Over the summer we ( BikeDemCrew) have been clocking up the miles on our road bikes, breaking out of our London commute routes and going on long distance journeys. The outings have been testing our endurance and stamina in view of the ultimate challenge of an overnight ride from East London to the Suffolk Coast known as The Dunwich Dynamo. This 120 mile nocturnal annual event draws London cycling enthusiasts to come together to race thru the night with lights twinkling in line along country lanes with pit stops at pubs along the way. I love a challenge so I signed up and naively turned up amongst the lycra-clad, clip-pedalled professionals. What was to follow became a 14 hour trek thru the night, seeing in sunrise, absorbing a Noah's ark amount of rain, losing circulation in my hands from the cold and many, many moments of crisis before finally arriving at the beach feeling so ecstatic to be stationary. Bizarrely I won out on having a bum of steel as the only fool from our entire crew who rode without any padding - shorts or saddle. But whatever remarkable talent I had for continued positive mental attitude to keep pushing forwards and summoning the sun out from the clouds .......... I was very low in the talent of actual peddle prowess ............ I got cages put on my peddles the day of the race and had never practised! So there I was cycling in the pitch black night, not being able to see my feet to get them into the strapped peddles. I nearly fell off so many times I was totally terrified and wondered why on earth I had ended up in this ridiculous position. But then, after losing everyone and just about managing to hold back the tears, I turned the corner and there they were. That is why I love our RunDem family and our united CrewLove. That and the characters who comprise this community who absolutely crack me up and it's in that united humour that got us thru the hours and hours and hours of winding roads. By the end we had certainly got to know each other a whole lot better than when we set off - like some survival challenge we clubbed together to help each other thru - waiting for each other to pee and literally taking the piss out of each other - especially Peigh's crepe protection technique of taping Sainsbury's bags over his flyknits.
After the tastiest bacon and egg butty I have ever inhaled and a dip in the ice cold North sea to soak our tortured calf muscles, we got on a coach back to London and passed out on each other's shoulders. If anyone is reading this as research on what the hell the Dunwich Dynamo is all about, then I would say = I totally recommend it, just get EVERYTHING waterproofed and be TOTALLY at one with you bike before tackling this insane test!! Sure there are jokers doing this on penny-farthings, Boris bikes and tandems but it is NO JOKE!!!!!!!! You'll need some jokes to get thru!!!!
Big Ups Clarence for organising this mission and thanks to his mum for driving the lorry of our bikes back!
