The day before.

It is the afternoon of the day before and only now am I heading off to Reading to practice getting through the town as fast as possible. I’ve heard there are road works which I will need to negoiate somehow.
I had planned an early morning trip but finalising last minute details, distribution of the food to the feeders etc took much longer than anticipated.
There is no good place for a feed after East Kennet, several hours from the finish. All the other feeds are on hills where I hate to say it my pace will be slower. The club, Dulwich Paragon, have arranged a ride especially around my attempt. They will be at Hyde Park Corner and 6.00am to hand me my first bottle and then ride to Thatcham. Where I will have a club member at every set of traffic lights. Knowing the odds on all of being green, I will be handed a bottle without losing anytime.
The ride through Reading is okay, bar the roadworks. Cars crawl through it and the temporary lane is too narrow to squeeze a bike past. It will lose me minutes.
I drive back home and the traffic is awful. Then I see why. The A4 is closed at Earls Court and all the traffic is being diverted.
I text Patrick straight away, this could be the end of it.
May be it would be for the best, maybe I am wasting everyone’s time. May be I’m making an excuse to get of this hole.
I talk to Patrick’s house and he is going to check the diversion route. My Dad thinks I should go anyway having invested so much but also makes it clear I need to let everyone know asap if I’m pulling out.
I get a call from Brian Edrupt of the RRA, he confirms that I’m allowed to deviate from my schedule due to diversions so technically I can still make the attempt. I then get a call from Ralph Dadswell, he thinks the closure is only one way and I get the impression this is all part of Place to Place racing, it is certainly not an excuse.
I go to Patrick’s house and have a chat, I leave agreeing to let him know what I decide as soon as possible.
I mull it over. I sit on my own in the living room, my Dad and family in the kitchen. I’ve had doubts before now. This is a big undertaking anyway but to put out so many people adds to the pressure. Do I want to take a big fall?
I pick up my phone and text Patrick, ‘Let’s do it’.

Before long my Dad and I are walking with the bikes round to Patrick’s house where we have all decided to sleep after double checking everything.