Enjoying my medal!

Yes! We did it!

It wasn’t easy but we managed. The first 120 km were according to plan, beautiful weather and temperature keeping at a pleasant level, neither too cold or too warm. Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the way was not quite as accurate. After about 120-130 km (circa 1-2 o’clock at night) it started raining. Just mild drizzle, but it never stopped. There were a few pauses. Enough for me and my clothes to start drying, but then it started all over again. I was also a bit negligent about eating enough during the second half of the race, so I grew extremely tired in the end. During the race I got SMS:es from my personal trainer telling about everyone cheering me on which was really nice to hear and it helped me keep up a good mood.

We started at 20 past eight on Friday evening and I reached goal at 20 past nine on Saturday morning. In other words 300 km in 13 hours flat. Which also happened to be the time I hoped for. 🙂

James finished the race in a whopping 12 hours flat. Christian (the colleague I’ve been practicing with) finished after 12 hours and 41 minutes. And Christian’s brother Martin managed to complete the race despite hurting knees giving him a hard time from early on in the race. Truly great achievements! 🙂

Another magnificent achievement are the £2 050 we (you!) have managed to collect for The Winnicott Foundation! Marvelous! 😀 The donation site will be open for a while longer so it is still possible to contribute if you have not done so, and if you wish.

A million thanks to everyone supporting us; from reading the blog, chearing us on, and of course everyone who donated money to The Winnicott Foundation! Thank you!

And finally a warm thank you goes out to my sister who planned and managed this whole operation! I’m really glad it turned out so well! And you have the very best niece and nephew anyone could wish for! Next time you do the cycling. 😉

This is my final post on this blog. It’s been a great adventure. Take care everyone!

– Kalle (signing out)

Enjoying my medals (both of them)!

They made it around the lake!!!

Both James and Kalle made it around the lake in a truly amazing manner. It was a very challenging ride with bad weather conditions. It was very cold, rainy and windy but they would not give up and they ended up finishing the ride with fantastic times, which I’m sure they’ll share with you once they’ve woken up later on today ;-).

The support team are slightly tired after checking their progress throughout the night, but we are very happy to see them back in one piece and very proud of their incredible performance! CONGRATULATIONS AND VERY WELL DONE!!!!!

Cecilia, Anna, Daniel, Linn, Gerd, Jan, Oliver and Emilia xxx

The ride is on….

The day has been full of preparations, Kalle getting to Motala by train, picking up start kit, oiling bikes, buying energy bars etc. They managed some rest in the afternoon while the support team went shopping for ingredients for a spaghetti Bolognese….perfect bike food. The weather has been rather changeable but has come good in the end. Might be a bit cold early morning, hope they manage ok!

They started 20.20 this evening from the centre of Motala where we were standing cheering. The other half of the support team unfortunately missed them by 1 minute due to somebody driving into the back of them in Stockholm!

Fingers crossed the boys have as good a night as they can on a saddle of a bike pedalling around a lake in the south of Sweden. The support team is off to bed knowing that the boys have passed 80km (50 miles) at 23.18. We are looking forward meeting them on the finish line tomorrow morning.

Cecilia xxx

Now is the time, the time is now.

Today is the day! 300 km around a little lake in Sweden called Vättern. It feels quite good, a bit nervous, but good. And the weather forecast looks positively stable.

See you on the other side! Wish us luck! 🙂

/Kalle

Current weather forecast for Motala during Lake Vättern.

Current weather forecast for Jönköping during Lake Vättern.

Arrived in Stockholm….finally

All of us and the bike have now arrived in Stockholm…..after a rather busy day and night. James and my brother Daniel have spent the morning putting the bike together and buying some extras, while Daniel’s girlfriend Linn have helped me with the kids while I’m re packing again. One of the extras is a rather fancy and expensive cycle rack for the car that my dear parents have had to invest in. Thank you very much! This means the first lot of people are nearly on their way down to Motala and the final preparations are to begin.. like making A LOT of pasta etc. James is unfortunately still full of cold but nothing will stop him cycling tomorrow!!!

Cecilia xx

Le danger vert (The Green Danger)

This post will be a small tribute to the marvelous cycle that will take me around Lake Vättern. Not only does it originate from Motala, the home town of the Lake Vättern race, but it has also managed to complete the race at 3 different occasions. Unfortunately it wasn’t me doing the pedaling but my father, who owns the bike.

And as we all know (and I think has been proven scientifically); green is the fastest color there is!  B-)

So many thanks and lots of appreciation goes out to my father for letting me borrow this excellent machine! It has been a breeze training with it during the spring, and I think the race will be the same.

For the daily weather forecast, it’s getting better. Less rain and wind, and a bit warmer. All good! It’s all good!  🙂  Hope it stays that way.  😉

/Kalle

Le danger vert (The Green Danger)

Today's weather forecast for Motala during Lake Vättern.

Today's weather forecast for Jönköping during Lake Vättern.

Gets worse before it gets better again

Just after I posted the previous post yesterday afternoon things got a bit worse…..I had a text on my phone saying that the flight we were booked on this morning was cancelled, no reason or nothing just cancelled. Found out later that there is a pilot strike in Sweden (we had specifically chosen SAS not to end up in strike problems with BA ;-)). Anyway after 45 min in a phone queue I managed to re-book us on the 19 o’clock flight tonight. Then Oliver had another turn during the evening and James has got a cold but……

This morning things are looking better. Oliver is much better, the flight tonight is confirmed, bike and clothes are packed and the weather forecast is looking much better for Friday!! And today the sun is shining 🙂 so we’re back on track!!!! It will all come good on the day!!

Cecilia xx

Not a challenge without a challenge….

Trying to pack for the flight with Oliver who is ill with a tummy bug and high temperature. Emilia is helping with unpacking everything I’m packing, and the weather for the race is getting worse by the day…..but hey we’re all still very excited and it will all come good on the day I AM SURE!!! Please weather Gods give the boys nice weather on race evening! It’s hard enough cycling that far without having bad weather as well.

It would be so nice if they could have a good ride through the evening/night/morning as they have trained soooooo very hard weekend after weekend throughout the spring. The hours and hours they’ve given up in rain, wind, even snow and some sunshine too, training for this race which ultimately is to raise money for The Winnicott Foundation! It takes to very unselfish people to do this! You are two people in a million!!! Not to forget very supportive family and friends – Thank you Anna for letting Kalle do this 😉 and for getting him into shape with your personal training ;-)!!!

Back to packing……

Cecilia xx

T minus 3 days…

James, here is a site where you can get all your ideal pit stop times based on your start time and goal total time. 😉

http://www.cykelklubben.se/cykelklubben/tips/vatternrundan/idealtid.asp

The weather forecast is really not going our way. Increasing rain, decreasing temperature, and worst of all, increasing wind. I hope they are very wrong!

  /Kalle

Today's weather forecast for Motala during Lake Vättern.

Today's weather forecast for Jönköping during Lake Vättern.

T minus 4 days

Updated weather forecast below. It might get difficult to avoid the rain.

/Kalle

Today's weather forecast for Motala during Lake Vättern.

Today's weather forecast for Jönköping during Lake Vättern.