This was my 30th club ride of the year, and also something of a landmark. Even up to the last minute I wasn't sure whether I was going or not, due to a stiff neck. Given that we are running out of days in December though, I decided to get in a club ride and see if, by any chance, I could extend it into a 100km job to finish the Metric Century a Month Challenge. Miracle of miracles, job done!
There were only two of us on the relaxed ride today, just me and Lisa. It was a forty-something mile, very chatty ride over to Eastnor Castle near Ledbury, then up to the foothills of the Malverns and back to Gloucester via Staunton. Wore my shorts, for possibly the last time this year, and it was cold ... and damp. Came across two quite big floods, but not very deep ones, and we made it through OK. Actually had a nearly dry run through one of them as I slipstreamed a car that was doing a good impression of the parting of the Red Sea. Then hit a ford in the aptly named "Clenching Mill Lane". One look at the torrent sweeping through it and I certainly clenched. We picked our way over a narrow concrete ledge of a bridge at the side of the ford, and then began a slowish trudge back home via the Malverns, which remained invisible in the low cloud.
Once back at Kingsway, I found myself almost exactly 20 miles short of a metric century. With only 18 days left in the year, I asked myself whether I would ever get a better chance to complete a 100km ride. Although nackered and aching by now, it was a no-brainer, and I set off down the A38 to Slimbridge, not wanting to have wasted the last eleven months worth of effort. Lacking the mathematical skill of Carol Vorderman, I chose a turning back point a good mile or so beyond where I could actually have turned, and slogged my way home via the lanes between Frampton on Severn and Gloucester. Once nearly home, I made the mistake of taking the lane through Stonebench, along the banks of the Severn, which had recently broken its banks - Another big flood to pick my way through. My Ridgeback is now filthy.
After hoovering up a big bowl of soup and taking a long, hot bath, I can now look back on this challenge as being one of the best things I have ever done. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is tempted to try it out next year. The nature of the challenge means getting out there in all kinds of weather, battling against ailments, and juggling your social calendar but, take it from me, it is well worth it all for the feeling of personal satisfaction it gives you. If only my old PE teacher could see me now. I went on the bodymass index thread the other day, and came out with the worst result possible, being (apparently) most like someone from Micronesia. Think I may just have just debunked this BMI business a little bit this year, what with climbing Alps and completing the Metric Century a Month Challenge.
Final mileage today: 64.2.
Cheers, Donger.
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