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89 Donalds in 89 Days
Tinto
On Saturday 1st of May I began a huge charity challenge that I have set myself. I am completing all 89 Donalds (as well as the 52 additional Donald Tops) on my mountain bike in aid of the Anthony Nolan Charity. I am raising money and hoping to encourage as many people as possible to sign up to their stem cell register. I am going to do this in no more than 89 days, averaging at 1 hill per day. Some days I will bag 5+ and other days I will bag none. All on top of my 9-5 job, so weekends and evenings only (probably some annual leave too).
After completing 7 Donalds on my first day I was in need of a few days rest and recovery. I had plans for bagging more hills on Wednesday eve but the weather decided to not play ball and I found most hills >2000ft were covered in snow. I decided to cancel my midweek plans and wait for the weather to settle and the snow to melt before continuing my challenge.
On Friday I finished work near West Linton and headed southwest into Lanarkshire to Tinto (8/89) and met my friend Ryan, who had kindly offered to keep my company for this outing.
We met at the main carpark around 6pm and set off pedalling up the main path of Tinto.
Untitled by
Peter Hardy, on Flickr
Untitled by
Peter Hardy, on Flickr
With this path already being well established it made the ascent as easy as it could be. Between pushing and pedalling, we made it to the top in around about 1 hour (including nattering to other walkers along the way).
Untitled by
Peter Hardy, on Flickr
Untitled by
Peter Hardy, on Flickr
We got a few photos at the top before beginning our descent. I took the lead coming off the summit of the hill before Ryan overtook me shortly after. We had agreed to do a full run if possible from top to bottom. Around about half way I caught up with Ryan who had stopped to give his hands a shake
. I kept on rolling and began dodging down the more technical bottom section. Ryan soon caught back up and shot past me, leading the way to the foot of the hill and back to the carpark.
Ryan’s time 6m 37
My time 6m 42
Ticking off this outlier has brought my tally up to 8 Donalds. With 81 still remaining I am excited to get back out for my next round! Watch this space, and in the mean time please go check out the Anthony Nolan website, they are such an important charity to so many family’s which not enough people are aware of. Their mission is to help people suffering with blood cancers.
https://www.facebook.com/89-Donalds-in-89-Days-101919065388708/https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/89donalds89daysThanks for reading
(P.s. website links will be removed if not permitted, please just let me know)
Peter
#89donaldsin89days
