3 men in a boat (well, 2 men and a lady in a canoe!)

Easter weekend in the lakes isn't known for it's sunny, wind free days. In my experience it is more likely to be freezing cold, pouring rain and blowing a gale. So we woke up on the morning of challenge 4 feeling somewhat apprehensive. Thankfully however the day was still and relatively rain free. We couldn't have asked for more. Well, except for someone else to do it for us and let us spend the day in the pub. No? Best get on with it then. 10.5 miles of paddling lay ahead.

The day began with a brief brush with fame and a bit of publicity thanks to Yakkers and his breakfast show on Lakeland Radio. It was great to know we had a bit of local support as we headed off to the start line. We do have some audio evidence and once we figure out how to edit it and place it in a blog, we'll let you hear it!

The start was slightly delayed as we discovered we were at the wrong end of the lake but we soon found our way to fell foot and once we'd figured out how to get in the good ship endeavour we set sail on our mission being sung on our way by the lovely Family Osmaston.

Getting into our rhythm wasn't as tricky as we'd feared. 3 in a boat meant the person at the back (me - couldn't trust the boys!) had the responsibility of keeping us in a straight line. Harder than you think - proved by our wobbles if I tried to take a photo or stopped paying attention for a few moments.

We also had to contend with speed boats. Apparently there is a speed limit on lake Windermere. I'm not convinced. The waves these boats produced had us wobbling away and fearing we'd end up a bit damp. As the day went on, our confidence grew and the waves became less fearful and more fun!

And what a way to see the lakes. I've spent a lot of time in Windermere but seeing the views from the water brought a whole new dimension to it. The views were stunning (despite the cloud) and being on water is incredibly peaceful.

The support from the shore kept us going when the shoulders started to burn. See ing the gang waiting in Ambleside after 3 and a half hours of paddling was a sight for sore eyes. Special thanks to Si (spending birthday with team FCF), Susie, Jane, Hannah, Isobel, Catharine, Sandy, granny and grandpa Davis, Pippa, Kate and all others for keeping up morale. Thanks again to Yakkers for having us on his show and a huge thank you to Johan and the team at Mountain High, River Deep who got us from start to finish in one peice.

Biggest thank you has to go to Andrew for joining the team and paddling his heart out. Much appreciated and fairly sure we now owe you one!

Remember you can still sponsor us at www.justgiving.com/teams/FCF and you can now sponsor by text. To do so test YFCF99 £1 to 70070. You can replace the £1 with £2, £5 or £10 if you are so inclined.

More photos of the challenge can be seen here http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyVHsZo Thanks, Pie!

Bradford or Bust

Wowsers - a quarter of the way through the year and a quarter of the way through the challenges! Hope everyone is having an excellent year so far - time flies when you are training, planning events and travelling to undertake them.

But what a brilliant time we had in Leeds and Bradford. Challenge 3 was the Bradford 10k on Sunday 25 March, with over 1,000 runners taking part. Well done to all 1,000+ I say, though we were principally concerned with the Fight CF Team of Roz, Sarah, Andy, Rob and myself. You can support everyone's efforts @ http://www.justgiving.com/teams/FCF and you can also donate by text. Simply text YFCF99 followed by the amount in pounds (e.g. YFCF99 £1) to 70070.

Roz was taking part in her first 2012 challenge after beating sciatica into submission and training really hard to be able to compete - going from hardly being able to walk around to doing a 10k in a littler over a few weeks! Sarah and Andy (my sisted and her husband) were joining us for this event along with good friend and all round top bloke, Rob Warden, doing his first ever organised run, all for the CF Trust.

As you can see from this picture just before the start, we got the weather for it! Incredibly foggy and incredibly humid - plus a 9am start time the day the clocks went forward. Did I mention it was Sunday? At least we had Andy's paella of the night before to power us round!

The course had a couple of hills, friendly marshalls and a rythmic drum band. We had curious warm  up music at the start where we all crowded together for the gun and set off, staggered then flowing onto the streets of Bradford as the fog lifted and the sun began to shine.

The run went really well with Andy, Rob and myself cracking the 50min barrier, Sarah storming round in 55mins and Roz trouncing expectations by completing the race non-stop in 1hr and 5mins. Sarah, Andy and Roz managed to pose after our endevours - check out the clear blue sky!
  
We needed sustenance - so we beat a hasty strategic retreat to a Leeds pub for some of Sundays' finest.

So we raised a glass and enjoyed a roast, you can see Rob on the right with his wonderful wife Mary - who aside from saving me with a cream egg at the end of the race but is also joining the 12-in-12 challenge by creating 12 artworks over the next 12 months, which will then become a calendar and greetings cards to be sold to raise money for CF Trust. You can follow her talent and progress at her blog: http://marywarden.wordpress.com/

Another challenge successfully dispatched and on to April, 18km, a canoe and Lake Windermere. A massive thank you again for all the ongoing support.

Bri.