I’ve worked with Charles, a colleague at Investec Bank, for a number of years. Charles has Motor Neurone Disease (MND). I've watched him slowly degrade from a fit, healthy man to a man unable to walk and talk and enjoy many of life’s basic qualities. Last year he had to stop working even though his brain was still brilliant. There are many famous people you may know who’ve had it too from Stephen Hawking, David Niven and Doddy Weir (the Rugby player). As part of desire to help Charles leave a legacy I've driven fund raising at Investec for MNDA, the charity trying to crack the genetic code to solve MND. A code that scientists think they’re very closely to cracking. However, the tables have been turned on me… and I've been challenged to raise money myself and do a physical challenge beyond my comfort zone. To date I've just been getting everyone else to do it! It’s been 12 years since I ran the marathon or as some people would say it’s been 12 years since I last did any exercise! This time I am giving cycling a go and have officially become a MAMIL (middle aged man in Lycra I've recently found out). Up step the Dartmoor Classic Sportive.  As the old adage goes… it’s just like riding a bike, but this time it’s over very steep hills with an elevation gain of 6,191 feet and over 67 miles of beautiful Dartmoor countryside and their very steep Tors. To put that elevation gain into perspective, Mount Snowdon is 3,560 feet and Ben Nevis is 4,411 feet. It’s going to be painful! Some of those hills are steep, very steep (max gradient 20%). Some places are steeper than Swains Lane in Highgate (if you don’t know it, it’s extremely steep). The average time for the course is over 5.5 hours… I am expecting (or have been told to expect) approx. 7.5 hours. To date, I’ve been training… who knew riding a bike was that hard. I’ve no stabilisers, my feet don’t touch the ground, my feet are clipped into the bike itself and I've never sat on a less comfortable seat in my life. Falling over has become the norm! But I've been putting in miles and time but now need your help to provide the incentive to go for it. Anything you can do to help and support is greatly appreciated not just for my own encouragement and incentive to do well but more for a really important cause. Thanks so much for reading (and hopefully supporting!)
 p.s. who knew Lycra could be so comfortable ;-)