Dunwich Dynamo 2010

• Headed to station to get the 17:08.
• Met Ady and his mate on the platform.
• Despite initial worries, the guard let us all on without bike reservations, he didn't even ask to see them!
• Sat Nav'd our way from Stratford (via Victoria Park with the High Voltage festival going on) to Hackney.
• Met up with other TROGs and EAMRT (Mark A, Mr Greedy, LeanLanky, BigChris, Hitch, Goot, PuddleDodger among others) behind the pub and vegged for an hour or so.
• There were tonnes of other cyclists and varieties of bikes in the park, my favourite was the bloke with a huge plastic crate on the front of his bike with his springer spaniel inside!
• We set off at around 20:05 (just as BenP arrived who decided to stop and have a fag before catching us up).
• Fought through traffic, avoiding a literal fight at one point where a car driver and his mates were to-ing and fro-ing with a couple of cyclists! They finally realised that the several hundred cyclists out-numbered them somewhat.
• Traffic thinned out around Epping Forest where BenP caught up with us.
• I split off from the main group around here with Ben and his mates (Kev, Toby and James).
• We stopped at around the 37mile mark, but my thighs felt like they would cramp up so I had a quick gel and set off again by myself.
• I refilled my bottles at the feed stop (52miles) and regrouped with Ben & Co
• My least favourite/most comedy moment took place along the next stretch. We were approaching a large group of other cyclists (possibly 30ft long group), we waited till it was clear, pulled out and attempted to overtake them. Just as we were about 3/4s of the way past them, and giving it our all, we reached a hill and suddenly had to try and overtake them AND climb a hill - that hurt! Obviously backing off wasn't an option ;)
• We kept riding to Needham Market (80miles) for our next stop (yawning continuously for the final 10 miles) where we had our longest rest of the ride (prob around an hour).
• We hit the road again but my back tyre was feeling squidgy, I ignored it till just past Coddenham, but then faced facts and stopped to change it (telling the others to keep going)
• As I fixed the puncture I felt a few spots of rain but not much and it passed quickly.
• I set off again, and as I'd just spent 10-15mins fixing the tyre I resisted stopping at John's (PuddleDodger) bacon-fest.
• I mostly rode alone to Framlingham (100miles) where I regrouped with Ben and the others for a quick break.
• From last year I remember Framlingham as being the point that 'broke' us, and once again the prospect of having to ride another 20miles really didn't seem too appealing, but I had a Smart Gel which kicked me the final 20miles.
• As we passed through Westleton I stopped quickly to grab a stashed recovery drink from my car.
• We reached Dunwich at 05:25am and spent 40mins queueing for a well earned breakfast, beer and cup of tea.
• Myself and Lanky headed back to my car (the hardest 2.5 miles I've EVER ridden) at around 7ish.
• I was tucked up in bed around 8:30 only to be woken and dragged to the pub at around 1:30 :)

As for 'next time', I'm torn between trying to set a 'personal best' time or to do it über leisurely (stop at the feed stations, meet people, swim and sleep on the beach at the end).

Stats
Total Journey Time : 9hrs 20mins
Total Riding Time : 7hrs 29mins
Avg Speed : 15.6mph
Max Speed : 33.9mph

I'm a bit disappointed that we were a little slower than last year :(

My GPS was tracking the route but for some reason died at around the 24mile marker, here are the details that it did track;
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/jIA3AixAJSI