Goodbye. Or at least see you later.

on Jul 14 in General by

The eminently quotable Gary once told me that whenever he finishes one of his epic multi day long distance cycle rides he tends to hurl his bike into the corner of the garage and can’t bring himself to touch it again for several months.

Hadrian’s walk was great. In fact it was bloody awesome. But it was also an incredible strain. Not only the event itself, but the run up. I’m not naturally the most organised of people. In fact I’m the very antithesis of organised. And so planning and implementing such a big event was like trying to squeeze a gorilla into a size 14 dress. It’s possible, but there was a lot of creaking at the seams.

This blog is my bicycle. It’s the vehicle I used to convert all that effort into actual results. And pretty amazing results they were too. Not only have we raised over £20,000 for an exceptionally good cause, but we had a fantastic time doing it too.

On the walk I made new friends, and cemented old ones. I walked 84 miles across the entire width of the country without any significant injury or negative after effects. And nothing went wrong, which is the real amazing bit. No one died, every hostel we booked was expecting us, and the walkers were able to have three square meals a day.

That’ll do pig, that’ll do.

But now it’s over, and all of a sudden my life is my own again.

I think it’s highly likely that I’m going to let All That Comes With It go to fallow for a little while. My enthusiasm for it has taken a real dip recently. I’m not good at being creative when I feel obliged to be so – that’s one of the reasons I’ll never be a writer. And with the need to plug the walk constantly over the last few months I’ve increasingly felt that the blog was a chore rather than a pleasure.

The urge to blog will return I’m sure, but for now I need a rest.

Which isn’t to say I’m going to be completely absent from the internet. I’ll still be doing the weekly podcast with Lee (I have far too much fun doing that to let it slide) and there is also a rather awesome collaborative project that I may be getting involved in soon.

I’ll still be hanging around twitter too, although maybe not as much as previously.

I hope no one feels like this is me kicking them in the teeth. I really appreciate all the support that the walk has got from the blogosphere and we wouldn’t have been able to raise half as much for the Trust without it. But I’m tired and need a break lest I slide into resentment and disgruntlement and end up impulsively deleting everything in a fit of pique.

Of course, now I’ve written this I’ll probably have an irresistible urge to post tomorrow and end up eating my words. But as it stands, it’s goodbye. At least for now.

Related posts:

  1. Goodbye to a epic level character
  2. Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you
  3. Learning to walk again

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