Dragon Devil - Cycling 305km with 4500m ascent in 12hrs 15min

Hi Steemians! I want to share with you a big cycling challenge I did 3 years ago that I'm proud about and tell you how it all came about. It is called the Dragon Devil and its one of the rides available on the Dragon sportive held each year in the beautiful and hilly countryside of South Wales. Looking back now it still seems pretty incredible that I managed to complete this ride and in a relatively quick time for an amateur who'd only been cycling seriously for 3 years.

Just finished, and can still stand up, just about!

The gps track of my route recorded on Strava (https://www.strava.com/activities/320941936)

As with so many of these type of things it was really through being introduced by friends that I became 'into' cycling. A friend was clocking up some serious miles on his bike and commuting 20km to work each day so that by his example I saw that I could do the same! This could be the answer to getting out of the car and away from traffic jams and enjoying my commute to work whilst also keeping fit! Until this point I was an occasional cyclist on my mountain bike and thought a ride of 40km on the weekend with a pub lunch was a full day event!

So it was that I started cycling the 17km to work each day and 17km home again. Initially I was doing it once or twice a week but as my fitness improved I started cycling most days even through the darkness of the British winter with suitable lights and reflective clothing. It was such a pleasure to be freed from the commute by car and make something out of all that lost time. By car the 17km could take between 20 minutes and 50 minutes as we lived on the outskirts of London and there could always be a random traffic jam. By bike the commute would take between 30 minutes and 45 minutes depending on the wind direction so it really wasn't taking me much longer at all. I was fortunate that my commute passed through one of the largest parks in London, Richmond Park, which was a mecca for cyclists and is also renowned for its herds of deer (as an aside google 'fenton richmond park' for a funny viral video!). So you see my commute was very interesting and allowed me plenty of opportunity for regular training.

As my cycling improved so I became interested in taking part in organised events and seeing how I compared to other cyclists out there. I also found strava and was instantly addicted. Strava is an app that allows you to log your rides with GPS and to compete virtually with other people riding the same routes as you but at different times. Its a hugely popular app that started out for cycling but has since expanded to other sports as well. Any user of Strava can mark a segment on a ride they have done and Strava will create a leader board for that segment against all other users also cycling that segment. The position of 'king of the hill' meaning top of the leader board is highly contested and hugely coveted!

I took part in a number of long events in 2013 and 2014 from 80km to 200km. In UK there are plenty of events that you can take part in every weekend except for through the winter. Sometime around the start of 2015 my friend suggested that we do the Dragon Devil ride and although I was a bit daunted by the distance at first I was soon persuaded. I knew that I would need to do plenty of training on longer rides in addition to keeping up with commuting and I would also need to eat well and sleep well!

About 1 month before the ride my friend let me know he was dropping out... he'd been running too much and had got shin splints! So I was left with a decision of whether to carry on on my own. After all this training there was no doubt in my mind I was going to do this!

We made a weekend of it and booked a nice hotel fairly close to the start of the race that had a nice spa pool to relax in once the cycling was done. My partner @bread-and-butter would be taking part in the cycling too but on the 40km distance. Her ride would be starting a few hours after mine so she had time to drop me off at the start line ready for a dawn start and go back to the hotel for a few hours more snooze!

What can I tell you about the ride itself? Well it was epic, it was a trial, there was the most beautiful country, the weather was gorgeous and not too windy and no rain (rare in Wales!). I think I drank in the region of 8 Litres of water adding a tablet of electrolytes to each one. I had made a tonne of special high energy granola bars with oats, chocolate, raisins, nuts, and golden syrup. I started eating as soon as we got on the bikes aware that I needed to keep up the energy levels for the long haul. My plan was to eat a piece of the granola every 20 minutes and even though they were delicious at the start I can tell you that they soon were taking a lot of chewing in a dry mouth to make them go down! The ride was amazing and extraordinarily tough at the same time. There is a real pleasure of cycling with so many other people and most people are happy for a bit of a chat along the way. Often you can get into a group and then it is a bit easier tucked in behind other cyclists, but you have to take your turn at the front every now and again.

There are food and toilet stops posted around the route but it pays to not stop for too long if you want to make it back before nightfall!

The route was hilly throughout the day with a total ascent of 4500m adding all the uphills together. Cresting the final big hill before the long descent to the finish in Port Talbot was an amazing feeling and worthy of a short stop to admire the view, stretch the muscles a little bit, and let the heart beat pounding in my ears subside a little bit. Still there was about 20km to the finish from here but it was mostly down hill and at this point I knew I'd make it back before dark!

@bread-and-butter met me at the finish line and gingerly helped me get out of the saddle without falling over. She had finished her ride hours before and spent the afternoon in the spa! I was so happy to see her and feeling totally exhausted but happy with my achievement that I'd done what I set out to achieve. No world records here but a personal record for me that I'd worked hard for and that I felt proud of.

I hope my little story here is an inspiration for you to pump up your bike tyres, oil the chain, and go out for a nice little roll around your local area. There is no more civilised and pleasurable mode of transport than the good old bicycle!

this picture I think captures best how I felt after finishing - a happy wreck!