A packing story
“John I’ve got to stop!” I shouted as the pain in my neck stabbed me again. We rolled to a halt about 2 miles outside Cawdor near Inverness. It was just before 7 am and I had not slept for over 24 hours. I had completed 1182 km of the 1408 km of the LEJOG 1400 Audax event in 96 hours and there was 226km and 20 hours and forty minutes to go. I was exhausted and struggling to hold my head up riding the bike. John Watt and I had been cycling together since 10pm the previous evening when we left Braemar as darkness was descending. The organiser had encouraged us to ride together for safety’s sake and we both readily agreed to that. We had cycled and walked over the four long climbs including the infamous Lecht with its gradients of over 20%. John had been a great riding companion. The sun was now beginning to warm us. The intermittent pain in my neck had started to get worse when left the Braemar control. I had taken a tablet of paracetamol to dull it, but I did not want t...