We woke up early due to going to bed so early last night. We got everything packed up in the Airbnb and got ready. We jumped into Boris and Tina drove Harry and I 5 minutes into Thurso for park run at 9:30am.
It was a small park run of 85 people and Harry was eyeing up any potential looking competitors. Harry ran off and Tina and I ran together. It was a beautiful (and flat) course!
On our first lap Tina and I saw Harry ahead in second place but sticking very close behind the guy in first. Then on our second lap Harry lapped us and he was miles ahead of the rest! Tina and I did our final lap running alongside some very funny ladies who were clearly struggling based on the language they were using. It did make us laugh!
At the end we got confirmation that Harry had won!!! His first park run victory!
We got some piccies before leaving…
We walked back to Boris the van to have a snack and get changed from our running clothes into our cycling clothes and wait for some bad weather to pass. We then headed off for our final 32km cycle to John O’Groats!
We cycled past a beautiful beach.
There was a very strong cross wind as we got closer and closer to the coast and John O’Groats but 1h30mins after we set off we made it to John O’Groats where Tina, mum and dad were waiting for us, cheering us on!
There was a lovely couple at the signpost who had seen us come in and asked what we had done. We told them about the challenge and about the charity we were raising money for and they wanted to know more about it. They said their son’s had struggled with mental health and so they wanted to support and gave us some money to add to our donation page – it was so kind of them!
We had a picture with Boris – Tina had added bunting to it saying ‘Barry did LEJOG’.
After taking many piccies we headed for the cafe to take shelter from the incoming rain and to celebrate with a cuppa and treat.
We had a little look in the gift shop and then got on the road for a two hour drive down part of the NC500 route (with beautiful views from the roads) to Craggan where the five of us are staying tonight in a cottage that belongs to mum and dad’s ex-neighbours.
Mum and dad cooked a yummy paella and we had a celebratory gin and tonic (thanks to Tom and Sarah who kindly bought us a lovely bottle of gin made by our wedding venue).
If anyone was waiting to see if we managed to complete the challenge before donating and now wants to (because we managed it!) then we would be so grateful. We are hoping to push for the £5k mark and are getting closer and closer!
Here is the link: https://www.justgiving.com/page/barry-towler-cycle-lejog
Thank you so much!
Look out for a final summary blog to come!
Towlers' Travels 
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