Fifteen years after my first time and two years on from my last time, I tackled the Dunwich Dynamo for the fourth time.

The author standing in front of the sea and a beach covered in what looks like a lot of dead cyclists, but they're really just tired.

After 188 km, no sleep, and a restorative swim

This was the first time I’d ridden it on a bike with multiple gears. I thought that would make it easier, but I don’t think it helped at all. It’s tricky to make a direct comparison without a cycle computer (which I didn’t use) and I don’t know how much time I lost taking a break at feeding stations along the route, but in strict chronological terms I was slower than previous years. I left London Fields on Saturday evening just before eight o’clock, and arrived at the beach in Dunwich just after half past eight on Sunday morning.

I think having faster gears led me to exert myself more at the start of the race, leaving me more tired later on. Even though lower gears should make hills easier, I didn’t have the energy to stand up out of the saddle, and it still felt hard, just slower.

Another confounding factor was a lack of rest during the day before the ride. Normally, I’d try to take a nap on Saturday afternoon, but my neighbour had other plans that included breaking up a tree stump with a noisy and noxious two-stroke chainsaw, and I didn’t manage to sleep.

Although it had been boiling hot day and night in London, it was chilly out in the depths of East Anglia after sunset, and it’s clearly a significantly different climate. It felt like travelling back in time: I’ve already foraged blackberries in London, but in the Suffolk countryside the brambles were only just losing their petals.

As last time, I saw Jonathan on the ride – this time a bit earlier on at a rest stop where he spotted me sitting on a plastic chair eating my provisions.

I did my best to keep myself supplied with fluid and fuel, but by around four o’clock somewhere on the outskirts of Needham Market I was finding it increasingly difficult to ride in a straight line. I excused myself from the conversation I was having with another rider, pulled up on a grass verge, ingested a couple of dextrose tablets, and lay down for a rest. I couldn’t nap, because every time I closed my eyes I saw kaleidoscopic hallucinations of cartoon faces and animals, but after a quarter of an hour I felt restored enough to carry on.

A cup of coffee, a bag of crisps, and sausages in a bun. They are all sitting on a wooden outdoor table, and it's clearly already full daylight

5 am breakfast of vegan sausage in a bun at Gosbeck

The hills in the last few kilometres to the beach seemed especially intolerable, but somehow I managed them.

I rewarded myself with a dip in the sea and a beer, took the ten o’clock coach, and slept most of the journey back. We reached our destination (Millwall Stadium, 1.6 km from my house) just before two. I barely had to wait at all to get my bike from the moving van, and I was home by half past.

Will I do it again? Right now, I’d say no, but maybe in a year or two I’ll have forgotten how glad I was when it was over!