Herman Ramsey's 'Asparagus and Strawberries' 400km - my only shot at the distance for PBP qualification, but I had the horrid lurgy, so had to ride. Its a lovely route, a tour of some of the best bits of East Anglia: endless lovely old villages and churches, the Broads, North Norfolk coast at Wells, the cult Red Lodge cafe [an acquired taste, I know], no fenland, thank goodness! Oh, and a ferry ride, if the clanky old Reedham contraption counts.
I had a sore throat and felt very sluggish, my gullet got so swollen that I couldn't drink from my bidon without choking; honestly, I was glad I was only trying to get water down as it kept dribbling out of my nose, lovely. I could sip normally by removing the top, and tried to do this as much as possible at every stop, but by Wells I was extremely dehydrated. By being so slow, I missed the chippy, which shuts at 9pm, so headed for the Indian Restaurant near the quay, spending far too long there, but downing about 3 litres of water. I was being looked after by Deniece and Brian [notp] at this point, for which I was truly grateful. En- route to Red Lodge, Deniece had a gear cable snap and in the dark none of us could work out how to replace it [being campag ergothingies, too much for Brian and me with our Luddite CC 7sp downtube levers]. D continued with one very high gear, which we bodged into a more moderate two-speed at Red Lodge. At the cafe they had run out of rhubarb crumble, shock!! But heartened to find plenty of riders still there, including Arabella.
Leaving RL in daylight I was even slower....Deniece later took off on a different and she thought possibly quicker route, Brian and I sticking to the lanier bit after Saffron Walden, but he had a plan....a second breakfast at a cafe in Sible Hedingham! This seemed to perk me up and I finished at Dedham in reasonably good spirits, shortly after Arabella, with Deniece coming in minutes later! Though I never felt I should pack, it was a worry to be thinking about the time limit, but in the end I had well over an hour in hand.
Though there was some rain in the form of thundery showers on the early stages, I was glad the bad weather didn't coincide with 1] darkness and 2] my lowest point, energy-wise. In the past, when I've packed, [only four times in 12+ years - 2x600s, 1x400 and a 150] its been through illness [silly sod - should have stayed in bed] compounded by poor weather, darkness or its imminent onset, the bonk and minor mechanicals. I took about another week to shake off the bug and the same again for normal service to be resumed. PBP was easy by comparison!
