And so it begins.....

Hooray, Hooray its the 1st of May, but more importantly, it means only 12 days until #LondonREV2018.

If we aren't ready now, we never will be, Team Tahola will take on 300km in the saddle on the 12th and 13th May for our first Bloodwise event.

Last weekend some of us participated in pre-Rev events in preparation for the first 'Big one'!

Gareth, Jason and I took part in the 3 Counties 100 Sportive on Sunday which covered some of the best cycle routes through Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. Starting from the courtyard at Holdenby House in rural Northamptonshire, we began our 112km ride, where we took in the beauty of the Naseby Battlefields, Eyebrooke Reservoir, the Welland Viaduct, Rutland Water and the Cottesbrooke Estate.

It was colder than we had hoped, but we still had fun (!) and managed to finish in just over five hours, with a few cake stops and impromptu toilet breaks along the way!

We also had the first opportunity to wear our new 'Team Tahola' kit, well the jerseys....it was far too cold for shorts, although Jason (Hardcore) Martin didn't think so, brave man! The kit looks great and so a big thank you to John and Carole Brame at QSW Sports.

Well earned post cycle pint.....

Looking forward to the 8 of us cycling together as a full 'Team Tahola' in a few weeks and will be proud to wear our new kit as we set off from Lee Valley Stadium on Saturday the 12th May. So a big thank you again to all of our sponsors for making the kit happen and to everyone that has donated so far.....thank you so much.

Two other Team Tahola members (Nigel Bates and Alex Hopkins) took part in Stratford Triathlon on Sunday, here's what Nigel had to say........

"Sunday saw the start of our epic year of sports challenges with the Stratford Tri. Alex and I, accompanied by my two sons Chris and Elliot all braved the cold, rain and 06.00 am start to do one of my favourite courses around the historic town of Stratford – and for such a great cause in Bloodwise. It was one of the highest turnouts for the Tri for years with over 550 entrants in the main sprint and, as always, no matter how much training you try to do over the winter, you always have that fear and trepidation that you haven’t quite done enough.

Well the younger generation genuinely did well with Chris and El improving on previous times for the first-of-the-year finishing 107 and 178 respectively and after a real ding dong battle all the way around, Alex’s youth and determination managed to finally pip the old man and finish in the lead in 55th position with me in 59th - 36 seconds behind him – well done Alex! Turns out we both came third in our respective age group categories.

So that’s the first one down, just the Revolution in a couple of weeks followed by the Pitsford Tri in June. Bring it on"!

We are now at 42% of our overall target, still a long way to go yet and so any support you can provide in helping us smash our target would be most appreciated.

As always, the details for any kind donations are as follows:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/taholatriple