Nina skates from London to Brighton in 5 hrs 40 minutes in aid of the British Heart Foundation
London to Brighton on rollerblades! Wow! What an amazing experience. This is without a doubt the best thing I have ever done on skates. We stayed over at a friends Jules’ house in Tooting the night before and after a big breakfast, had planned to take the tube to Clapham Common but as we walked out we saw the bikes passing so we decided to join them. Me Faris and Jules stuck together for a long while and then met up with Dylan and Maria and Amy, fellow inline skaters. Faris set off on his own going a bit faster than the rest of us. We lost Maria and Amy early on and skated at a moderate pace for two hours before our first stop. I had prepared and had a bottle of orange juice/ water 50-50 which was excellent and this fruity malt bread that LS Mike reccomended. As I was wearing all black I felt a bit like a short haired Laura Croft and soon had my own fan-club! :0) The first stop I was desperate for coffee and a pee and I also had a scone with marmalade. We stopped there for about 20 minutes which was too long and as we set off again I noticed that I had lost my rhythm (but quickly got it back). The scone was like a stone in my belly so my advice on endurance events like this is don’t eat. The weather was glorious and the cyclists very very friendly! They were amazed at our efforts. To be honest I didn’t get tired I just really loved it. Didn’t listen to any music
at all, just the birds and talking to my friend Jules and the lovely cyclists – who were absolutely amazed to be overtaken by a tucking girl on skates down the hills, amazed and very impressed! Fun! And my god the hills man!
There were stops all along the way and we stopped again for a quick pee and coffee and refill the water where we caught up with Quentin and LS Mike. The mountain at the end was the most incredible challenge ever (Bitchy Beaken I think its called??) I just kept going, up and up and up and up and up and up, one step at a time, keep going, keep going, up and up and up and up, people were dropping off like flies and I just kept going, it was an incredible challenge and stopping was just not an option. On the top I felt sooo good about myself. I knew it was all mental, and I realised that I hadn’t had one single negative thought during the whole trip from London and that I was ON TOP OF THE WORLD AND THE REST WAS ALL DOWNHILL.
Read it a bit like a metaphor for life I guess.
Bumped into Mike and Quentin again on the top and chilled with them For a while. The down hill down into Brighton I guess really separated the men from the boys and the girls from the … At first it’s really sweet and nothing and then all of a sudden its this massive drop! Aaaaaaaaargh – thank god for heel breaks! :0)
What was really great about the whole day was that all the way I stayed within my limits and made progress at a comfortable and enjoyable pace. We kept pace by being able to have a conversation at the same time (except for up hill of course) and that really made sense and we still completed it in 5 hours 40 minutes!
Compared to what seems to have been an average of 7 hours for most skaters I feel great about my time. And I have the feeling now that if I can skate from London to Brighton I can do anything! My next challenge, if I get permission, is London to Paris for the British Lung Foundation.
