I have always loved my birthday. As a child growing up in Sweden I was disappointed that I could never have a garden party, the 1st of November would always be a dark and rainy day. Mind you, this was before Halloween was introduced into Sweden and autumn was a long dark wait for Christmas. As an adult, I have always tried to do something special on my birthday. When moving to Spain, I was pleased to discover that my birthday coincided with a national holiday which gave me an opportunity to travel somewhere. A couple of years I spent these days on Gran Canaria, other years we made excursions hiking somewhere around Madrid. But as far as I remember, I have never spent my birthday on a motorbike holiday and therefore I’m particularly pleased to be able to ride Lazy Cat over to Beachy Head for the race. Although the race itself is not on my actual birthday, it is on the 28th, I still see it as part of my birthday – I’m only going to turn 40 once so I might as well celebrate it properly.
All the preparations are completed. The training is done, mainly spinning and power yoga – since I want to be very careful with my foot, I have only done a couple of short runs per week. While this might sound nice to some, I must add here that running short distances is very difficult to me, just when I get the into the flow I must stop. The longest distance I have done in preparation is 7.5k and more often I’ve done 4 or 5k. To run the 10k on Saturday is going to be fantastic, since the course is challengingly hilly it will take a good bit longer than an hour as well. I look forward to this immensely. The kit is prepared: my favourite leggings, woollen top, jacket, waist bag for the phone – yes, this time I’m going to take pictures.
I received a birthday letter from my aunt, “Congratulations, finally grown up” it said. I’m not so sure, but I did change the brake pads on my bike today, that must count for something. But apart from that both Lazy Cat and Koneko have been serviced by a local mechanic. I can’t remember when my bike ran this smoothly last, and for Koneko all the problems with sudden power loss at top speed disappeared.
Before closing the computer and heading to bed I want to extend my deepest thanks to all of you, friends from near and far, who have donated to Pikilily on behalf of my birthday. I look forward to this birthday-weekend of riding and running – you will all be in my heart!
Lastly, there is a new video diary out from Pikilily, great progress!
All previous video diaries can be accessed from their website as well as from their Crowdfunding page, where you, of course, can make a donation.
