THE LAUNCH OF P.A.S.T WINTER 2022 / 2023
NFORC ride leader Meredith cycled from Munich to Venice with her partner Andy. 560kms over, through and sometimes under the Alps and Dolomites. Meredith distilled her experience into "7 things I learnt, cycling over a mountain range".
The PAST adventure series is all about spotlighting the amateur, the person who already won by getting to the start line. The person who maxed out their annual leave and went on an adventure. The person who had 9 hours without the kids so went to the forest for a camp out before being back for the school run in the morning.
We're not doing anything the best, or for the first time. We're not the fastest and we're not being sponsored. There's no medal at the end. We're powered by blissful ignorance and naive optimism and we're just f*****g doing it.
This series is designed to encourage people to get out there, in whatever way they want to.
Sue shared her vintage tales from her 3 week bike tour around Iceland in 1996. Inspired by reading Josie Dew’s “The Wind in My Wheels”, Sue and her partner set off on their Dawes Galaxy road bikes to explore the ‘Land of Fire and Ice’ along the 800 mile Route 1 Ring Road.
The winter of 2022, 2023 saw the launch of P.A.S.T. We hosted three evening events, the first Thursday of November, December and January. We had an absolute blast hearing from the people in our community.
We sold a total of 139 tickets, raised £918 in ticket sales and £280 from the raffles. A total of £1198. This is a significant sum and will help us pay for a bike mechanic qualification for someone in our community.
Shout out to Dan who let us host the series at Velo, free of charge. He also paid to get our promotional posters printed and made sure we had everything we needed every night. Thanks again Dan.
And huge thanks to all our 2022, 2023 story tellers who gave up their free time to prepare and share their story with our community. You’re all heros.
Cat Green, Sue Barrat, Nic Carass, Emma Plotnek, Meredith Sneddon, Kate Payne, Vee Kulkarni, Grace Compton and Mille.
Grace Compton, Co founder of local road cycling community, Cycle Like a Girl. rode from Glasgow to Milan with Thighs of Steel, raising over £100k for refugee support projects whilst having an absolute blast. She co-lead a group across four countries, navigating route planning, mass catering and finding wild camping spots for 20! Grace shared with us what she learnt about herself and others, and how the experience has shaped her approach to adventuring since.
What people had to say about it…
The PAST series is something that I felt very lucky to be a part of, I have never before been a member of such a captivated audience, and I was thoroughly entertained listening to 3 individually incredible and inspiring people.
Each story provoked thoughts of the motivations and impacts of cycling and how they affected the speaker. This was fascinating to hear, especially as it is a platform for amateurs whose stories often aren’t shared - I think this is what builds such strong connections within a bike riding community. Events like this are what cycling needs. @scott
“What I love about PAST is that it puts ordinary people in front of other ordinary people, on a stage that's not a stage, in a venue that feels like your coolest mate's front room. It's only after the introductions, when the speaker steps up and starts to glow, that you realise every one of them has an extraordinary tale to tell. And so, by extension, do you. PAST is to adventure what IKEA is to furniture design. Fuck me, yes: even I can do this!
Above all, I would recommend PAST to people who think they aren't adventurous.
David Charles - Thighs of Steel
”P.A.S.T is like sitting in a corner of a pub with your favourite adventurers, listening to them tell their stories and thinking “you know, maybe one day I could do some thing like that”" Emily Chappell
You can see all our P.A.S.T dates and get a ticket via this link here.
We would love to see a P.A.S.T in every city around the country…sound like a bit of you? Read on…
Why you should hold a story telling adventure night for your community.
Give the women in your community a platform to tell their story, uninterrupted.
Raise funds to reinvest in your community. Maybe you want to get outdoor first aid qualifications for your ride leaders. Maybe someone has a natural flair for mechanics and they want to do a course.
Dismantle the patriarchy, one professional amateur storytelling night at a time.
Demonstrate the power of women's stories.
Emma shared her story of cycling the Carretera Austral, also known as the ‘Southern Highway’. The Carretera Austral refers to the 1,240-kilometre road that runs through the northern stretch of Chilean Patagonia. , also known as the ‘Southern Highway’. With a week between Christmas and new year, Emma sorted child care for her boy Marlon and set out on an adventure.
How you can hold a storytelling adventure night for your community.
Find a venue.
Try and partner with a space that get what you’re tryna do. The average spend of someone who comes to one of our P.A.S.T events is £13. (£8 for a bowl of food and £5 for a beer. If you sell 40 tickets, that works out at £520 for the venue.
Establish the women and non binary people in your community who want to share their story.
We’ve found that often, the people with the best stories need a little nudge. This is part of the power of a P.A.S.T event, getting people to see the value in their stories.
Share with them a slide template so they can add photos.
We also include links to some resources that will help people share their story. We highly recommend this book by Bobette Buster (great name right!?)
Make an event on eventbrite and promote it.
Sit back and basque in the glory of the matriarchy.
