The Forty Ninth of my Forty donations goes to the Church of St Leonard the Less in the village of Samlesbury, Lancashire, England.
The Church of St Leonard the Less is an Anglican church in the village of Samlesbury, Lancashire, England, situated close to the banks of the River Ribble. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. It dates predominantly from 1558, with a tower added 1899–1900, and is protected as a Grade I listed building.
The majority of my family is buried here, my parents got married here and I was christened here.
It’s times like these that we consider those who are no longer with us; I appreciate how well the current custodians of this mortal coil have navigated through this damn pandemic – I love you all x
I am determined to be able to pull a Manual so despite me now being outside the period of performance, I’m still going to teach myself anyway and, all things being well, complete the original challenge.
To the uninitiated, a Manual looks a lot like a Wheelie but they are very different. Indeed, I can already pull a Wheelie but the ability to hold a Manual anything other than momentarily, and even then only really when rolling fast downhill, has eluded me thus far.
As points for distinction between the two: a Wheelie is easier when travelling uphill whereas a Manual is easier when travelling downhill. A Wheelie uses pedal torque (or the engine on a motorbike) to raise the front wheel, a Manual on the other hand, simply redistributes the weight of the rider to balance the whole bike and rider on the rear wheel by moving the riders position on the bike, relative to the bike.
Extreme example of a Manual to illustrate the point
I’ve done a bit of preparation on this and have realised a couple of fundamental things that thus far I have been doing wrong. The first is that up to now I have kept my seat too high and this was preventing me from pushing my hips out and back behind the saddle. The second is that I should have been covering the rear brake at all times so that when and if I pivoted too far backwards, rather than jumping off to save myself, I should simply touch the rear brake to rotate the bike more forward and then rebalance by moving my hips accordingly.
Finding the right balance point and being able to hold my bodyweight in that area by moving the position of my hips, bending my knees and not standing too tall seem to be key.
I guess very much like when you ride your bike you constantly make little adjustments left and right to the steering to stay in balance, are are always moving forwards and backwards either side of the balance point and not tip too far backwards or allow the front wheel to come back down.
I’ve probably managed about four feet so far and as my shoulder is so sore and an MRI is pending, I will be coming back to this post to update it as my journey progresses; doing so presents an excellent opportunity to record my progress over time.
I have to admit that for a 40+ year old man, developing this skill is likely to raise some eyebrows but it is really good for my sense of balance, for general bike control and I simply have to be able to pull one!!!!
This is my starting point – clear to me now why this Manual is already too far gone. Too much of my bodyweight is to the rear and I’m trying to address that by moving my body weight forward by bending my arms when I should be keeping my arms straight and moving my hips instead!
One Blue Ocean® is a global social change non-profit that strives to ensure a healthy blue ocean. They and I believe our ocean is essential to all life and that people are the solution to make meaningful change.
One Blue Ocean’s mission is to empower individuals to adopt ocean positive habits and shift cultural behaviour around the world.
One Blue Ocean® is built on the idea that creativity has the power to motivate. Their approach uses positive visual media and unique educational initiatives to build community and connection.
One Blue Ocean’s flagship project, The Great Ocean Experience, is an immersive, multisensory touring exhibition designed to inspire awareness and ignite change.
I consider myself to have significant first hand experience of the Ocean and am a creator who likes to share his view and experience of the Ocean with others via this 40s 4 40 blog, with photography on my Instagram @cjburgoine and video via my YouTube channel so I feel an affinity with what these people are doing and a great respect for the making what they love and are passionate into their day job. So I have donated.
As I went to donate, it was not clear which currency but the note at the bottom of the screen refers to US legislation so I have assumed USD.
I actually introduced myself to Henthorne, the CEO of One Blue Ocean® in Male airport having crossed paths with him a number of times in the Maldives, most notably when we are diving to observe the Manta Rays at Hanifaru Bay.
It is thanks to Henthorne that I found out how many Manta Rays were in the area that day and our interaction led to me speaking to and getting in touch with the Manta Trust.
A ‘Forty’ is a glass or plastic bottle that holds 40 US fluid ounces (1,200 millilitres) of malt liquor. Malt liquor, is beer with a high alcohol content, generally above 6%.
The origin of malt liquor dates back to the 1930s when brewers didn’t have enough malt to make beer (driven by the Great Depression and rationing during World War II). While typical beer is made primarily from barley, water and hops, malt liquors tend to use more inexpensive adjuncts such as corn, rice, or dextrose resulting in a higher alcohol content than an average beer.
