3 weeks to go until we leave. I'm trying (and failing) to resist getting excited.
I think I'm ready (which means I'm not at all ready). My kit list has more ticks than blank spaces, my spare room looks like someone ram-raided an outdoor shop, there are collection tins dotted around south Bristol and my wife is so bored of this subject she stopped talking to me weeks ago.
I've also started to commute into work with a nearly fully laden bike. As if riding a fatbike through the streets of Bristol wasn't enough to draw attention, now the thing is hung with bags and bottles and cages etc... It looks great; but subtle it aint! Surprisingly it's not much more difficult to ride. Yes, I've lost a few kph on my usual route, adding 8 minutes to a normally 45min journey. But what we're planning isn't a race, so it's about how we feel at the end of each ride, not how long it took.
That said, it was gratifying to get back onto my road bike this weekend for the first time in an age. Being able to compare pre-fatbike rides with post-fatbike is an eye-opener. Hills which previously took it out of me are comparatively simple affairs now. If Bradley Wiggins or Dave Brailsford is reading this (and I've little doubt they are... I'm told they're glued to this blog and hang on my every word); I'd suggest you train for everything on a fatbike. Riding anything else afterwards is like levitating.
On the fundraising front; the MNDA campaign is going pretty well. There's nearly £900 of sponsorship online (https://www.justgiving.com/Icelandic-Fatbike), and the tins are slowly filling up. The notable exception to this being The Hare pub on North St, where the tin is already full (amazing work!).
The Family Vincent also attended a MNDA fundraising event in Horfield at the weekend. The medieval recreation was particularly awesome, though also slightly reminiscent of the League of Gentleman. Still, anyone selfless enough to dress up in hessian and give up their weekends to charitable causes sits on a moral plain some way above my appreciation for historic battle tactics.
Further fundraising glory may also be found in the form of a Limited Edition print donated by the good (and profoundly potty-mouthed) men of Modern Toss. Unfortunately my enthusiasm for gratuitous swearing seems to be less widely shared than I assumed. As a result, the online auction of the print is proving to be a little disappointing. Hmm... I may need to dream up another plan for that particular venture. Perhaps a live auction in the pub after we get back from the trip. Alcohol is often at the heart of ill-thought-out decisions, so it could be a good place to get a stupid bidding war going on.
Speaking of becoming famous and retiring young (that's what the previous paragraphs were about right?); this blog was name-checked on the world famous Fat-Bike.com Radio Show. Yeah, I know?! I think I'm about 40-50mins in. You have to listen very very carefully. Very carefully. I'd suggest good headphones and quite a lot of patience is required. Still, that means this blog is now officially famous, and I don't need any of you hangers-on and groupies getting in the way of my ascent to stardom anymore. So do one yeah?
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