By Maddy C, Year 11

Last week, we had a talk from author and long-distance cyclist, Emily Chappell, about her journey through life, including astonishing events like the trans-continental cycling race, which she covered in her book, “Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent.”

We listened to her teaching us about the development she made with herself throughout her life, sharing her favourite moments and lessons which she took from her journey. Emily started with a journey around the world on a bike, after discovering her passion from cycling when delivering papers for 6 years when she was younger. She then shared with us the difficulties she faced when cycling her first competitive race, unfortunately having to pull out. However, she returned to the same trans-continental race and despite taking an accidental long detour and losing motivation, she won. Emily then showed us how she inspired many more women to take part in the race, and to start taking on their passions elsewhere.

We heard all about Emily’s experiences of a wide range of different places she had been with different people, and how she tackled some of the problems which she faced on the way. A number one lesson which we all learned from the talk was ‘Food is always the answer’.

We really enjoyed the talk with her, as we discovered a lot of things which encouraged us to think about and develop our passions like she did, and we hope to see her again!