Much has been said about the legacy of the London 2012
Olympics and one person that the Games has certainly inspired is Sam Levey, who
has set himself an incredible Olympic themed cycling challenge in order to
raise money for The Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA).
Sam, 26, from Bolton, has set himself the gruelling
challenge of cycling in between all of the golden post boxes that were painted
in honour of the Team GB – covering a total of over 2,500 miles.
The epic journey will be starting in Lossiemouth, Scotland
on Sunday 17/03/2013, at Heather Stanning’s postbox and will take in all 50 of
the post boxes such as super-Olympian Chris Hoy, Sports Personality of the
Year, Bradley Wiggins and Olympic Golden Girl Jess Ennis, finishing at Helen
Glover’s box in Penzance. With just 10 days to go Sam tells us about his final preparations:
"Here we are, 10 days and counting…The plan has always been
to start a blog, so why not start here..."
...First things first; Am I ready? Physically, I think so. I’ve
been in the gym or on the road pretty much every day for months and can cope
with both the exercise and recovery aspects of the challenge. However (isn’t
there always a but), there’s no real way of knowing whether I’m fit enough to
ride an average of 85miles a day for 4 weeks until I’m actually doing it. Long
story short, it’ll be hard but I’m confident.
On the organisation side I’m still a little way off done. I’ve
got my train ticket to Elgin booked for Saturday 16th March at 10.33
from Bolton, and at last count I have 9 confirmed overnight accommodations
sorted (massive thanks to @emilia_violet who replied to a stranger’s request on
Twitter and is hosting me in Durham – it staggers me how kind some people are),
obviously leaving a pretty hefty 19 still not fixed up. Some very kind family
and friends have agreed to arrange me a room for the night in hotels en route,
so that’ll be 11 more covered if needed, however I’m still waiting to hear back
from a couple of options and friends-of-friends that might put me up so I won’t
be booking those until the very last minute (yes, I know, 10 days to go)!
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has been fantastic and
has donated my return ferry journey from Liverpool, so a huge thank you to
Brian Convery who facilitated the whole thing. Top bloke.
There’s also the little matter of a train journey from
Penzance that I need to book as well!
Equipment-wise I’ll pretty well set (though if anyone wants
to donate stuff that’d be great). My TCAA cycling jersey is on order and we’re
just waiting on it being completed and delivered, which I’m very excited about.
It looks awesome and will help me not get run-over on the way.
All-in-all I’m excited, pretty nervous but very keen to get
it started. 10 days to go…what have I got myself in for.
To sign off, for now, I’d just like to ask for your support. If anybody wants to join me along the way then give me a shout and I’ll send a copy of my route, and if anyone has, or knows of, a spare bed then please let me know (locations and dates are at the bottom of the page).
Thanks,
Sam Levey
Twitter handle @Pedal_Medal
My e-mail address srelevey@gmail.com
My Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/samlevey
16/3/13 Elgin, 17/3/13 Dyce, 18/3/13 Dundee,
19/3/13 Dunfermline, 20/3/13 Jedburgh, 22/3/13 Grassington,
28/3/13 Sheffield, 30/3/13 Stafford, 31/3/13 Royal
Leamington Spa, 1/4/13 Gloucester, 3/4/13
Bedford, 5/4/13 Camberley,
6/4/13 Andover, 7/4/13 Yeovil,
8/4/13 Newport, 9/4/13 Weston-Super-Mare,
10/4/13 Okehampton, 11/4/13 Falmouth
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