to 500 in the end:
23/12/2011 - 25.4km
24/12/2011 - 109km
25/12/2011 - 26.4km
27/12/2011 - 121km
28/12/2011 - 53.3km
29/12/2011 - 51.8km
30/12/2011 - 22.1km
31/12/2011 - 104km
Total distance: 514km
So anyhow my much prized commemorative patch should now be on its way and I can strike off another item from my list of tasks I had no previous interest in completing.
Happy new year and best wishes for 2012.
~VL