Malt liquor has a place in the history of hip-hop culture where it has been celebrated by hip-hop stars such as 2Pac, Ice Cube, N.W.A, Cypress Hill, Eazy-E, Snoop, Wu-Tang Clan, Warren G, Nate Dogg, and Eminem for being cheap and strong but admittedly, of low quality.
Through the mid 1960s, malt liquor companies began marketing towards an African-American market and by the late ’80s, 40s were showing up in many rap songs and Eazy-E had an entire song dedicated to Olde English, called “8 Ball,” on N.W.A.’s first album.
“Police on my draws, I have to pause, 40 ounce in my lap and it’s freezing my balls”
Arguably, malt liquors were most popular in the early 90s and some of the most influential rappers of the day including Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Ice Cube, the Geto Boyz and Wu-Tang Clan appeared in commercials celebrating the the most popular of the 40oz – St Ides.
Sales for malt liquor are lower in recent years and rappers seem to have refined their taste somewhat, instead rapping about drinking Courvoisier for example…
“Got about 25 goons in my posse; They drink Baileys, I drink Vossy”
Nonetheless, Forties remain an important part of hip hop lore.
Forties do not seem to be freely available throughout the World and although similar types of alcoholic beverages are available in the UK, for example Super Strength, they do not seem to come in 40-Ounce bottles.
I had my eyes set on a trip I had planned to the United States of America in 2020 but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The same trip is now likely to take place in 2022 so outside the original period of performance but as soon as practicable.
Therefore, I will update this post when I finally get my hands on a ‘Forty’!
I’ve looked in lots of countries since starting #40s440 and writing this blog post but it seems ‘Forties’ are only available in the USA and having spoken to a number of locals (including liquor stores and wine merchants) they assured me the most likely place to find one was in fact a Gas station!
So, at long last and as advised, I found my first ‘Forty’ in a Gas station outside Boston, USA on the 21st of September 2022 – more than two years after I set out to find one 🍺.
Mobil, 338 Squire Rd, Revere, MA 02151, United States‘The Champagne of Beers’ #40s440
The 47th of my 40 donations goes to the Manta Trust.
The Manta Trust’s mission is to conserve mobulid rays, their relatives, and their habitats, through a combination of research, education and collaboration.
The Manta Trust’s goal is a sustainable future for the oceans, where manta rays and their relatives thrive in healthy, diverse marine ecosystems.
To realise their goal, for the next five years the Manta Trust frames its activities and efforts around a core objective:
“To see all species of manta rays and their relatives protected or effectively managed for sustainable / non-consumptive use by the people closest to them, in a means that promotes wider ocean conservation.”
I travelled to the Maldives recently for some much needed R&R and took the opportunity to fulfil a life-long ambition to dive with a Manta Ray.
I was blown away to find myself freediving amongst a squadron of over 100 Manta Rays feeding in Hanifaru Bay:
As I was enjoying the spectacle, I noticed some fairly well kitted out freedivers in the water which was intriguing but I was too focussed on the Mantas to pay too much attention at the time. However, I kept seeing a group of people with oceanic survey equipment, cameras and one of the group had a shark tattoo and a PADI face mask so I finally introduced myself to one of them in the airport at Mali.
That particular individual was Henthorne the co-founder and Director of One Blue Ocean. He explained that the others were all from the Manta Trust and they were working together and indeed were the same people that I saw freediving, taking pictures and doing research amongst the Manta Rays whilst I was in Hanifaru Bay!
I then introduced myself to the rest of the group, commended them on the work they are doing and took some contact details.
I hope to be able to get in touch and share my videos with them, I hope they will appreciate them and they may even see themselves freediving with the Mantas!
Having been on well organised trips to see the Mantas and do some Scuba around Baa Atoll, I decided to simply snorkel from the beach where we were staying on Dharavandhoo Island and had an incredible experience with Eagle Rays, a Turtle, a Shark, a Barracuda and to top it off a lone Manta Ray!
I noticed the Manta above me heading east quite quickly in much shallower water but upon seeing me, instead of fleeing or just carrying on, it turned to see what I was and in doing so circled me before swimming off east again. This felt like a really personal interaction and one that I will treasure for the rest of my life:
Thanks to the lone Manta flashing his underside when he circled me as I freedived off @kihabeachmaldives the clever conservationists @mantatrust were able to identify him as ‘Mr. PADI who is one of the more common male mantas we see in Baa Atoll, his ID image is below’:
Incredible!
What an amazing experience and conclusion – I reckon he did it on purpose, the show off! 😂
You can submit pictures of Manta Rays for identification purposes to: www.mantatrust.org/IDtheManta
info@mantatrust.org
http://www.mantatrust.org/
So it is with great pleasure that I can make a donation to this great organisation, it was a pleasure meeting and dealing with them; respect to the work they do!
