SOUTH TO LOUTH

After riding through night, Sheila arrived in Louth at around 6.20 am – and is hanging around for only an hour before heading off to the next control point at Spalding.
She won’t have seen much of it in the dark but 16 miles before Louth, Sheila passed through Caistor, where one of Jesus’ lesser-known apostles was (allegedly) martyred by the Romans during a flying visit to Britain in 61 AD. “Simon called Zelotes” was one of the Twelve Apostles and, according to The Catholic Encyclopaedia, could have been the cousin of Jesus or even a son of Joseph from a previous marriage.
Whatever his pedigree, Simon’s problem was that he arrived in Britain right in the middle of Boudicca’s revolt. Boudicca was justifiably irritated that, on the death of her husband, she had been flogged and her daughters had been raped by the Romans. Gathering together an army of 100,000 similarly disaffected tribespeople, Boudicca had already burned down London, Colchester and St Albans by the time Simon The Apostle breezed into the Roman camp at Caistor and started preaching a banned religion to the bewildered Roman troops.
Not surprisingly, it all ended rather badly for poor St Simon. Some accounts suggest that Simon was crucified in the traditional way and others say that he was sawn in half but, either way, provoking the Romans during The Iceni’s viscous rebellion was probably not a good idea and it is small wonder that he came to a sticky end.
To get to Louth, Sheila had ridden 728 miles. The finishing line in Loughton is now only 164 miles away and she has a little under 24 hours to get there if is she is going to complete the course within the deadline.
Ordinarily, Sheila would gobble up 164 miles in very little time but she has had very little sleep, is very, very tired and the weather today in Lincolnshire could be challenging - with south westerly headwinds gusting at up to 22 mph…