Gwen’s Story (2006)

Hi, I’m Gwen and I’ve been a member of Essex Roads for a whole year now! How did I get involved? Well, I’ve always liked riding my bike but hadn’t really ridden for a few years as I’d been rather busy working and looking after a young family. One day I decided that enough was enough and it was about time my poor old bike came out of the shed for some fresh air. I asked someone who I knew was ‘into’ cycling whether there were any good places to ride round Leigh and he invited me to join him and a couple of others on Sunday morning. Slightly nervous of not being able to keep up or stay the distance, I went – and had a FANTASTIC time! That was the end of my Sunday morning lie-ins!

After a while a very sad thing happened – the bike shop declared it to be impossible to patch up my trusty steed any more (it hadn’t done badly as I’d had it about 22 years!) Oh well, a good excuse to buy a new bike – so off to the bike shop I went. My new bike was yummy – took a bit of getting used to, having had the old one for so long, but it felt good. I was still going out on Sunday mornings with Stuart and the gang, and then Stuart invited me to the Boxing Day Time Trial with a group called the Essex Roads Cycling Club – I’d never done anything like that before but I loved it, so when April came and the Time Trial season started, I was there with my application form and membership fees! It was a bit daunting at first; especially being the only female a lot of the time, but everyone made me feel really welcome and was very encouraging.

It took me the first couple of weeks to get to know the courses and learn to ride them, and then I spent the rest of the season improving my times. What I liked about it was that I was competing against myself rather than others – it didn’t matter if others could get round ten or fifteen minutes quicker than me, no-one snubbed me because I was slower than them, and if I managed to beat anyone, then that was a bonus! Most weeks I beat my previous best time, and I got such a sense of achievement from that.

Having done a season of Time Trials I then joined the Turbo Training through the winter which was a whole new experience but which, again, I thoroughly enjoyed. Back into the Time Trial season I’m now reaping the rewards of the hard work through the winter – I’ve already taken 1½ minutes off my best 10 miles time of last year!!!! Everyone at the club has been really helpful, and there is a really good atmosphere on a Wednesday night at Hanningfield. We’ve now got three female members so I’m hoping not to be on my own quite so often this year! Here’s me having just finished my Turbo session looking a bit hot under the collar. Turbo is great for improving your pedal speed, technique and endurance which are great building blocks for good cycling.

With my new found fitness I decided that in the summer of 2006 I would do something awesome – to ride 100 miles in a day. My opportunity arose on 11^th June at the Life 6 event run by Essex Roads and the Orchid Cancer Appeal. When I got there I couldn’t believe the number of riders at the start line – and most of them are local to Billericay where the event was held. See if you can spot me amongst the starters in the photo.

It was a great ride round and with the route card issued I didn’t get lost. I can’t say the ride was easy but I made it in good time – and what an achievement. Here’s me with my medal and certificate of proof!

So, what next? Essex Roads is a great club to be in and we now have a growing band of women in it. If you want to accomplish great stuff then Essex Roads is the club for you. I can recommend it!