The team from Parkwood Leisure’s North Devon Leisure Centre are pulling together in July to do one of Devon’s longest 1-day bike rides for charity. With the help of some of the Expressions members at North Devon Leisure Centre, the team are aiming to cycle 64 miles each in one day in aid of the Children’s Hospices UK, Devon Air Ambulance and Bideford Round Table organisation.
Team Parkwood helped raise funds for the Children’s Hospices UK in 2008 with 6 members of staff, including the General Manager, Alan Waistell riding 384 miles between them in sweltering heat.
This crazy idea came from a dare set by the lifeguard and reception teams at North Devon Leisure Centre, challenging Alan Waistell, who was then 20 stone, to take part in the charity bike ride.
Alan’s StoryBeing the fool I was, I accepted the challenge thinking they would forget about it in the coming months, but they didn’t! Therefore, I had no option but to do the whole event and not chicken out.
With no bike and not having been on a bike for over 16 years, a drastic lifestyle change had to happen.
I ventured into a bike shop and asked about buying a racing bike. The manager of the shop, Andy, gave me a grin, looked me up and down and politely told me “possibly Sir due to you being a big lad a Hybrid Mountain bike may be a better suggestion”. Whilst we General Managers are good with figures and budgets I decided maybe I should take the cycling experts advice, so I did!
I had 5 weeks training and a massive change of how I ate and drank to be considered, or not completing this epic task was looking more and more realistic.
Well the summary of this story is that I did the bike ride and changed my eating and drinking habits- principally I drank less wine and exercised more!
As we all go through life we always say those vital 4 words as Leisure professionals “ I USED TO BE / DO”. We all used to be fit and we all used to do many sports but in Management we tend to either decrease these activities or other things take over.
What came out of this experience?In 12 months I lost just over 4 stone, now weighing in at 16 stone instead of 20 stone 3lbs.
This cycle race has become an annual event for my staff and Expressions members. Year on year I would like it to play a vital part in team building.
To be brutally honest it is nice to get back to those all-important words of “I USED TO BE / DO” and actually bring back some of what was lost. It changed my life because sitting still just getting on with those mundane tasks of life is not the way forward.
We plan this year on getting 20- 30 cyclists to take part in the event. The cycling route will take us from Barnstaple to Braunton, back to Barnstaple, then to Meeth and back to Barnstaple. The route can be downloaded from www.rotarycoast-coast.com and anybody interested in doing this ride can sign up online or alternatively send an email with your contact details to alan.waistell@parkwood-leisure.co.uk.
The aimThe team aims to raise the profile of the event, and of course raise lots of money for charity, so please turn up and take part or donate as much money as possible to the event. Alan Waistell and some members of staff will be dressing up for the event so please come along and support Team Parkwood on Sunday 19th July at North Devon Leisure Centre, setting off at 9am.
The whole ride is on the Tarka Trail, possibly one of Britain’s best cycling routes with absolutely no traffic, so please do not hesitate to bring the children with you too. You do not have to do all of the bike ride- check out online which bite sized chunk you would like to partake in and sign up NOW.
When asked why we should be so passionate about this event, Alan Waistell commented “Because if we all sat back and did nothing we would all suffer mentally and physically and charities would be non existent”.