WHEN Claire Davis started to experience shortness of breath, loss of taste and a fever at the beginning of March she self-quarantined on government advice.
Although her condition were not severe enough to warrant an official test or hospitalisation, she believes she had Covid-19, after a number of her colleagues came down with the same symptoms.
Now in recovery and missing her formerly fit lifestyle, the 38-year-old avid cyclist and runner has taken on a charity fundraising challenge organised by endurance athlete Mark Beaumont every Thursday.
The record-breaking cyclist has hosted an online event replicating a day-in-the-life of his circumnavigation of the globe, or 240 miles, for the last two weeks.
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Using the online platform Zoom, more than 400 people have joined Olympians, Paralympians and athletes including Steve Bate MBE, Mel Nicholls and female round-the-world record holder Jenny Graham, to raise more than £75,000 for NHS Charities Together, tripling his original target of £25,000.
Others who’ve taken part have done everything from run a mile in their back garden to row 20 miles in their kitchen to cycling with Mr Beaumont for the entirety of his epic 240-mile ride.
Starting at 4am last Thursday, Ms Davis, from the Black Isle, using her road bike and a turbo trainer platform to keep it static, covered 160 miles in around nine hours, stopping for short naps to keep her strength up.
She said: “Before lockdown I would be cycling most days, or running or sea kayaking so when I saw a friend post the challenge online, I decided to go for it.
“I thought I’d probably only be able to manage about 100 miles after not being on the bike since I got sick.”
Ms Davis’ hasn’t been left with any significant lasting health issues but does still experience shortness of breath sometimes, which she puts down to her lack of exercise.
Being part of a community after so long with no contact with anyone has meant a great deal to her, as well as building up her fitness again.
“It felt great to be part of something again,” she said. “I loved the chat everyone had during the challenge, it was great to be talking to be people after so long on my own and to have that going all day.”
When Mr Beaumont gets on his bike in his living room in Edinburgh every Thursday in the early hours, his goal is to support the participants of the challenge by being “the first on, and the last off”, usually hanging up his cleats after 8pm.
The group have already circumnavigated the planet with more than 18,000 miles clocked, and while the UK is in lockdown, there are no signs of them stopping.
In 2017, Mr Beaumont smashed the world record for cycling around the globe by 44 days - completing the 18,000 mile route in just 79 days. Had Covid-19 not swept the world, the Perthshire-born athlete would be in Malawi now on an expedition, and preparing for a big race in America.
But while his day-to-day life looks very different, he is making the most of lockdown by spending time with his family and continuing to make an impact on causes he believes in.
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He said: “There’s two reasons [for setting up this challenge], one is trying to make a difference to frontline healthcare charities but the other, which is equal to me, is giving people something positive to focus on they can really commit to.
“Those are the things that people look back on positively and with a huge sense of purpose.”
With riders joining the Zoom sessions hailing from as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Dubai, it is truly an international effort and the challenge, in some ways, could be seen as a metaphor for the bloom in community spirit and support that has taken root globally.
Mr Beaumont said: “A lot of people who have taken part thought they could never do something like this, whether it’s 50, 100, 150 or the 240 miles, it’s a really tough challenge. The wonderful thing about sport is not just the physical aspect but also being connected to a community of people also pitting themselves against something difficult.
“The real life-affirming stuff often comes from being outside of your comfort zone because that’s what defines us. Not just to take the easy road. I think that through the struggle and the sense of connecting with people, we’ll look back and we’ll say, ‘man, that was tough but it felt good and I’m in a better place for it’”.
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