As previously covered, my marriage ended earlier this year. The ensuing months have been hard, at times almost impossible but two things have kept me going. First and foremost is my children. Without them the whole thing would have been so much harder for me to deal with, they were my reason to get out of bed. Indeed, on days when they were at Chloe’s I often did stay in bed much of the day. They are amazing and wonderful and make me smile every day.

However this post is not about them, no matter how important their part in my life is. No, this comes back down to cycling (again).

Two days after Chloe moved out I went out on my first Sunday club run with Iceni Velo - despite having been a member since January I had never felt able to get out and leave Chloe early on a Sunday. That day I felt awesome, a feeling I didn’t think I’d feel so soon after everything had fallen apart. The sun shined, I had good company and rode a wonderful 50 miles. Since then I’ve ridden a hell of a lot more (over 2000 miles so far this year), made some good friends, had a lot of laughs and have started to feel like I have a social life and things to look forward to. Progress!

Along with all the numerous events tackled to date (the Norwich 100, the Boudicca sportive, the Lotus League etc.) I’m also going to be riding the Dunwich Dynamo with some of the club at the end of the month, and heading over to watch a stage of the Tour de France in early July with another group. Plus then it’s the Gas Hill Gasp on the 6th of July wherein I attempt to not fall off my bike in front of a couple of thousand people. I don’t stand a chance of winning but it should be an awesome night :)

I genuinely don’t know how I would have gotten through the past few months without my bike and the awesome people in the club. You know who you are, thank you.