to be honest with you i havent done shit since i talked to u last. I was hitting the gym regularly and giving the swimming a bash but then we went to that festival and it left me pretty fucked up for a while after. was Conor telling you about my epic journey at all? basically I got up Wednesday and cycled from here for about 15k to a train station cause the jerks wouldnt let me take my bike on the DLR. that slowed me down and i ended up missing the train to dover that i wanted to get so when i got the next one i got to dover late for the ferry i wanted so ended up getting to dunkirk 2 hours later than planned. i only had a shit google map of my journey from dunkirk to poperinge in belgium and I totally miscalculated how big dunkirk was. when i got off the boat I thought i would be in at the harbour right by dunkirk town centre but it turned out the harbour i got off at was 20km west of the town. there was no road signs and i ended up going 10k further west then had to swing around. i finally got to dunkirk town centre where i thought i was going to be at the start and i had already cycled 30k since the boat. i expected my journey from the boat to belgium to only be 35k so i was already wrecked and still hadnt started my journey. i had a massive ruck sack on my back and by now it was getting dark. i cycled in darkness down country roads through france and belgium ( which were savage by the way and i would love to do a better planned cycle on them someday cause they are so flat and have quality cycle lanes in the middle of nowhere) and finally got to the train station but i was about 3 hours too late for the last train so i had to set up camp on a green basically on a street. it was the worst sleep ever cause i was planning on buying a sleeping bag at the festival and my tent was shit. got up at 6 after a few hours shivering in my wet tent and got the train to the Hasselt.
The festival was savage but sure we boozed like crazy and basically ate nothing for 4 days. i got a couple of digs in the face from some belfast scumbag completely unprovoked one afternoon and bruised like a peach. typical, I boycott Oxegen cause can't stand the amount of scumbags at it (although I've never had any trouble there myself) and go all the way to Belgium only to be punched in the face by an Irish guy.
In Brussels awaiting train to Poperinge before doomed cycle to Dunkirk. Looking a lot healthier than I would be in a few hours time.
On the way back i thought i knew exactly where i went wrong and that i would have a much nicer journey back to dunkirk. i thought I just took a wrong turn when i got off the boat. so i got into the town after a nice 35k cycle through the countryside then i went to the harbour where i could see the ferries but my one wasnt there. it was 6.45 and my boat wasnt til 8 so i thought i had plenty of time but got a bit worried when i couldnt find my boat but then i saw a couple of signs for car ferry pointing west. i followed them for a while and they kept saying west forever. then they stopped. no more road signs, they just fucking stopped. had no idea where the fuck i was now so started to panic and starting flagging down cars. they were telling me it was much further west, i couldnt fucking believe it, i thought it was right in the town. finally someone gave me some good directions but i was running short on time. i was going down these roads that were completely flat and the scenery for miles was flat and the roads were about 3 miles long without a turn or anything of note so it was impossible to tell if i was going the right way, couldnt even see the sea anymore and it just felt like they were going on forever but i was proper running out of time so i was hitting like 35kph after i had already been cycling flat out for 2 hours without a bite to eat all day, but i was seriously going as fast as is physically possible for like half an hour flat out. I can still picture myself now standing up mashing on the pedals flying along singing fuck you very much by Lily Allen at the top of my voice. I finally made it to the boat and it’s a proper 20km from the town, thats such bullshit, its like going to Dublin port and the centre of town is in tallaght. they shouldnt be allowed call it dunkirk if its that far away.
anyway got on the boat and went to the jacks and i have never looked so bad in my life. My hair was soaked wit sweat under my helmet, i had a big dirty black eye, dirty face, heart was pumping out of my chest. i say i gave some of the kids on the boat nightmares that night. was a bit of a funny moment then after i washed my face i went to the buffet and got the biggest meal i will ever have in my life. it consisted of: a pint bottle of bulmers, a smoothie, bottle of water, a fish dinner, a 3 sausage dinner, shit loads of veg, roast spuds, boiled spuds, chips, a salad and a few condiments. i was getting through it fairly well but then a french girl sat across from me and i had to stop looking like a pig cause she was savage. we were talking in stops and starts for the journey and then i started getting the worst cramp ever. I've only gotten cramp once or twice and could usually shake it off but this was unbearable. one second i was talking to her trying to get good conversation going and then bam! both my legs would freeze up and id be writhing around in agony. she didnt know what to do but it just wouldnt shake off. it kept happening the whole way home, was fucking embarrassing.
then i got to dover and raced to the train station and just made the last train. that left me in kings cross and trust fuckin london it was pissing down rain, i mean torrential. i was going all over the place trying to get trains or on a bus cause i really didn’t want to cycle but they wouldn't let me on with the bike. i ended up cycling miles out of my way for a train that i just missed so cycled the whole way home. got home at 1am. all in all it was 185 km of cycling and about 9 hours in total over the weekend. needless to say i didnt look at my bike for a couple of weeks after that and i was just generally in bits, only really getting over it about a week ago cause i got a real bad flu after. really enjoying the cycles to work these days though. Its only 7.7k each way but its good, i go over london bridge and can see the sun coming up over tower bridge, its pretty sweet. just thinking about it over the last hour i really want to do the race. i mean a 13 mile run is definitely do able in a good time. the bike will be easy enough, i know it sounds like my cycling is shit but i had the rucksack on my back and didnt know where i was going in darkness. there were parts of that journey where i was nailing it. its just a matter of getting the swimming going and puttin the effort in and keep talkin to u and conor cause im getting lazy when i dont think about it for a while. il have to have a think about it tomorrow. mail me back in work, im still in that place for another while yet. il decide tomorrow maybe, hopefully theres still spots left for me. il reply to your other mails soon too.
later
later
