Reflections

Perhaps I haven't gone in to much detail about myself, but I'm currently a fifth year medical student at the University of Aberdeen. I joined the cycle tour as part of my fifth year electives project, doing a study on what we eat and how our bodies change while on tour. This was finally completed last week.

I'm quite proud of the final product to say the least, especially with all the planning that has gone in to it since the conception of the idea. My final reflections (included in the paper) are as below:-

Life is beautiful.

When I first moved to Aberdeen to begin my medical studies, I never thought I would catch the cycling bug. A few years of commuting to university later, I bought my first road bicycle.. and the shorts to go with it! So there I was, in my fourth year of medical school, getting many miles under my belt, itching for more. It was not until after the prospect of fifth year medical electives were mentioned, before I started planning the grand scheme.

Fourth year was a long haul, but with a little bit of pondering here and there, I found a way to incorporate cycling in to my final year of medicine - a nutritional study! I had actually volunteered as a subject for a nutritional study a few years prior to this, so it was not completely new to me.  This had the main benefit of requiring little equipment, while still providing useful information for the individuals involved.

Cycle touring was still a very foreign subject to me at the time, but with further reading, it was clear that very little research had been done on cycle tourists themselves. It seemed like a valuable opportunity to contribute to a hobby I love, while at the same time having an enjoyable experience myself.

Before I knew it, I was on a flight to Newquay - the closest airport to Land's End. I was not too keen on travelling south by train. It would have worn me out before the tour even started. I spent two nights in Newquay making sure all my paperwork for the study was in order, and assembled my bicycle that arrived from Aberdeen by courier.

Another blink of an eye, and there I was struggling up the hills of Dartmoor under sun that almost reminded me of home. This was day two, and I was thinking to myself, "How on earth am I going to get through another two weeks of this, and conduct the study as well?"

It did get easier afterwards. We were far from comfortable, but at least our bodies were too numb to feel the pain. In all honesty, the study itself did not start off smoothly either. To begin with, I had difficulty finding a private room to get some of the cyclists' physical measurements at our youth hostel. In fact, I finally resigned to temporarily setting up my array of equipment in the accessible toilet. It was not the most glamorous office, but the changing table functioned well as a desk. Plus, it was well lit and the floor was solid - something I did not truly appreciate until I realised later that the weighing scales would not work on carpeted floors.

I ran (cycled?) in to a few more minor issues throughout the tour. I freely admit, it was very difficult to know what exactly to do when I did not have someone practically holding my hand the entire time. With my supervisor being all the way back in Aberdeen, I had no choice but to adapt to the situations as they arose. In a way, I was glad that I was left to my own devices. It was a great chance to learn to be more resourceful when necessary.

It was quite impressive to see all the foods on offer as we made our way north - Cornish pasties, traditional Cumberland sausages, Bakewell tarts, and finally haggis when we crossed the Scottish borders! Some of these terms were actually new to me, which made it hard to understand what exactly the cyclists meant when they said they had, for example, a cream tea. As a responsible investigator, I did personally sample some of these delicacies in order to gain a better understanding of the food culture in the UK!

Time flew by after our single rest day in Stirling, and not long after we eventually arrived in John O'Groats, the north-eastern tip of Great Britain. The atmosphere at our evening meal changed completely that night. It was the sudden realisation that that was it. Back to our normal lives. To Earth.

It was strange seeing for the second time some of the places we had cycled through, this time from the window of a coach. It was such an honour to have met everyone on the tour, and to be given such a magnificent opportunity to broaden my horizons. 

As I said before, life is beautiful..

..you just need to make things happen!