Since 16th December last year Chris Hall has ridden 107 kilometres every single day, building towards his target of reaching over 11,550km by 1st April. Fitting in the roughly five hours of daily riding around his regular job, the rules of the 107 for 107 challenge are simple: At least 107 kilometres must be ridden each day, rolling over distance to the next day is not allowed. There are no rest days.
But Hall isn’t simply a masochist. There’s a good reason behind his self imposed endurance ordeal; to raise money for the PACE Centre School.
Based in Aylesbury PACE works to support 107 pupils with motor disorders such as cerebral palsy.
Hall explained: ‘I was first introduced to PACE through my cycling club, Ripcor. The club has been fundraising for the school for over 10 years and some of the members have children who attended.
‘Each of the 107 children at PACE face daily challenges. Whether it’s waking up, getting to and from school or inside the classroom, every element of their day requires complex planning.
‘But seeing what Pace enables them to achieve, it’s just incredible. I want to make more people aware that schools like this exist and that they need funding to keep going.’
With one kilometre for each pupil, ridden each day for 107 consecutive days, that’s the equivalent of cycling from London to Geneva, every week for 15 weeks in a row.
Requiring rigorous planning, along with a daily 4:30am start, Hall has so far battled sickness and extreme weather on the way to his target.
‘I’ve definitely had my low points. Those times when I’ve cycled through the rain and the snow, and freezing my fingers to the point I thought they were going to drop off.
‘I was even out through Storm Doris! Having that headwind to battle was painful. I looked down and I was doing 500 watts and 15kph!’
Now on the home straight, he’s inviting people to donate to the PACE Centre and come and join him for a few laps around London’s Regent’s Park before he seta off to Belgium, for the Tour of Flanders and the last few days of his challenge.
You can join him on Tuesday 28th March for laps around Regent’s Park, Central London.
The group will meet at 6.55am at the Zoo entrance for a 7am rollout and will lap anti-clockwise until 8am. There’ll no doubt be time for a coffee afterward too.
Anyone wanting to donate to PACE should head to chrishallrides.com and follow the link to Just Giving.
You can see more about his progress on Strava and Instagram.