August 4 - Day 109 - 'Stand like a beaten anvil. It is the part of a good athlete to be bruised and to prevail.' Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Near the beginning of the challenge, I shared with you my wall chart and why it helped me keep going. As you can see from the picture, I continue to stick a black and white number on each day, red numbers for the weeks and the two bicycle stamps for the journeys to work and home. As I placed the number 109 on this morning, I thought I’d check out its significance.

The year 109 AD has been suggested by some to be the year Saint Ignatius (see quotation in title) was martyred and anyone who sees the bruises on my legs (difficult to distinguish from the oil marks and the varicose veins!) will know that while I’ve been cycling, I often look like a beaten anvil. 109 is also a prime number - the 29th prime number.

I was, however, most drawn to the local story of Margaret Hammond who celebrated her 109th birthday this May, believed to be oldest Barnsley-born person and the 25th oldest person in the UK. It’s hard to grasp the sense that she was born in 1912, has lived through two world wars and 26 prime ministers. Although it has sometimes felt like I’ve been cycling for 109 years, when you hear about people who have lived through so much change, I realise I need to shut up about feeling tired. After all, there are only 1245 miles left to do!