School of Health & Wellbeing

Dr Jason Lang reflects on his latest charitable adventure from Lands End to John O'Groats.

What was your inspiration for the charity cycle? 
I got back into cycling after a fairly prolonged illness following COVID infection. I was basically on my back for several months and I gained weight, had high blood pressure and cholesterol along with a few other problems. My GP strongly suggested that I sort myself out, and so I took up cycling again to help with that. I gradually increased my distance on the bike and, while I don't have the explosive power needed to race (and I find road cycling pretty boring!), I discovered that I enjoyed long-distance events. Having completed a number of Audaxes (a type of long distance cycling event in which participants navigate specific routes over a set time period) and some longer gravel races, I thought the next step would be to a LEJOG (Lands End to John O’Groats). And I thought if I was going to do that then I should do it unsupported in the Audax spirit. And then I thought I should also take the opportunity to raise some money for charity while I was at it.  

Why did you choose Compassion UK's Child Survival Scheme as your charity?
I think this is a charity which is doing some fantastic work. It is absolutely outrageous that children and mothers should still die needlessly for lack of medical care in our remarkable well-off world. I have devoted my professional career to improving the experience and outcomes of some of our most disadvantaged young people in Scotland.  However in Togo, where the infant and maternal death rate is one of the highest in the world, many children will never have the chance to experience life, never mind self actualising outcomes. The project gives expert medical care to expectant mothers, supporting them through birth and then providing high quality medical care for mother and infant during the first years of life, a time when most preventable deaths occur. It is a little ray of light in a sea of otherwise needlessly bleak statistics and outcomes. The more money they have, the more families that can benefit from the programme. 

What was the best thing 
I loved the whole thing for the most part. There is something to be said for learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable, in challenging yourself to do more, go further. I’m pretty comfortable in my own company, so that helped. But on a bike there is time to think, to experience the environment in a different way, to be in the moment, to feel, and to move under your own power which I think brings a remarkable sense of freedom. I enjoy technical cycling and there was certainly plenty of that with the weather conditions and washed out muddy routes in wind and rain. I also was 15 minutes faster home on the bike from work than I had been. 

What was the biggest challenge
There were several. Cornwall is an egg-box with constant winch and drop hills which did not lend themselves to a touring bike with a total load of about 110kg! 12-18% gradients again and again gets a little wearing and I lost about half a day there. The other half day was spent in recovering once I got past Gloucester. Learning point one is that I needed more gears!  The weather was pretty much horrendous throughout, and much of southern England was under water which meant I couldn’t camp as planned, and had to deal with some long diversions. I cycled through floods up to my knees but some would have been above my head judging by the hedgerows so sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. Warrington have a strange fascination with kissing gates on bike routes which I could happily have done without. Man-handling 110kg of bike and gear 18 times in 1 hour also eroded some of my mentalizing abilities! Scotland was headwinds and Storm Kathleen’s rain and gales. The route from Moffat to South Queensferry was bleak and slow, and I got thoroughly soaked. Then South Queensferry to Blair Atholl was maybe worse. The final challenge was Lairg to Tongue which was -3 when I arrived, with a 50mph side wind, a 57km climb and heavy rain and sleet. That was probably the most sketchy part of the trip. I saw two people over that stretch and if I had a problem or came off I would have been in some difficulty. I think I also lost some skin on my ears around here - maybe the cold, who knows.  However overall, maybe the most difficult bit was being away from family for that long. 

What kept you going? 
Well I think my autistic neurotype has something to do with it! I do what I say and finish what I start, so there was no doubt in my mind that I would finish that ride no matter what. It is one of the benefits of so called “black and white thinking” which we autistics sometimes experience. Being comfortable in my own space, having some sensory traits which lend themselves to managing pain and discomfort and accompanying self-discipline makes it easier to do. At difficult or challenging points you just have to accept that it is what it is, and it will pass. It’s a great lesson for life and balanced living. I had a mantra in my head of “It’s nothing” which I would repeat to myself when the going was tough. I also remembered that other people have gone through much worse and come out the other side. I also remind myself that pain is just weakness leaving the body!

It was great to finally meet up with my wife and kids at South Queensferry, but pretty hard to go on after that, rather than heading home with them! Being able to break up the task into segments helps as well. The 57km straight road from Lairg to Tongue was a motivation sapper for sure, but I broke it into manageable sections in my head, and before you know it, you are over it. I used songs in my head to help as well. Each day had a different song. For the NC500 stretch I had changed Del Amitri’s lyrics to "Every third car is a motorhome…"

How much did you raise and can people still donate?
Yes people can still donate for a bit yet.  In total so far I am not far off my target of £5000 in total. It would be great to get to that target so if people want to help push it over the line then the website for donations is here 

Would you do it again? 
Yes, but I would want to do something different. Later this year I think I will do the coast to coast audax which is a 300km event from East to West and back again.  Then I will have done the North South East West thing.  If I did LEJOG again I would probably do it from north to south but off road this time on a mountain bike, following the GB Duro trails. I would go in summer and try and do it in half the time with longer on the bike. Maybe that would make it worth doing again. However I doubt my wife will give permission for another adventure like that anytime soon!

Please, will you join me in this cause? Your generous donation, no matter the size, will contribute to a world of hope and survival for those who need it most. DONATE JUST GIVING 

 

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First published: 30 April 2024