Back in November 2007 I was reading the MCN and there was a small advert advertising the first ever Brit Butt Rally. The rally was advertised as a long distance endurance event over a 36 hour period. The idea behind the rally is that you receive a rally bonus book with bonuses all over the country and you simply choose which ones you are going to visit. Each bonus is worth an amount of points and may also have other restrictions. Immediately, I realised that this was my kind of event and emailed the organisers to register my interest. There were only 50 available places so I was thrilled when I received confirmation that I had a place.

All I knew at this point was the rally would be for 36 hours and to be classed as a finisher you would need to cover a minimum mileage and gain a minimum amount of points, the mileage and points required was at this point unknown. There would also be a Rally meeting in March 08 where more information and advice would be presented.

The winter was long but the Rally was never far from my mind. I was always thinking of possible routes around the country, working out rough mileages and times between different cities and regions. All of this was theoretical though because the bonus locations were unknown.

The meeting in March was in Stafford, a 3 hour drive for me and because of the bad weather I decided to go in the car. The meeting was good and we had several different presentations from 3 entertaining guys, 2 of which are US Iron Butt Veterans. I listened intently to what they had to say and came away with a few good tips. I was also chuffed with myself in that the majority of what was being said I had already thought of and noted over the winter. The one funny thing that I noticed in the meeting was that everybody was fairly confident of doing well in the rally. I think the whole room wanted to win - me included. The key piece of information that was provided was the minimum mileage, which had been set at 1,110 miles. The minimum points and bonus book would be handed out at 9pm on the Friday night of the rally weekend. The rally would start at 6am the following morning and finish 36 hours later.

Unfortunately, shortly after the meeting I hurt my coccyx. The pain became umbearable over the coming weeks and I was unable to ride my bike. I visited the Chiropractor many times, which did start to slowly improve things and I also purchased a coccyx cushion. With a month to go to the rally, I was only able to ride 20 miles before I had to stop. I became really close to pulling out of the rally. I then upped the number of times I visited the Chiropractor and was soon riding 70 miles before I had to stop. Looking on the internet I then came across the Airhawk seat pad and purchased one with next day delivery - this was an absolute revelation and the week before the rally I managed a 200 mile ride - well chuffed, and another week would only improve things further, so I was fairly confident that I could complete the rally.

As the rally weekend approached I was so excited and slightly nervous. The bike was prepped, luggage packed and it was time to head to Stoke on Trent and the rally head quarters. I used the ride to Stoke as practice as I hadn't ridden as much as I would have liked over the last couple of months. I get to Stoke with only 1 stop, which I am happy with. The rally head quarters is based at a hotel, where all the riders are staying and eating. The carpark at the hotel is starting to get busy with bikes but I am in good time. I check straight into my room, change and then back to the reception area.

Friday is taken up with rally application, bike checks and odemeter checks. It is also a good chance to meet and talk with the other riders. By 8pm we are in the meeting room ready to receive our bonus pack, which is duly delivered at 8.30 PM. All riders are instructed to check their rally pack and make sure they are understood, we were also informed that the minimum points required for a finish was 25,000 and it was then a case of retiring to our rooms, where the plannig would start.

The bonus book had 60 bonuses and for each bonus there was the exact location, number of points available and what was required as proof to claim the bonus. The proof required was a mixture of receipts and photo's.

For the planning I had taken with me a wall map of the UK, a laptop with Mapsource and a Garmin Zumo Satnav. I then simply started with the first bonus, found and saved the location on my laptop and also placed a sticker on the wall map. This took me 2.5 hours for all 60 bonus locations and I then loaded them all into the Satnav. Note that I had previosuly decided on a naming convention that would enable me to quickly see what a bonus was worth, the stickers were also colour coded to provide the same information.

Its now 11.30pm and I'm fairly tired and the rally starts in just over 6 hours. I now spend half an hour scanning the wall map to determine a good route to gain maximum points. A route soon jumps out at me and there I have it - a route. I note the numbers of the bonuses and write them down on a route sheet that I have in my tankbag. It is then a simple case of looking at the route sheet, which says bonus 'x', find bonus 'x' in the Satnav and click go.

Starting in Stoke on Trent my route would pick up 12 bonus locations and hopefully a good finish.

• Lancaster Services M6
• Morecambe Bay
• Inverness
• John o Groats
• Scourie
• Ullapool
• Uig, Isle of Skye 1
• Uig, Isle of Skye 2
• Eilean Donan castle
• Spean Bridge
• Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
• The Angel of the North

It was now time for bed.

Didn't get much sleep as I was thinking about my route calculations. The route I'd decided was around 1,500 miles - was that possible! there were penalties for returning late! Along with the other riders we were all down in the bike park by 5.30 ready for a 6am start. There were lots of talk and people were trying to psych each other out by saying the winning route will be here or there.... I was confident on my route and nobody was changing my mind. I think just over half the riders picked a route that would take them north and the rest picked a route that would take them south.

Pulled out of the bike park at 6am and straight onto the M6 northbound. I was keen to settle into a rythm and not to rush in the early hours, so settled at a steady 80mph. Sure enough several bikes came flying past me, but a good average was the way to do well, so I let them disappear into the distance.

