28th September

So it's getting towards midnight on Thursday night and Mum and Kimberly are planning on heading out very early to complete their challenges; Mum has 60 lengths to do, Kimberly has 3.09 miles to run, and I have 15.85 miles to cycle.

I suspect Kimberly will get up extra early to finish hers first despite insisting she will start at a time to make it competitive so I decide to employ underhand tactics for the win and go out now!

By the time I'm organised and ready It is 12:30am on Friday morning the 28th.

I set off and get down the road and round the corner before I realise I haven't got my helmet on and after a brief thought of carrying on anyway I decide not to and head back to get it.

As its the middle of the night I'm limited by where I can ride, I don't really fancy pitch black country roads so I have to stick to Yeovil. As this was to be my last ride I wanted to break my top speed of 33.8mph so I cycle down Bunford Hollow. As I'm heading down the unlit road with only a small front headlight I become aware and concerned about hitting a badger or pot hole that I can't see so I abort the speed attempt and proceed with caution. The first loop of Yeovil - along Preston road, back through town, and along Lysander road puts about 7 miles on the track, only about 11 more to go. Along the way I pass several staggering people on the way to or from pubs and clubs, one of which looks like he is stepping into the road towards me but who I manage to swerve around at speed.

As I pass a set of traffic lights my front light vibrates off its mounting and explodes into pieces as it hits the floor. I pick up the bits and it looks like the base has snapped so I stuff it in my saddle bag and proceed without a front light. Later inspection reveals that it hasn't actually broken but the vibration must have loosened the retaining screw.

The second loop of Yeovil is shorter as I don't go right down into town but still leaves me with 5 or so miles so I head for a third loop and victory. Somewhere along the ride I begin to get quite emotional thinking about why we are doing this challenge and the money we are raising for the very important cause. Winning seems to become less important than finishing and somehow having Mum and Kimberly wake up tomorrow to find that I have stolen the win seems to lose all its appeal. As I head home I hatch a plan to finish my ride just short of the 300 miles and leave the win to one of the others. I allow the GPS to register 15.35 miles - exactly 0.5 miles short of my 300th mile and stop the clock. I still have to cycle the last few hundred yards home but it was certainly less than the half a mile I needed.

I went to sleep but I set an alarm early enough so that I could get up and be at the swimming pool to meet Mum and Kimberly when they finish - Kimberly had agreed to finish her last 3 miles there as well. Dad came with me and we took a few balloons with the Royal Marsden cancer charity logo on them to celebrate the finish. When we got to the pool there was no sign of Mum in the water so she must have already finished and was getting changed. As we waited balloons in hand Kimberly ran to the finish line having run around in circles in the car park for the last few hundredths of a mile to get the exact distance she needed. We all went to the changing room and called out to Mum who came out of the cubicle wrapped in a towel to be greeted by the three of us with congratulations and balloons! It turned out that Mum had finished her last length at just after 7:45 am less than 10 minutes before Kimberly so to her delight she was the first person over the finishing line, closely followed by Kimberly. My last half a mile will be done on Sunday, the last day of the month and I'm yet to decide whether I will literally cycle just that half a mile or whether I will combine it with a normal length ride. One idea is to complete the same route as I did on the 1st of September which is about 12 miles I think. It will be interesting to see how much quicker I do it?

So apart from my last half mile, we've all but finished our challenges I set us at the start of the month and I am proud of each of us. Mum has done amazingly well to swim the equivalent of the English Channel - 21 miles - as she keeps pointing out, she's 68!!! One day saw her swim 64 lengths, get out for a coffee while the pool closed then get back in for another 60 lengths once they reopened. Considering her first swim many months ago was just 20 lengths she has come far - both figuratively and literally!

Kimberly also has done absolutely brilliantly, this whole challenge started after I was inspired by her own challenge to run 50 miles last month which she did so to do another 80 this month including one run of 10 miles is awesome.

I'm also very proud of my own achievement of 300 miles (well 299.5 so far) this month as the last time I was on a bike was a year ago and then all I did was three rides of 5, 6, and 10 miles. I know to a seasoned cyclist doing 300 miles in a month is easy but for my fitness level before I started this challenge it was adequate! All in all I've spent about 24 hours on the bike this month and I definitely feel better for it. My legs definitely feel stronger and my cardio fitness has definitely improved. Someone once told me, or I read a quote somewhere that "cycling doesn't get easier, you just get faster" which is so true. The hills at the end of the month still seem just as hard as the ones at the start of the month but my ability to climb them and the pace I ride is getting better. I hope to carry on cycling as I've got a good foundation to better fitness I just hope the weather allows it as we head towards winter. I also need a complete service on the bike, I think I shocked it this month doing 300 miles as its spent the last decade resting easy in the garage! In fact I think I've probably done more miles on it this month than all the miles it's ever done before - maybe not but it could be close! It's creaking a bit here and there and the crank click with every rotation so I think I'll send it to Tri-UK for a well deserved overhaul!

I can't finish this post without mentioning the absolutely mind blowing generosity of everyone who has sponsored us. At the time of writing we have raised £1,515 for the Royal Marsden and Smiler's Foundation which is amazing. We've still got a few people who have pledged their support so I'm sure that total will rise further and I can't thank everyone enough.

I'll post again when I finish my last ride on Sunday, I'm playing golf in the morning and watching the Ryder Cup in the afternoon but I have a window in between to get on the bike.