When I challenged myself to do a 40 second handstand, I had visions of impressive calisthenics against an stunning backdrop, the result in reality was somewhat different!
Don’t get me wrong, the location on Kiha Beach in the Maldives was great but my performance woefully less so…
Yep, I cheated by resting my legs against the tree
This is the first time I’ve held a handstand (supported or otherwise) for any length of time so that remains a positive new experience.
Thanks to Zalina for her camerawork and timekeeping!
I clearly haven’t put enough time into this (read almost none) but figured that as I recently turned 41, I simply need to demonstrate where I’m at and get it done as best as I can.
I would like to progress this further but for now am resting and recuperating and really need to more permanently address the ganglion cyst that appeared after my bike accident in mid-2019 before I can regularly put the necessary pressure on my wrists to advance this in any meaningful way.
The 46th of my 40 donations goes to the Dharavandhoo Health Centre who helped me when I needed it in the Maldives.
The funds will go toward the infrastructural development of their Health Centre and to facilitate community health awareness programmes.
I really appreciate their friendly, cooperative and progressive approach. We also did our pre-flight PCR test at this facility and they were professional, hygienic and swift.
Thank you!
Pre-donation
Mid-donation
I paid $53 into the fund so based on the exchange rate below, in the right ball park!
For the avoidance of doubt, I did not graffiti the outer wall…
I thought I’d have this nailed and to be fair, I have taught myself to run faster and with better form but maintaining a sub-4 minute pace per kilometre for even 5k has proven challenging for a number of reasons (excuses).
My original plan was to race a 10 km race. However, this has not taken place for two years running due to COVD restrictions.
I decided that I would therefore use the 10km Run part of the ITU World Triathlon Championship Olympic distance race on my 41st Birthday as the event to put down an official time.
However, due to weather conditions the Olympic distance was shortened to a Sprint, the run therefore only being 5 kilometres!
My previous best 10k was 45:08 but I have not set an official time to challenge it or compare with.
In terms of 5k, my PB was 21:37 at Park Run back in 2014 (I’ll post the details up soon) and the two official 5k runs I have done have not been this fact but were as follows:
Preston Park Run 5k:
Abu Dhabi Sprint Distance Triathlon, 5k:
You can see from the above that I can maintain a pace of around four and a half minutes per kilometres but this will equate to 45 minute 10k at best so I’ve got some work to do.
I will update this post when I enter an official race with 10km distance and will update with progress as I spend more time running on the run up to Manchester Marathon in April 2022.
To be updated…
Update 20/01/2022:
I entered a 10k race! I was due back in the UK with some work related thing so considered fitting a 10k race in while I was there.
Unfortunately my trip was cancelled but undeterred, I booked some leave, registered my place at Chester Zoo 10k and booked a flight… only for the race itself to be cancelled days later!
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!
My Friend found another 10k run in Heaton Park in Manchester that same weekend so we signed up to that instead!!
All being well, this one will actually happen and I can officially see if I have got any faster! In any case, it will be nice to get back to the UK for a few days regardless.
Heaton Park 10k:
I absolutely tried my best but it was too windy and too hilly for me to get a personal best. I was hoping for at least 44 minutes and wasn’t too far off the pace at times but just could not maintain it.
Garmin Data:
Guess now I need to work out what to do with my place from that old Chester Zoo race….!
The 45th of my 40 donations goes to the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal, on Remembrance Day.
The Royal British Legion are the United Kingdom’s largest Armed Forces charity, with 180,000 members, 110,000 volunteers and a network of partners and charities; helping them give support wherever and whenever it’s needed.
Cycling 40 kilometers in one hour was one of the original challenges. I have to say I haven’t done particularly well at it.
But I have made progress.
My original plan was to race at a 25mile / 40 km road race that usually takes place in late September just outside Riyadh. However, this has not taken place for two years running due to COVD restrictions.
I decided that I would therefore use the 40km cycle part of the ITU World Triathlon Championship Olympic distance race on my 41st Birthday as the event to put down an official time.
However, due to weather conditions the Olympic distance was shortened to a Sprint, the cycle therefore only being 20 kilometers!
My previous best was 1:07 at the 2017 Abu Dhabi Olympic distance triathlon.
I downloaded Zwift and did a Funtional Threshold Power Test and got and FTP score of 239. This is against an pre-40s440 FTP score of 211 via the Kinetic app.
My Kirt Kinetic indoor fluid trainer has good feel to it but is not representative in terms of speed maintained. I did consider purchasing a direct drive trainer during lock down but was put off by the expense!
I will update this post when I can enter an official race with 40km distance and will update with progress as and when I use Zwift or simlar again.