I was soon picking up my first bonus at Lancaster services but because this was my first I decided to take my time, as any ommision to the rule book would result in penalties.

This bonus was quick and easy and as you can see a few other riders had also chosen this bonus. From here I had a short ride to Morecambe seafront for my second bonus.

Soon back on the road and heading north. My 3rd bonus was Clootie well just north of Inverness. Other than for fuel I made Inverness with no stops.

While collecting this bonus I gave myself a 20 minute break and had a snack to eat. Soon back on the road and heading towards the top at John o Groats. The bonus book stated that the rider had to be in the photo to claim this bonus, seriously, if I wasn't in the photo then I would have lost the available points, which for John o Groats was 3000. For me this is half the fun of the event - riding, endurance and following the rules.

I was only stopped at John o Groats for the time it took to take a photo, so no opportunity to have a look around but I have been here on a bike several times before. From here the next bonus location is Scourie, which will involve me riding along the road, which goes along the very top of Scotland. We have been blessed with the weather and the road along the top is a dream, most of which is single track. It takes a good couple of hours to complete this ride but it goes by in a flash. The next stop is Scourie, where I meet a couple of the other competitors, which is funny because we have all been on a different route so far.

I'm starting to get tired at this point as I have hardly stopped since leaving Stoke at 6am. After 20 minutes I feel the urge to be riding again and head towards Ullapool. The Midges are horrendous and my visor is absolutely covered and I have to stop a few times to clean the visor. I am also concerned about Deer, I'm tired but you need your wits about you as I can see deer from the road and this is a remote part of Scotland and a Deer coming out on you is going to be a disaster. At the end of the Rally I learned that another rider and Deer wasn't so lucky. Now in Ullapool and I find the museum to collect the bonus. I meet another competitor here and he tells me that this is as far north as he is going, which starts to make me feel like I'm doing well, considering I've already been to John o Groats

The other competitor that I meet in Ullapool tells me that he is going to stop there in a BnB but I decide to press on towards the Isle of Skye. I make the Eilean Donan castle near the Kyle of Lochalsh but the sun has now gone down and this bonus is only available in the daylight. I decide to head to the top of the Isle of Skye where there are another 2 bonuses. Its 11pm as I ride through Broadford and I have nearly covered 1,000 miles today so I am ready for a rest, there is a 24hr garage where I fuel up and notice a hotel accross the road. I nip across the road and ask if they have any rooms, he has a single for 45 pounds so I take the room.

I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow and in what seems an instant my alam is ringing at 4am. I'm slightly annoyed with my self as I ride out of the hotel at 5am - I know that a 6 hour rest is no way to win an endurance rally, I had intended to stay for 3 hours. The weather was fantastic again and I soon started to feel better as I rode up to Uig. I was the only road user that morning and quickly bagged the following 2 bonuses.

From Uig I then rode back to the Kyle of Lochalsh and picked up the Eilean Donan castle, which had to be in day light hours.

I'm now continually calculating the mileage and time it will take to get back to rally head quarters. There are more bonus locations for me to claim but my top priority is to be back at base before the penalities start. For now, I will continue with the route and bonus number 10

From Spean Bridge, which is just north of Fort William, its a long haul to bonus number 11 at Holy Island. This was probably the hardest part of the rally as the early excitement had gone and the excitment of finishing was still to far away. It was a case of head down and ride the bike although I did have a small break just south of Edinburgh. Holy island is only open when the tide is out, so this bonus was worth a lot of points because you had to time the visit well. Well, I had perfect timing and rode the causeway over to the island. The bonus stated that you needed a photo of the ticket machine AND a car parking ticket. I gathered both and was on my way.

The next stop was the Angel of the North, just south of Newcastle. I've been past many times and I know you can see the Angel from a laybay on the A1. Double checking the bonus rule I discovered that to claim the bonus I had to take a photo of my rally towel at the foot of the Angel. So, off the A1 upto the Angel and the following photo.

My calculations were showing me that I needed to head back to Stoke but there was another high value bonus in Scarborough that I would have liked to grab. I decided to do the right thing and head back to Stoke, this was an exciting part of the rally because all the hard work was done and I just needed to get back to base. The closer to base I got the more nervous I became about making sure I got there - what could happen to stop me making base? Thankfully it was worry for nothing as I rode back into rally headquarters with 15 minutes to spare. Several riders rode back into base within the last half an hour of available time.

As soon as you get back to base you need to stop the clock with the rally team and verify your end mileage. Then you need to hand in all your photo's and trip paperwork including receipts, fuel log and photo log. This is one of the most important tasks of the rally as every omission will result in points deducted. The process took me an hour to complete and I did not receive a single penalty from any of the bonus locations or the paperwork that I handed in. As soon as you have handed in the paperwork you are then free until the awards are presented at 8pm.

A had a quick shower and although exhausted from the rally was soon in the bar having a well earned beer and a good chat with the other competitors. I knew my mileage was just shy of 1,500 over the 36 hours and I had collected 36,695 points and rumours was circulating that the winner had around 40,000 points, so I was confident of a good finish.

My finishing position was 8th, which I was very happy with. Roll on next year.