Lent day 4

Saturday morning dawned reasonably dry but not very warm.

I was due to meet up with the Disabled Cycling Club in the park this morning but on past experience I knew I could be doing a lot of standing around while no-one showed up!

I duly got there around 10 minutes before the start and met up with Jan, Richard and Dean who either work for the charity of help out as volunteers.

Soon the first people arrived. All of them have children who are either physically or mentally disabled or both. We had a few more arrive and then suddenly a minibus belonging to the charity arrived full of people. We were soon running around finding suitable bikes and helmets for them. We have a variety of bikes for different abilities and sizes.

Then Barry, who is the charity's fundraiser and former Lord Mayor left his son Stephen in my care. We soon got him sorted with a bike but we were short of helmets that would fit him so waited until some of the others returned.

Meanwhile I had been re-united with a girl called Rachael who I had first met last year when we had a weekend away with the club. She seemed to have lost her confidence on a bike and at first would only go on a three wheeler. I persuaded her to get on a normal bike but she wasn't too happy. Eventually I persuaded her to get both feet on the pedals while I balanced her on the bike. After some prolonged talking she eventually took off around the area but would only push the bike along with her feet and then suddenly it was like starting to ride all over again as she put both feet on the pedals and was away. She got a huge cheer from me and several others.

Then it was back to Stephen who had been very patient. His dad told me that he hadn't been on a bike since he was 15, around 25 years ago. He'd told me his balance was fine but dad told me it wasn't. I got him a mountain bike with stabilisers on and we set off across the designated area. He was tentative at first but soon got the hang of it. I asked if he could be escorted further out into the park but was told that it wasn't feasible with those type of bikes. So I set up some small cones and got Stephen to do ride in and out of them. He was pleased as punch when he eventually made it without hitting the cones.

To sum up my morning I spent a couple of hours running up and down the cycling area following various people on bikes so I believe that constitutes exercise.