Ben, what's the idea behind Gillingham Rising?

So Gillingham Rising has been born out of a group of first and foremost business owners that are all based in the town.

It's actually spiralled to a lot more of a wider group than that and we have people who are just residents, we have people from some existing organisations and the whole idea behind Gillingham Rising is to create social and economic opportunities for Gillingham Town.

And some of the mechanisms we're using for that are like our fair today where we've got independent businesses coming onto the meadow.

Hopefully should be a good family fun day.

Bouncy castles, we've got some animals down from Magistin Farm, some kids activities and then various stalls.

So this is our first event and hopefully first of many more.

So is this likely to be an annual event?

Walkers through the early hours of the race and even a bit before when you realized the weather was going to turn this into a survival game.

Yeah, it was, it's a very interesting race because I feel like a lot of races you can decide pretty early what like tires you're going to use, what size, like you can kind of a chain ring, whatever.

You can decide like pretty easily, like pretty quickly what you're going to use.

Where Unbound, I had 50 mils, but I've got these Industry 9 mils that are like really wide internal wheels.

And so the 50s measured like 54.

And my bike has clearance for 54, which like 54 industry standard is, you can fit a lot bigger than 54, but I could barely fit like a finger between the tire and the frame.

And then I was riding, actually ended up riding by accident with the tech editor from Velo, Logan.

And in today's Gravel ecosystem, what Do you think it's the most valuable path for a privateer career? Is it winning several smaller, less known races or winning one monumental race like tracker or unbound and build your year around it?

[laughs]

... um, I think ever, ever a skeptic.

Um, which is good 'cause it, it does kind of balance my, you know, "Let's go out and let's go do it and let's get the..." You know, she kinda get- brings balance to the relationship.

And, um, so she, she saw that the single family side was legit and that it worked really well and that the system and the roadmap that Lifestyles put in place, uh, was correct and that we could do it.

Uh, you know, it was proven.

And then, you know, I started saying, "Hey, we need to start looking at going to the next level and start investing in, in some of these apartment complex and these multifamily deals." And so she was...

She wasn't sure.

Then once you got your deal, how did you raise the capital? Let's talk about that.

Oh, wow.

So we, we've been in Pennsylvania since 1690...

in Chester County since about 1692.

I grew up on county land.

My dad worked for the county, which is now preserved.

There's a really cool organization called Natural Land Trust, which is buying up land around the area to, to preserve it, to, to put it into permanent conservation.

But I grew up on, on county land, and developed my love of nature just exploring the forests, exploring the Brandywine, hunting and, and gardening.

So like is it, does it really just come down to budget then? Is that like why it's not happening?