Category:
Other
Created: 21 September 2006
It had been months in the planning; The Aviva Weekend to Breakthrough Breast Cancer needed out-riders to act as saftey marshals, so Barro, along with help from MacP and MattCBF600 took up the challange and got into talks with the organisers to have LB as the marshalls. Talks went on, details fleshed out, support corraled from the community and then the weekend came for about twenty of LB's finest.
A five am start at Greenwich Park on Saturday the 16th saw us meet up, get briefed, fed and set-up for the day ahead. We saw the walkers of the 60km (over two days) walk off at the exit to the park, rode ahead of them to various checkpoints to help the walkers know where to go, ensure the road was a safe place for them to cross in large numbers and help with any other problems via our two response bikes ridden by Charlie Keller and Trojan.
A very, very long day ensued, but everyone had fun, some troubles were had with bike batteries failing, parking tickets and engines overheating, but we got through it and by the end of the day we were starving and shattered, but upon entering Finsbury Park, we were cheered and saluted by all the walkers and staff, which was an awe-inspiring experience! Some food, drink, showers and jokes were had before a sleep in our pink tents, then up at six am (some earlier) again to do it all over again! Another long day with even better times had, then a huge celebration at the end when we got back to Greenwich Park with the walkers.
The celebration there was incredible; we paraded in, beeping horns, rev'ing engines and were treated like kings and queens with the walkers and staff cheering us on. We dismounted, were cheered some more during the staff presentation then we lead the run up to the stage where the organisers were holding a closing ceremony. The speech brought tears to all our eyes, and once on stage we had time to ponder the weekend we'd just been through and the hardships and heart-ache that the walkers had suffered personally or indirectly because of Breast Cancer. We were all humbled! What an absolutely incredible weekend! LB did so well and got nothing but the utmost level of praise and thanks from everyone involved, and we weren't even the ones doing the walk!
Details of a full write-up to follow soon. For now, here's the pictures:
Related LinksForum discussion for thanks by the walkers
