Sunday 9th July 2017 I spent the day as a 'velonteer'. Love the name. I was basically a volunteer for the Velothon Wales. A killer cycle ride of 140k which includes two seriously hard climbs, the Tumble and Caerphilly Mountain. They expected a total of 18,000 riders to take part and I volunteered to be part of the support crew based at the feeding station on top of Caerphilly Mountain!
Quite honestly, this was a day of two challenges tho only the velonteering role appears officially on my birthday list. The first, unofficial challenge, to get my butt up to the top of Caerphilly mountain before the race begins. They close all local roads for the day of the Velothon and they asked us velonteers if possible to walk to the top of the mountain. I've been in Wales now for nearly 5 years and have so far managed to avoid the need to walk up the mountain, but on Sunday, uh oh....Thankfully Stewart and Timber somehow go up the mountain every weekend just for a laugh so they very kindly escorted me, encouraged me, took the piss out of me when I cried I couldn't do it anymore and basically cajoled me to the top! I feel that in this pic Timber is quite honestly laughing at my sad unfit ass.
But, eventually, after much blood, sweat, tears and oaths we saw the sign which meant I was nearly at my signing on point.
Didn't know exactly what my job was going to be for the day, nor if there would be many other velonteers but do you know what, this turned out to be one of the most buzzing enjoyable days of my life. Even though it was freaking hard, full on work. The team of velonteers were brilliant, all enthusiastic, all there to pull their weight and to be part of a team and it was brilliant. To begin with right enough we had to be read guidance about what to do in the event of a terrorist attack - which was basically to run full pelt back down Caerphilly Mountain - but quietly please. Fair enough, this sort of advice sadly has to be given out these days. Anyway, ignore this bit and move on to me being assigned a cracking cool t-shirt - bright red and simple. And pretty much the reason I signed up for this in the first place!
I was going to be part of the water feeding station. From watching marathons over many years I thought this would just mean calmly handing over wee bottles of water directly to the athletes. For the Velothon, nope, not quite. By the time the cyclists get to the top of Caerphilly Mountain they have already done around 120k, have just ridden up a mountain and arrive in front of you in varying states - cool, not so cool, to quite tired, dreadful, absolutely knackered - to being on the verge of vomiting! I'm not joking! So our job was basically to be opening thousands of 2 litre water bottles, filling up the big vessels, filling up jugs and actually, just going to the cyclists as they dismounted, taking their water bottles and filling the bottles up for them. Loads at this stage were either complaining of cramp or you could full well see that they were suffering so we also had salt tablets at hand as well as energy powders and gels we could offer. Kind of felt like a mixture of being a tea lady, a counsellor and a medic.
Everybody I met on the day was an absolute sweetheart - they were all so appreciative and such gorgeous people. I felt very maternal! These guys - and gals - not only are testing themselves physically and mentally but they were also raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities. My brother-in-law completed the Velothon last year bless him and raised something like £2,500 for charity. Incredible, so anything the velonteers can do help them it makes sense! You're not likely to find me on a bike so this is a way of joining in. To give you an idea of what the feeding station looked like - though by the time this picture was taken it had gone totally quiet and the majority of the 18,000 had gone through already.
Doesn't quite give an idea of what it was like when we were busy - but when it was busy it wouldn't have been appropriate to stop and take photies.
Eventually, towards the end of the afternoon all the amateur charity cyclists went through and then we had to await the arrival of the pros.
Once these guys passed through we had to dismantle the wee gazebos, pack up the tables and the tents and the extra bottles of water and bananas etc etc and the biggest surprise of the day - we were all given medals and water bottles as a thank you! I only expected the red t-shirt but I'm telling you now, there's not a lot I won't do for the chance of a shiny, shiny medal! I had no idea that Stewart was taking these photies, but even he admitted he was laughing his head off when he could see how excited I got. Kind of insinuated that I barged my way past the other velonteers to get my medal but surely I wouldn't be so crass. All in all, I absolutely loved this 'task' and have already decided that this is definitely something I'll repeat next year.
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