... is the question I am asking myself.
So much for the grand intention to build up a blog of all my training and preparation.
So much for the advent of Spring (it might just about be here now but I'm not holding my breath)
So much for trying to take on such a massive project, while simultaneously being a minister (especially in the run-up to Easter - one of the traditional "this'll be your busy time" periods...), a father and husband, and a human. None of which I'm particularly good at juggling as it is.
However, a brief recap seems in order:*
I was able to turn up to Joanne's Coatbridge Pub Quiz fundraiser, after rushing away from one of my many meetings... our team made a good start, sitting just behind the joint leaders if I remember rightly, and gradually plummeting to eventually win the booby prize. Still, a fun night was had. Well done to Joanne for her various events and to those others who have also been arranging fundraisers. (The London Quiz with Standup Comedy sounded very good!)
I think training kind of took a back seat as I prepared for Holy Week and Easter - booking out all my Sunday afternoons didn't help, though it was great to go through membership preparation classes at both churches, leading up to 3 new members from one family in one congregation, 5 new members of the other, and the baptism of 4 children from one family (whose parents were among the 5!). I do vaguely remember occasionally getting out on the bike, if only to do trips between the villages, possibly also going out for jogging (which has since fallen by the wayside, even if I have not).
I also took up the offer of the loan of a bike from a fellow minister - it had been sitting unused, was a mountain bike and therefore more like the ones we'll be using in Malawi, as opposed to my refurbed Raleigh (I'm still such an amateur I don't know if I should call it a road bike, a racer, or something else. It has thin tyres and used to have drop handlebars pre-refurb, if that helps).
I'm gradually getting more biking gear. I'm still using my joggers but cycling shorts are on their way, courtesy of my antipodean sister (fortunately the shorts are not coming all the way round the world). The official EMMS shirts arrived (though even with the sunny weather, it's still been cold enough to hide them under my cycling jacket). I didn't get to the Scottish Bike Show (it was at the velodrome too!) which is either a disappointment (though it was far more important family visiting that displaced it) or a relief as I might have spent too much money.
We had a wee holiday near Dunoon after Easter and I took the newly borrowed bike and had a couple of trips while we were there. Then I was ill when we came home :-( So it's only really the last couple of weeks that training has carried on again in earnest - I think I achieved a WEEKLY mileage the other week that was greater than the average DAILY mileage we'll be doing... then my longest ride was last Thursday, 35 miles including city centre, a long stretch of canal towpath, and a visit to a Roman hillfort. (2 herons, or one well-traveled one, an oystercatcher, some city-dwelling deer, and a robin were amongst the interesting encounters. Plus I passed the back of a footy stadium, a dumped motorcycle (in the canal), burnt out car, burnt out bike? and folk who knew how to give directions and those who did not...
Tonight (well last night since it's after midnight) I went out on the encouragement of my wonderful wife (she's good at spotting when I haven't been out for a while, and often I go for a short ride and end up staying out longer - which is probably a trial to her, especially when my phone GPS app eats all my battery and she has no way of knowing where or how I am!). I didn't go and find a big hill (as advised) due to lack of time/daylight but instead went on a sequence of little hills. A wee 10miler or so (it might have been more, I don't trust the GPS fully any more). Oh and my front light is out of battery so the last bit home was on the pavements.
Fundraising - well, my intended music night or nights never happened yet and there may be too many things going on when I come back to organise them then - but many people have been kind and generous, including both churches (who are making substantial donations from what they make at their May Fayres), both schools (one gave their Easter service offering to the Malawi fund, the other is planning something...), the local 50+ group held a bingo night, donations coming in from former churches where I was a student and where I grew up... I haven't done all the things I planned like writing to local businesses, apart from one which didn't reply; writing to local newspapers; and the funding source I applied to within the church, I wasn't eligible for as we are not visiting to establish a twinning (particularly - but it might be something to explore...). Even the 'former churches' idea I didn't specifically write to most of them but instead got a very nice write-up in the Presbytery newsletter which has stirred up some interest.
I have to confess I have still to get up to date with the funding totals but it's looking healthy, I just need to get it to EMMS - this week! I finally applied for travel insurance, to my own relief and that of the trip organiser.
And I cut it very fine to get my vaccinations (which I had done the research for in February!) but have had two sets (Rabies & Hep B) at the travel clinic (using the opportunity to bike into and/or out of Glasgow), one more to get tomorrow, er, later on today at the GP (Hep A & typhoid?) and then the final travel clinic set first thing ON THE DAY I LEAVE... oh yes, and the small matter of travel to Heathrow still to arrange. No doubt the cheapish train tickets I kept finding online but not booking will have gone. I hope I'm not going by megabus... I suppose I could bike it but would need to leave today!
My biggest fear is probably not actually being physically capable of doing a 50 mile day (ok so day 1 is more like 41 miles) and then another (55 miles) and another and another and another. Or of always being the slow one at the back. Or of looking like a rank amateur (am I supposed to be pedalling with the ball of my foot, not the instep? Am I always in the wrong gear?). On the plus side, I was loaned a 'Camelbak' (small backpack with water carrier and drinking tube) and can just about drink from it, while riding, without choking myself. Most of the time.
I've also had times when I had to fix a puncture in the field (ok it was one I had badly 'fixed' previously) and just tonight, had to put my chain back on (fortunately it was only off the front, not the derailleur). But we'll have mechanic-y types to help us anyway.
9 days and counting. I really need to sleep. Or pack. Or make lists. Or finish all the non-Malawi-related jobs that have been hanging around for a year, or months, or weeks....
As I re-read this, I'm thinking I may have forgotten that though I am a weak and feeble human, I have the heart and stomach of a king - no hang on, that was Queen Elizabeth I of England. Err, that although I am a weak and feeble human, I'm a servant of God and of Jesus and though I can't do this all in my own strength, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But I don't just want to be like the person who did no exam revision then prayed for help and inspiration the night before their finals.... (or was that me as well?)
If you have read this far through my late-night ramblings, well done! Can I encourage you, if you haven't donated and wish to do so (all costs are now covered so donations go straight into the Mulanje Mission Hospital primary care project for maternal & child health, HIV/AIDS prevention & care, including palliative care; nutritional and environmental health) that now would be a good time:
Dave's online giving page
Many thanks to all those who have given, on- or off-line - especially when you have done it anonymously so I can't thank you any other way!
To sleep, perchance to dream of pedalling...
*Based on the only reasonable definition of history: What You Can Remember
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