Dunwich Dynamo 2014 [XXII]

The Dunwich Dynamo has been on my radar as a possible bucket-list addition for a while. One that would be easy to decide to take part in fairly spontaneously, and equally easy to drop out of last minute. I was sort of half thinking that it would be doable this year - I cycled consistently through the winter, commuted plenty, and knew I would be getting plenty of kms in my legs on my Yorkshire Grand Départ trip - but it wasn't until George mentioned he was thinking of it too, that the prospect, sort of, crystallised. We procrastinated booking return coach tickets long enough for them to sell out, and it wasn't until G's dad offered to come pick us up from the beach, 200km away from the start point of this informal point-to-point audax, that we both finally committed. I then made a point of telling as many people as I could, out loud, so that I couldn't back out without shame.

By way of explanation, the Dunwich Dynamo, or Dun Run, is an annual, unsupported, free-to-enter bike ride that starts in London Fields, Hackney and ends on the beach at Dunwich, a once-prosperous medieval port town which has since been largely washed into the sea, leaving a pub and a couple of houses. There is no time limit and no official start time, though people tend to set off between 8-9pm meaning you ride it overnight. 

In fact our little group assembled about 9 and set off shortly after. The initial roll through Saturday evening Hackney was entertaining and thankfully easy to navigate by following the string of blinking rear lights, a tactic that would serve us well throughout. The route takes you through Essex, via Epping Forest, and by about 10.30 we were onto quiet country lanes. Rolling into a little village just before pub closing time we found the main street mobbed with cyclists, and decided it would be rude not to stop for a cheeky half and a Clif bar.

By this time it was dark, with thick fog and cloud cover preventing the nearly-full moon from helping us out any. We pushed on in a blur of blinking lights, dimly-lit villages and the odd roadside puncture repair, constantly stretching out our party, before regrouping at the next pee/banana stop. The pattern repeated until Tom dropped his chain and it wrapped itself impossibly around the crank arm. Not knowing exactly where we were in relation to the rest of our group I stopped with him at the side of the road, found the split link and set it right. It could have been worse but it cost us about 10 minutes on the rest of the guys and we would only catch up with them an hour or so later.

Tom and I found Peggy and Jack noshing pasta outside the only official food stop; a village hall just short of the halfway point. Jayesh was inside too, but George and Hassan had missed the detour and continued on the route. Tom made the call and we caught up with them half an hour later, hanging out at an enterprisingly-open greasy spoon in a Sudbury industrial estate. Of course we couldn't set off before quite a bit more peeing, bottle refills, Clif bars, bananas, Jelly Babies & arm warmers on/off, but eventually we did, putting our heads down and following the blinky lights again. 

Somewhere along the next stretch we stuck with a group playing rap from a boom box, which we quickly decided to push past, and somewhere in there George flatted, though I can't remember exactly when. 

The sun came up slowly and burned off some of the spooky fog that we'd ridden through all night, revealing regular bacon roll stops and the relentlessly quaint Suffolk countryside. We were keen to push on, but managed to stop for a couple of photo ops.

I'd felt ok throughout, but the last 30km or so was pretty tough. By this point we all really just wanted to be at the beach, which seemed a teasingly long way off. Tom and I stuck our heads down and formed a 2-man breakaway, smashing into Dunwich at 8.30am to be greeted by the wry smile of Paul, G's dad, and a cup of tea. A quick photo op on the beach and we piled into the team bus/broom wagon for a comatose ride back into London.

I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone involved in the Dunwich Dynamo, in a general sense, but specifically to my fellow riders; George, Jayesh, Hassan, Tom, Peggy and Jack, each of whom brought something valuable to this amazing experience. Also my overwhelming thanks go to Paul and Clare for the ride home!

Total time: 11.5 hours, moving time 8 hours. Total distance 187km, but the 13k from my house to the start makes it a nice round 200 for me. The Strava activity.