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31. One Week in June - published 15.09.2013

This blog was first published in September 2013. 

In early June 2013 I entered a 7 day period of the biggest physical challenge of my life.

Back in September 2012 I had signed up to compete in the Outlaw Half Iron Man Triathlon and was targeting this as my biggest event of the year. On it's own this was a big deal but I had already done a similar distance event before and performed quite well so was very confident that I could put together a plan and complete the event pretty well.

In December 2012 my friend and colleague Andy Legg asked if I would become involved in a 24 hour bike ride from Manchester to London to raise money for The Karen Green Foundation and Bridge2Aid. These are the charities that we support in the practice and as I am a trustee of KGF I really wanted to be involved. The trouble was that the 24 hour bike ride was 6 days following The Outlaw Triathlon which meant it was going to be a pretty hellish week. I thought about it alot and spoke to my coach Steve Lloyd and my super physio Carl Dunstan and we decided it would be possible one way or another to make it through the week. So at 6.44am on the 2nd June the airhorn blew and I started the swim at The Outlaw Half Triathlon. 5 hours and 1 minute later I crossed the line with 2 of my 3 children beside me having completely exceeded my expectations and posting a qualification time for the age group GB team for long course triathlon. It was a fantastic and amazing day shared with my whole family including my mum and dad and many friends that were present around the course. It was the day that I became a triathlete and was happy to call myself a triathlete. It helped to accumulate more than £2000 of money raised the KGF this year for which I am truly grateful but only after the race was finished did the real work begin.

I had planned everything to peak for that race and peak it did. I was in the best shape I have been for 25 years, rested , relaxed and really ready to go. It was now time to try and recover for 6 days later and we would all meet at the Velodrome in Manchester to cycle 250 miles in 24 hours to London.

Without the advice of Steve Lloyd and in particular Carl Dunstan I would never have made that. I saw Carl on 2 occasions that week and followed his advice of 'not doing nothing' I cycled and swam a little bit everyday.

On Saturday 8th June I arrived at the Velodrome in Manchester to meet up with the rest of the team of 19 guys to begin what became the greatest individual physical challenge of my life.

The ride itself was amazing, sharing the experience with another 150 cyclists and cycling in 6 stages from the Velodrome in Manchester to very near the Olympic Velodrome in London. It was made all the more special by the support car we took with us containing Stuart Reekie (wonder photographer) Carl Dunstan (Super physio) and my Dad and infact the support car became a lifesaver for many of us at it stopped inbetween stages and gave us a target to hit at approximately every 20 miles.

Everybody had their highs and lows through that 24 hour period. I was amazingly strong for about 180 miles but at 2.30am in the morning as I stopped at the support car with flashing lights in my peripheral vision super physio Carl told me that I was likely hyper glycemic from taking on too many carbs and I would have to burn them off without eating anything for the next couple of hours. That resulted in me hitting rock bottom in Marlow, outside of London where as the sun came up at approximately 4.30am and I sat on a pile of catalogues outside a shop in the main street beside our support car and decided that I had had enough and would have to put the bike on top of the car.

I was saved by a Cadburys Caramel and the inspiration of the guys around me who were keeping going and I got back on my bike and carried on overcoming my crisis and finishing at Hackney Marshes with Andy Legg at about 10.20am on Sunday morning. I think everybody who rode that race found out alot about themselves and took a huge amount of pride in what we had achieved.

For my part I would like to thank Andy Legg to convincing me to become involved. All of the guys who rode the ride for the inspiration they gave and the stories they told. The super amazing support team of Stuart Reekie, Carl Dunstan and my Dad Neil Campbell. My wife and family for putting up with all of the madness in the lead up to the biggest physical week in my life.

Blog post number: 1531

Ps. Coming up in June we welcome Jason Smithson to Nottingham for a 2 day Hands on Advanced Composite Course. We're really excited to launch this with Jason and want to make sure you know where the info is in case you are interested! So for the next week or so you can find more info by following this link!