Journey’s End

Ride & Stride – Day 9: Thursday 15 September – EVANTON to INVERNESS (58 miles)

Breakfast today was leisurely, and for me a later start, in the camper-van with Julian, accompanying the runners to their start point at Balblair on the north coast of the Black Isle. The cyclists had already departed, from Evanton, on what was to prove their longest sector, 55 miles, around the Black Isle, via Cromarty, and into Inverness in the late afternoon.

Keeping ahead of the runners we drove into Cromarty for a leisurely coffee and cake; this is getting to be too much like a holiday today, at least for some of us! But I did then complete a three-mile walk out of the town, along the coast, and up onto Blue Head in time to see the runners complete their ten-miler. Their sense of achievement was palpable, and it was quite a privilege to witness their emotions at completing the challenge. Very well done indeed to Jeff, to Lesley and to Emma – the culmination of many weeks and months of dedicated training!

Then it was back in the camper-van for the drive into Inverness and to our overnight stop, The Blackfriars Hotel. In the bar Julian and I met up with another old schoolfriend, Rob, who has come up to join us for the finish of Ride & Stride and our ‘R&S Gala Dinner’ tonight. You may recall that Rob and I completed the Coast to Coast walk across northern England earlier in the year, and it is in his honour that the Ride & Stride team are raising funds for Parkinson’s UK. Together we walked the short distance to the bridge below the Castle in the centre of Inverness to see the cyclists home, after another 55 miles, for the completion of our Ride & Stride challenge around the NC500. What a huge achievement by Phil (King of the ascents), by James (King of the descents) and by Peter, whose level demeanour and good humour kept us all on the straight and narrow throughout our NC500 experience. Just brilliant guys, well done indeed!

To the whole team, thank you for a wonderful ten days, and for a memorable experience that will live long in the memory. We set out to raise awareness and some funds for three wonderful charities, Cancer Research UK, Mind and Parkinson’s UK, and to fulfil our own personal challenges, whilst having some fun and creating memories; well we did all that, and some! Well done team! So tonight we celebrated in the Blackfriars bar, then at the excellent Mustard Seed restaurant, before a nightcap in the Black Isle Brewery craft ale bar. Job well done, now time for bed.

Over the next few days on this page I will be chronicling our return home, and also I will put together a table of the facts and figures of our various cycling, running and walking efforts. So whilst we have reached the end of our NC500 road it is not quite the end of our Ride & Stride story.

Today’s Blog heading borrows the title from a 2004 song by Glasgow singer-songwiter Darius Danesh, usually known simply as ‘Darius’. His rise to relative fame in 2001/2002, after appearing in the first series of Pop Stars and then in the inaugural Pop Idol, culminated in his achievement of a self-penned UK No 1 hit, ‘Colourblind’. After recording two albums his varied career went on to include stints in opera and as an actor and film producer, before his premature death earlier this year at the tender age of 41 years.