I did this! Just.... Here is what happened, if anyone's interested in reading my witterings.
So, bright and too sodding early, I hauled me out of bed on Sunday, and I was out of the house before 8am. Cycling through London in the quiet and daylight was fun. I saw a cluster of goths standing outside Angel station, clearly just emerged, blinking, from the depths of Electrowerks. (I had another moment of feeling that I'd betrayed my inner last-to-be-picked-in-PE child, with this getting up at daft-o-clock to do healthy exercise like some sporty person.) Anyway, I went pedal-pedal-pedal up to the start - arriving very early - and got myself a big breakfast and coffee, and talked a bit, and stood about feeling vaguely awkward a bit, and eventually we were off.
Cycling out of London was fine, if Very Very Hot. I was barely following the route sheet, and just following the other people. I got to the first info control (20k-ish in to the ride) and stopped to top up my sunscreen (a losing battle), and also to have a glug of *ice-cold slushy orange juice*. (I had frozen half a bottle of juice last night, and topped it up with cold juice this morning, and by the time I needed it, it was just getting melty. And I wrapped it in a spare vest top, to limit condensation, and that was COLD and lovely on my face.) There were some swooshy hills before (I think) the control, where 1) I nearly fell off cycling up. (I was easing off to change gear, and that brought me to a standstill. I squawked and just about managed to unclip. And then had to push my bike to the next driveway to get going again.) and 2) where I set a new Marna Speed Record on the downhill - 52kph!
And after the control I got lost! I was whizzing along perfectly happily and forgetting about instructions, and I realised that I'd been doing this for what seemed like ages, and a quick look at map+routesheet conformed that I'd missed a turn. Oops! A sensible person might have gone back, but I figured that I could wiggle about and rejoin it a bit further up, rather than retrace my steps. And I did, but slowly, with frequent map-checkings. Eventually I was back on track, and last. I figured that I'd need to get a move on to get to the control before it closed, and it was really hot by this time. I put some Very Bouncy Music on the mp3 player and got moving.
I was almost at the control, with maybe 20 minutes to spare, when - poof - p*nct*r*. I started fixing it, and a person leaving the control - heading back - came by and offered to nip back and let the folks there know that I was patching my poor bike up. Meanwhile I nabbed a sossidge sandwich and started chomping as I worked, and got everything fixed with only a minimum of cursing. Got the tyre back on, started pumping, and OH NO! valve broke. So I repeated the whole thing again and had just finished up when the people from the control came past, bringing food water (and better pumping power than I could muster).
They were cycling back to the start, so I tagged along with them for the return journey (and held them up, but they said they didn't mind), which felt even swelterish than the way out, possibly because I was slower, because tired. Hills are bonus-horrid in too much heat, because the cooling breeze of whooshing is not there. And I'm v slow up hills when fresh, and even slower when tired. And eventually we got back to Finchley, where I inhaled an assortment of cold drinks, and nattered a bit, and then hopped back on my bike for the trek home - A1, then City Road and down to London Bridge and home. The way home is nearly all downhill - hurrah!
I arrived home feeling quite flooped, but popped myself in the bath and told Sean all about my adventures, before having pizza and beer with Juliet and doop. Today I am achey about the knees and bottom, slightly. Not enough to stop me cycling into work. Also I am feeling sunburned in patches - sunscreen would not stay on! And I have even more of a white-paw, brown-arm look going.
Beastwatch (alive): GOAT! Sheep, cows, horses, a squirrel cavorting in the road.
Beastwatch (dead): Badger (lying with paws in the air in comedy-dead pose), squirrel, hedgehog, bunny, many more too-squished-to-tell.
Notes: That frozen-juice thing was genius. I should get a second water bottle cage. I possibly should invest in some manner of cycling top for this sort of lark, because the vest top I was wearing exposed easily-burned patches of shoulder and back, and I got gently singed there. I should possibly invest in some sort of short thing that's better than Decathlon's cheapest - I am noticeably comfier in the bottom when wearing my tights, which have more and wider padding. Sunglasses and a hat wd have been good, too. *curses tiny head* Hills are horrid. THE END
