TWO MORE SLEEPS

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail." ~ Charles F. Kettering


It’s now less than 48 hours until I’m on the road to Paris (43, actually, but hey I'm not counting). 
Day one – Wednesday – is 85 miles all the way from London to Dover, and after collapsing, gasping, on the deck of the Channel ferry, there’s another 9 miles at the other end to the hotel in Calais. (What, no transfer? Zut alors!)

Days 2, 3 and 4 are slightly shorter (so rumour has it, anyway) but then, not by much. Overall it’s Day 1 which is the most daunting, largely because we have the deadline of the ferry departure laying on the pressure. We set off at 7am and have to be in Dover by 5pm, all body parts and bicycle parts attached. (For those who have asked - anyone running late for the ferry will be swept up by the support vehicles, but I am determined this will not be my fate!) So in my mind, the other three days are going to be more manageable than the first. I am putting a LOT OF FAITH in that assumption. Gulp.

This weekend I took my bicycle out for a ride along the Regents Canal towpath on Saturday, just an easy 8 miles to stretch the legs and check everything’s still working (both on the bicycle, and my own aching frame). Other than that, the training is over. That’s it. I’m not going to be able to make myself any more READY than I am right now.

So for the next two days it’s just a case of trying to focus, making sure I have everything I need, and attempting to wrestle the butterflies in my stomach to the ground before they destroy me. Yes, I AM NERVOUS – but I guess these are largely nerves of excitement. It’s the feeling you get when you’re undertaking something quite huge, pushing your limits and not really knowing what you’ll be up against.

Actually, I must quote a line from Tim Moore’s book French Revolutions, where he decides, despite not being a cyclist or even owning a bike, to complete the Tour de France route. Someone tells him, "That's quite an undertaking" and Tim Moore decides this implies "that I would need quite an undertaker."

In fact Tim Moore’s book – recommended to me by someone awesome on Twitter (exactly who that was has escaped me, I'm sorry, but I did remember the book!) – has been a great and funny read so far (laughing in the face of FEAR, that's my strategy). This is a man who took on the Tour de France route, all steely roads and back-breaking climbs, and with only two weeks training. And on top of that the longest training ride he did was 20 miles. I’ve not finished the book so have no idea if he made it, but I do acknowledge that, given the publication of the book, he survived somehow. So there is hope for me yet!

Seriously though, I have complete faith in myself. I know I can do this. I will make it to Paris on two wheels, with only my legs and the power of positive thinking to move me forward. There will be pain and it will be a challenge. Just how painful and challenging it is… that we’ll find out in a couple of days.

Or rather, I'll find out, and you'll hear about it in sporadic, strained online commentary.