May 5th 2016 will see the start of an Epic adventure for 5 employees of Abingdon Health as they take on the amazing London to Paris (L2P) cycle ride to raise funds for Myeloma UK.
Over the coming 6 months the team will be updating the fundraising page with regular blogs of what they are doing and how they are getting on with training. To kick off the first blog, Abingdon Health Global Product Manager (and L2P Abingdon Health Team Captain), Allie Park introduces herself and explains why she is taking on this challenge.
“I am a 39 year old from Northumberland and I have always been quite active but as a real food lover I have always struggled a little with exercise / food balance. A few years ago I decided I needed to make a real effort to drop some weight and get healthier so as a ‘non-swimmer’ I thought entering a triathlon would be a good laugh – sink or swim so to speak! A couple of swimming lessons helped give me some confidence and luckily, on my first triathlon (a very low key ladies only event) I managed to not sink! Albeit I half swam, half doggy paddled, until I got around the 400m open water swim.
Fast forward 4 years and since then I have taken part in countless triathlons from sprint distance to Ironman’s. So why, you may think am I doing a 5 day cycling event for charity? Well, having started out needing a lot of help with my training I realise how important it is for novices to get help and support from other cyclists, and as I’m also coaching and personal training people myself now, I thought it would be great to a part of a team doing an event for such a brilliant cause and be able to offer support and advice along the way.
We have a real mixed team coming together for L2P and that is what makes it so special People that wouldn’t normally consider them as ‘cyclists’ want to take on this challenge to help raise money for a really special cause and improve their fitness and cycling ability in the process.
The event itself takes place over 5 days with 4 days of cycling to cover the 500km distance. The final day culminates with rare and privileged finale, entering Paris is one massive peloton under police escort as we ride up to the Arc de Triomphe and to the final destination of the Eifel tower. I am excited and proud to be captain for such a great team of cyclists from Abingdon and I look forward to introducing them all on the blog one by one over the coming weeks”.
To make a donation online through the following website:
https://www.justgiving.com/Abingdon-Health/