At 7:30am my dad and I set off on our bikes from Victoria Park in East London. We had begun our challenge to cycle 52 miles to Southend-on-Sea in support of the British Heart Foundation. Having completed the trip last year I was familiar with the route and challenged myself to improve on last years cycle time of nearly 4 hours.

Our first stop was at Stapleford Abbotts where we took on fuel in the form of a bacon sandwich. This provided a good energy source to power our legs up the hills and to avoid stopping again until Battle Bridge which was towards the end of our journey. Here it was a brief pit stop for water and to swap bikes. Up until now I had been riding furiously on a mountain bike to maintain a good pace but was outstripped by all the road bikes with slick tyres. For the last section we swapped bikes and soon realised the bike made a huge difference to our speed.

After riding for 3 and a half hours we glided down into Priory Park for the finish only to be greeted by a down pour.

Another successful time-beating trip that I have vowed to do again next year but perhaps with a road bike so I can break the 3 hour barrier.

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