Is this anything like Ben Rinnes?

I probably asked that question ten times or more on today’s ride up Bin Hill, but each time the answer was no and the reality of this challenge is starting to bite (hard)!

It was a wobbly start to today’s ride as my cognitive skills didn’t extend to remembering my boots and, despite returning home for them, I still hadn’t twigged I would also need my bike helmet!

Getting me out biking doesn’t just require a lot of emotional encouragement and technical support, there’s also an element of babysitting involved and, thankfully, one of my fab support team had a helmet I could use, otherwise my first practice hill ride would have gone ahead without me!

I only had one spill on the way up. I ran out of forward momentum on the steepest part of the ride and had to throw myself into the undergrowth to stop my bike taking me back down the hill. I still can’t quite believe I did it, but with the fantastic encouragement and advice from my amazing support team, I made it to the top!

Bin Hill (Bin of Cullen) is 320m and the view was incredible and we could see Ben Rinnes in the distance, a constant visual reminder of what’s to come!

I still don’t know how downhill mountain bikers don’t scream all the way down, they must have their eyes closed the whole time because the descent was way scarier than the climb. Whilst it’s easier on my legs, gripping the brakes and handlebars for dear life does cause its own issues!

This was my first sustained uphill effort and both me and my bike were put through our paces, with different terrains including rocks, sand and mud. The battery and motor were put to full use and it was a good test for the bike as much as me and bloody hell it was tough!

I’ll be honest, there was a large part of today’s ride where I thought I couldn’t do it and was ready to give up and, knowing Ben Rinnes is steeper and longer, I was wondering how I could back out of this challenge gracefully, but I have been assured I will get to the top, whatever it takes! I will just have to take their word for it!

Footnote

This blog is part of my challenge to bike up Ben Rinnes this summer on my electric mountain bike, built by Coast n Cruise, to raise funds for Outfit Moray and Flying Scholarships for Disabled People.

You can follow my story by subscribing to this blog or following the links below. Please do consider sponsoring me too, I promise to earn every penny!

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Virgin Money Giving

So what’s it all about?

Ben Rinnes has always been on my bucket list, but it’s never been physically possible for me – until now, and I intend to get to the top on an electric mountain bike by the end of August!

This is going to be a massive challenge and will require lots of training rides and learning new skills.

At this point, I don’t know how, or if, my body will cope, but I am going to give it my best shot and will be fully supported along the way by some of my amazing Outfit Moray work colleagues and friends.

Of course, I am going to do this to raise funds for the two charities that got me here and I will go into more detail about them in some upcoming blogs, but here’s a brief summary of each charity.

In 2016, I was given the life-changing opportunity to learn to fly, thanks to Flying Scholarships for Disabled People and, since then, I like to make sure I keep challenging myself and make sure that I never stop living the life of adventure they gave me. Over the years, this has involved abseiling from the Forth Rail Bridge, getting a new job, writing articles for magazines and now, getting up Ben Rinnes. You can read more about them in my upcoming blog about them, or by reliving my scholarship through my previous blog posts.

Outfit Moray are an outdoor learning and adventure charity, providing life-changing activities for young people in Moray, particularly those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. I have seen first-hand the difference Outfit Moray makes and I know your sponsorship will change lives! They’ve changed mine and I only work for them!

So that’s the ‘why’ and the ‘who’, stay tuned for the ‘how’ (once I work it out)!

Footnote

This blog is part of my challenge to bike up Ben Rinnes this summer on my electric mountain bike, built by Coast n Cruise, to raise funds for Outfit Moray and Flying Scholarships for Disabled People.

You can follow my story by subscribing (and sponsor me please) by following the links below.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Virgin Money Giving

Why Flying Scholarships for Disabled People?

It’s no exaggeration to say that Flying Scholarships for Disabled People changed my life and I will be forever grateful for the potential they saw in me, something I could never see.

I first heard about Flying Scholarships for Disabled People back in 2014, from one of their previous scholars. My first thoughts were a mix of “ooh, learning to fly, that’s cool” and “but I am not properly disabled”.

My previous blog, ‘They Chose Me‘ goes into more detail about how and why I applied, as well as those early moments of panic and fear, so I won’t repeat myself, but I was most definitely petrified and grateful in equal measures!

