Ride for Polio, Day 5 and 6 – Heading for Accra after a well deserved rest

On day 5 I woke up from my 13 hour marathon slumber refreshed and somewhat relieved at the thought that there was not going to be any cycling for the day. In as much as I was eager to get to Accra within 5 days the following thoughts assured me that it was fine to take one day off:

·         Having trained for various endurance events before, I have learnt about the importance of listening when your body tells you to stop

·         I have 14 days in total to make it from Lagos to Accra and back. I have covered almost half of the entire journey in only four days

·         I will have the wind at my back from Accra to Lagos which should make the return trip a lot easier

·         This is the “Ride for Polio” and not the “Race for Polio”

Most of the day was spent reading, sleeping, eating and sitting on the beach missing my family and dreaming dreams about future adventures. For dinner I had the same as the previous night simply because it was so good. For some reason my Ghanaian brothers and sisters cooks jollof rice and chicken better than anyone else (no offence intended to any non-Ghanaian brother or sister).

Just like we did at Grand Popo, we settled our bill the night before we left for Accra. The next morning we were up bright and early and left the Dreamland Beach Resort at 5:30am local time. We reached the main junction that would lead us to Accra a little over an hour after leaving the beach resort with 25km on the clock. It then struck me that we inadvertently added 50km to our entire journey simply because I wanted to sleep over at a beach resort – and I’ll do it again if I get the opportunity.

One thing that bothered me already was the niggles I felt in the tendon area of both my knees. I had the same niggles on day 4 (just ten times worse) so much so that I could hardly gather forward momentum which is the main reason why we decided to rest a day before heading out to Accra. This did not auger well for the remaining 90km we still had to cover for the day especially with the headwind and lots of little rolling hills waiting to be conquered.

After downing two cokes and a fresh pineapple we continued with our journey. We stopped for breakfast after completing 50km. By now the sun was out in full force and the road was filling up with traffic. From here on our main goal was to reach Tema (the main port city of the greater Accra region), another 40km , and then Accra, another 20km after reaching Tema. By now the niggles in my knees were playing up and my bum got increasingly sore. Suffice to say that I was very uncomfortable and had exhausted all my “comfy” sitting positions on the bicycle. Like I’m sure Scott (a good friend I met in Lagos) would’ve said, it felt like I was sitting on a razor blade.

I started making small goals like taking a few sips from my water bottle every 5km and aiming for the top of each hill before I change my seating position. Every 10km for instance I would stop for 1 minute take a quick stretch and then get going again. Every 20km for instance I would stop for 10-20 minutes to eat and drink something. All of this to try and get the kms ticking over.

With 5km before we reached Tema my legs all of a sudden just gave in and I found it extremely painful to get forward motion. I found this to be incredibly frustrating. I wasn’t tired and did not feel dehydrated at all. In fact, I passed urine fairly regularly and it had a good colour which meant that my hydration strategy for the day worked well (apologies for all the graphics). It was only my legs that did not want to cooperate.

Even though I felt like it, giving up was never going to be an option. After having a moment with myself, I “crawled” into Tema and stopped at the first street side vendor I could find. There also happened to be a big tree that gave plenty of shade which was exactly what I needed. At this point I felt very sorry for myself so I sent my wife a text message hoping she would do the same. She simply told me (like any good wife should), to rest for a few minutes and get on with it. I laid down on a small wooden bench and dozed off for about 45 minutes.

She was right! Surprisingly, most of the pain had gone away when I got going again and we made good progress towards our end goal. With 10km to go I made a quick stop to have another snack and a drink. Once we went over the next hill I saw a familiar site – it was the control tower of the Kotoko International Airport. YES! YES! YES! I raised my arms into the air (almost coming off my bike in the process) with the realisation that we have made it. Another 115km for the day in a little over 6 hours in the saddle. Total distance from Lagos to Accra, including the two detours, amounting to 549km.

I was overcome with joy! I have made it! Finally!

Ten minutes later we arrived at our hotel, checked in and ordered a double cheese burger with chips. Twelve minutes later it arrived at our room and I think it took me about 3 or 4 minutes to wolf it down.

I am so relieved and happy!