Halfway there: The Ardnashee School and College 16,000km challenge continues

The wind, rain, punctures and falls from our bikes has slowed us slightly this week but we are still plugging away, determined to reach a collective 16,000km by the end of August.

Having had a puncture during the first week, I had my first fall this week. Nothing too dramatic thankfully; I was trying to get off my bike but my wee short legs couldn't get over my seat and I ended up falling and lying in a heap. Luckily away from anyone with a phone!

In addition to my own fall, Gary Curran had a tumble as he tried to get used to a new road bike. Simon Collins has had another two or three punctures this week as he seeks to break the world record for most flat tyres in a three month period and Dee O'Hara was forced to change his own tyre having given Simon a torturing for his own punctures.

The life of a cyclist is clearly pretty dramatic and I think a few of us would be wise to become more familiar with fixing a puncture, otherwise it'll be a long, cold stand at the side of the road.

There is no doubt though that we are all beginning to get the cycling bug and are even talking about further challenges once we have completed this current one.

The amazing record-breaking Joe Barr travelling from Malin Head to Mizen Head and back in a mind blowing 44 hours is a source of further inspiration to us and we very much have it in our minds to tackle his route in the coming months. We'll probably take it a but more slowly though!

For now we will move on to week six and keep focussing on that 16,000km target which is edging ever closer.

We want to thank everyone for the amazing support we have received to including a fantastic total donations of £5,954 which has us edging closer to our £10,000 target.

We are unbelievably grateful and hope that we can continue to raise extra funds to further support the amazing children at Ardnashee School and College.

If you would like to help out and donate to a worthy cause please do so here