Relay Riders ride done - what next?
In my last post, I made mention that I was taking part in the annual Relay Riders around the UK trip in aid of DocBike & Lia's Wings . A ride that quite literally went around all of the UK (including N. Ireland) and ended back in Goole last Saturday (20th July).
In total, I rode twice - once on Monday afternoon from Cheshire Oaks to Northwich and then from Formby to Blackburn (via both fire stations in Warrington, Tesco in Wigan and McDonalds at the top of Dingle). In total, I rode almost 300 miles. The first day the weather was great and the second, well I soaked to the skin before my first leg had even started. It doesn't matter, the cause was a great one.
What really struck me though was not so much how much money was raised (it was a tidy sum) but what people are prepared to do for free. No one took a penny for this. Not a rider, not the controllers, not the support vehicles, no-one took or charged anything for it.
Now think about this. The circumference of the UK is roughly 11000 miles. As the routes criss-crossed the UK, let's make that an eaiser to manage 20,000 miles all told. There was about 260 stages on the epic journey for the two teddies (they went with every rider on every leg), which makes an average travelled distance for each rider of 76.92 miles (some were longer than others, but that's not a bad estimate). My bike (around town) gets around 60 miles to the gallon and the tank holds about 2 gallons. For my first ride, that personally cost my ￡8.22 (excluding the fuel to get to and from the start and finish points and for the whole event, ￡41.12
Now double it (for the support vehicle). For 6 legs, it's already cost ￡82.24. A quick bit of Gallifeyan hyperomnicomnic wrangled maths means that very roughly, between the riders and support, it has cost us ￡4274.40p. I have assumed all vehicles do 60mpg and fuel is ￡1.44.9 per litre.
We (the riders, support vehicles, operators) got nothing out of this other than wet and cold (for the most part) thanks to the British weather. Yes, it is easier when you have the support of employers (big shout out to Airbox Systems for their support on this), but even so, not cheap in terms of fuel, insurance and bike wear.
I suppose the question that needs to be asked is why did we do it in the first place? I'll answer that with a very famous quote by JFK "not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too"
Not many people know who DocBike are or Lia's Wings are. After this ride, hopefully they will, but the chances are, they won't. This is a great pity as they do an amazing amount for those injured or in need of transporting between hospitals. As with the various Blood Bike groups around the country (and to a much lesser extent, the Air Ambulance services), they go largely unnoticed by the public. Even when I was an active blood biker, I'd never heard of either of these organisations such is how low key they are.
Hopefully, as DocBike gets bigger and more events organised this will all change. I'm a volunteer for the Cheshire DocBike group now and hopefully can get some money and events started. These all take time, so as they say, watch this space!
Up next for me, the Greater Manchester Blood Bikes ride in air for the North West Air Ambulance Charity in September and planning for future DocBike events in the North West.