The Nature of Weakness and a Moral Lesson: 100 miles in a Day Through London's Royal Parks
It was somewhere around the 45-mile mark of Saturday’s Pipe-Up Royal Parks 100 ride round London’s Royal Parks that I told two of my fellow riders – Mark and Aileen – that I would need to stop to look for a lavatory. I apologised for being weak. “It’s not weak,” said Aileen, a hospital consultant, with the decisive tone of someone voicing a firm professional opinion. “It’s physiological.” The group in Richmond Park: a joy to ride in. As a group of seven middle-aged amateur cyclists trying to ride 100 miles in a day through London, we all faced at least some physiological issues undertaking the challenge. We were all what is sometimes hurtfully called the “wrong” side of 50. The majority (I think, without having asked for dates of birth) were over 60. As well as the lateral distance, the ride included around 1,600ft of climbing, including several circuits of famously hilly Richmond Park, a climb up Primrose Hill and two climbs near the end up Maze Hill, by Greenwich Park. Not all of...