24.05.2011 EACH Ride for Life
Sunday, May 15th saw five members of the Orchard Toys staff cycling and walking around the Thetford Forest (Norfolk) area in aid of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (otherwise known as EACH) Ride for Life
Other than Ben, our Operations Manager, who is a keen cyclist and Alison from Sales, who cycles to work every day, none of us had done any serious training for the event. Take yours truly, for example, I had only been on my cycle three times this year !
We all set forth in high spirits, Ben with his wife, and young children, Evan and Evie in tow, Sally, our Sales Admin Manager and her husband, Lynda (me, Marcoms Manager) and my partner to tackle the 10 miles off road, around the forest tracks. I had, cannily, packed lunch in case I needed an excuse to rest for 20 minutes !
The weather was perfect for a jolly cycle jaunt, warm with a light breeze, with a couple of very light showers en route that were most welcome on our hot, perspiring faces (well, my hot, perspiring face!)
To my surprise, I finished without the need to stop and take a break, and we sailed, well, not quite, over the finish line to collect our medals in around 1 hour 20 minutes.
Poor Sally and Martin, who started a bit before us, fell foul of a prankster who had changed directional arrows, so they followed the 25 mile off road route for a while and then ended up on a track that was heavy sand - not the best surface for cycles ! Needless to say, they finished in fine fettle having done two or three miles more than the rest of us, because of their enforced detour !
Alison stoically picked the 19 miles road route which she completed in good time with her two teenage children.
Not wanting to be left out, our MD Simon, and his good lady wife, chose the 3 mile forest walk with their dog Maisie.
Sadly, despite the best laid plans, we were not all together at any one time for a group photo.
Between us, we managed to raise £150, have a lot of fun and determined to return next year, when we will hope to raise lots more money for such a very worthwhile cause!