If you have a few minutes (ok hours), please do read through some of my previous scholarship blogs. They are an emotional recollection of my flying journey which wasn’t, and never will be, just about learning to fly – in fact I never flew solo. My scholarship was going solo in life, about learning what I am capable of and challenging my fears and anxieties, all of which I did during those 3 weeks at Gryphon Aero Club – in spades!

So fast forward 5 years and my life is still very much sprinkled with the FSDP magic, in fact I can definitely say I wouldn’t have had the confidence to apply for my job at Outfit Moray.

There are many occasions where I am struggling and muttering the mantra, “if I can fly a plane, I can do *insert struggle *, so come on”. In fact, if I ever voice these fears on my social media, my FSDP family will repeat the mantra for me, because that’s what we are, a family who looks out for and encourages each other.

But it’s not just about me! Flying Scholarships for Disabled People are changing lives every year and have been since 1983. In 2016 they set up the Scholars’ Scholarship, where previous scholars raise the funds to pay for one special scholarship, and as the first ever recipient, Matthew Monaghan is definitely the perfect person to tell you just how life-changing it is.

So, by challenging myself to ride a mountain bike up Ben Rinnes (probably muttering “if I can fly a plane…” the whole way), I will be helping another disabled person get their FSDP wings, but only if you sponsor me!

Footnote

This blog is part of my challenge to bike up Ben Rinnes this summer on my electric mountain bike, built by Coast n Cruise, to raise funds for Outfit Moray and Flying Scholarships for Disabled People.

You can follow my story by subscribing to this blog or following the links below. Please do consider sponsoring me too, I promise to earn every penny!

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Virgin Money Giving

Riding a bike is not like flying a plane!

Flying and cycling, two things I would never have thought I would be doing in life, yet here I am, learning and re-learning once again!  

Biking in the woods

For background, back in the summer of 2016, I was a P/ut (pilot under training) with Flying Scholarships for Disabled People at Gryphon Aeroclub and learning a lot about myself along the way.  A big part of my learning was to stop my chronic and debilitating habit of overthinking and to help with this, my instructor, John Griffin told me, “You can’t think about your landing while you are focusing on taking off”.  Over the years overthinking was a safety blanket that I thought was keeping me safe, but in reality it was one of my biggest hindrances and was causing extreme anxiety, crippling my ability to experience life, but John’s simple statement was a game changer and words I have lived by ever since – well, until today! 

However, my first training lesson was that overthinking is a crucial part of mountain biking! Not only do you need to be thinking about your take off, but you also need to be making sure you know where you are landing too and you need to be doing this ALL the time! There’s no time to look out the window and enjoy the view; instead it’s an exhausting and continuous cycle (see what I did there) of take off-landing, take off-landing, take off-landing and, just like flying, if you are lucky, your take offs will equal your landings, although I think my landings definitely out numbered my take offs during this particular training.

Ok, that’s enough of the analogy, but that thought did make me smile and I wondered what John would have made of me trying to take off, land and sort the flaps whilst talking on the radio.  

So, back to the training session. My current cycling experience is on my folding electric bike and is limited to roads, paths and nice easy tracks and, as Ben Rinnes is none of those things, some training is definitely required if I am going to get to the top (did I mention it’s 841m), so I got some biking friends together and headed into the local woods for my first ‘mountain biking’ experience.  One of the benefits of working for an outdoor learning and adventure charity, is that your work colleagues are pretty good at this sort of thing, so I know I am in safe hands, plus they are all first aid trained! 

My electric mountain bike definitely made easier work of the tracks but I was soon faced with obstacles I had previously avoided. Tree roots were my first challenge and where I would normally scream and get off, I screamed and carried on over them. Sand was next, and where I would normally scream and get off, I screamed and carried on (are you seeing a theme here yet). I have to say, I was feeling very pleased that I had managed to stay on my bike and was determined to have done enough to pass GoMTB1, so we headed deeper into the woods and onto some proper dirt tracks, which took me onto my second lesson … gears!

As it turns out, gears are fairly important in cycling, particularly for getting up hills (something fairly crucial to my challenge) and knowing when to change them is crucial in keeping your forward and upward momentum and this is something I definitely need to practise more, especially if I don’t want to keep coming to a grinding halt half way up a hill.

Unfortunately, my reduced cognitive capacity doesn’t currently allow me to think quickly and far enough ahead to know when to change gears (and remember which gear lever is up and down) and to know what gear is the right gear.  Still, there was only one spill and landing on comfy moss and pine needles was definitely preferable to the concrete path and fence post of my last hill fail.