Hi,
My name is Donald Edwards from Edinburgh in Scotland. I am 42 years old and work as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and part-time lecturer. I hope to ride the full route of the 2013 Tour de France, the 100th Edition of the race. I will be doing this one week ahead of the professionals, starting in Corsica on the 22nd June and ending in Paris on the 14th July, some 3360km later. It is going to be a huge challenge for me.
I do not describe myself as a cyclist, even when I did commuted every day and generally used my bike a lot more I did not describe myself as one. Nowadays I don’t get the opportunity to get out on my bike as much as I’d like. So why am I undertaking a challenge such as riding over 2000 miles in 21 days?
I am now 42 and over the last few years I had really let myself slip in fitness to the point that at the beginning of June 2012 I weighed 121kg. Something had to be done and I started eating better and exercising more. I booked a trip to walk the Inca Trail in Peru in October 2012 to give myself a target. By the start of my trip I was down to 99kg, even my doctor was suitably impressed. Walking the Inca Trail, particularly the events on the final day to Machu Picchu, made me realise how well I can push myself when I set my mind to it.
This got me thinking about health and fitness again but I realised also that there is nothing like a target to really focus your efforts. So this year is to be my year of challenges;
- Inferno Downhill Ski Race : The world’s longest and oldest downhill ski race, taking place in January at Murren, Switzerland. My good friend Alan & I are two of 1800 competitors taking part in the 70th running of the race. I was meant to do this in 2011 but a knee problem prevented me from doing so.
- Tour de Force 2013: I am a ‘lifer’, meaning that I am doing the whole Tour de France route, described as being the toughest of the modern era. This is obviously my main challenge for the year and will require several smaller challenges as part of my training for it.
- Lifeguarding Qualification : I used to work as a lifeguard and first qualified to do so when I was 18. In 2013 I will be 43, 25 years since I first qualified. I want to see if I can still do this, 25 years on!
I hope to keep up with this blog to record not only the Tour de Force 2013 ride itself but also what will be a very tough 6 or so months preparation. I will also be raising money for a very worthwhile charity, the William Wates Memorial Trust who help disadvantaged young people. I hope that you are able to support this good cause and add an extra dimension to my challenge.
Donald