Oh well best I add my sixpenneth worth of Dun Run ride report now I'm safely back home after what will become obvious was a somewhat more interesting return than the ride
This year (only my second for you seasoned Dun-ners) I was unfortunately going to be solo and hadn't really got the wherewithal to try to tag on to any yacf-ers or Audaxers or try to see where the aforementioned gather in London Fields. So having lost my sunglasses under a taxi wheel within 5 minutes out of Waterloo I thought this my not be an auspicious start, but was proved wrong. I didn't want or need to hang around too much after dragging across the city so left with a small group from the pub about 7:50. Unusual bit of weaving in and out of traffic through Hackney but nothing to fractious and then on to the drag-race that is the run through Epping Forest. I bounced forward from group to group and was also passed by little bunches of club riders, London Dynamo, Dulwich (must have been over a hundred in total throughout the night!!) and Ipswich to name a few.
My idea was to ride to the Fox at Finchingfield before stopping, though I did stop briefly just after Moreton (which was surprisingly quiet at that time) to put on a base layer before it got dark. Got to the Fox at 10:30-ish and had a coffee and half of one of my flapjacks. Then on to Needham Mkt for my next stop at the hotdog stand by the lake. The ride was uneventful except for a couple of issues; following a fast group through a village who's name I've forgotten when actually you needed to turn left (which was actually a straight on!!) and having to yell to try and get them to stop, they didn't hear me or they ignored me, don't know they didn't stop. I retraced and Uncle Garmin got me back on track. Then when trying to exert a bit of extra speed on uphills I decided to stand up and stomp the pedals, oops this didn't work as the chain decided it wanted to part company with the chainring every time. Looking at it in the cold light of day it's obviously stretched and I've just been too lazy to notice, good excuse to visit the bike shop now.....
I'd also not drunk enough during the night as when I got to Needham and started chomping on that 'oh so wanted' hotdog I noticed it felt like soggy concrete and I had to drink copious amounts of coke to help it down. When I looked at my bottles I'd barely drunk half of one!! note that away for PBP!
As said earlier I got to Dunwich for dawn and after an hour or so tootled off to Ipswich hoping to get the early train, no joy, so after a soul-less hour in McDs I went back to the station and here's is where my Dun Run 2015 really got interesting, a transcript follows:
Me: Hello I'm on the 9:43, though my ticket says 9:50 but I do have a bike reservation, can I get in please?
Abellio Rep: Yes certainly sir, can I check your name and reservation?
Me: Certainly here you are (hands over printed reservation slip)
Abellio Rep: That's great just go through to the end of the platform and we'll let you on about 10 minutes before it's due to leave......oh and by the way no trains are going to Liverpool St because there's been an accident with a bridge between Witham and Chelmsford so you'll have to cycle to Chelmsford.
Me: Huh, what, how, why....how far?
Abellio Rep: There are replacement buses but they're not taking cycles so you lot will need to cycle to Chelmsford but don't worry its only 10 miles.
Me: oh well its sunny and that's not too bad I suppose. (this attitude hadn't been universal and not all cyclists had even been told this little nugget of information)
So, we happy (!?!?) bunch got let on and as it started to rain while putting the bikes onboard we were told that Witham wasn't the stop it was Colchester, and that was about 35 miles, this was greeted with hoots of derision. But after a few angry retorts we were told that someone at Chelmsford would sort us out. 25 minutes later after a delay at Manningtree we were dumped off at Colchester, and after being held queueing to get out all cyclists were told to go and wait in the carparks
40 minutes later we were still waiting for someone to come and tell us what was going on ( a couple of people had gone in but couldn't find anyone willing to own up to being an employee of Abellio Greater Anglia. Then a station security guard (seems the Abellio bus finder general had done a runner) came out and gave us the great news that 2 coaches were running to Chelmsford, hurrah followed by boo when he carried on to let us know that these were for everyone not just us and hat we'd have to wait while the dumped the non-cyclists off first and then returned for us and oh by the way they can only take about 12-15 bikes per coach. Lynch mobs in western saloons have sounded quieter after that bit of info. The coaches came and took the happy campers away and then some brave souls decided to taxi it down at the exhorbitant fee of >£70 per taxi, max two bikes!!! Coaches came back about 45 minutes later, so obviously there were more coaches than we knew off and we were eventually dropped off at Chelmsford at 2:45 to be told get on Platform 2 the train to London goes at 2:58, hurrah again.
But boo again when we get onto Platform 2 and the signs says 'cancelled' followed 5 minutes later by an announcement that ALL trains to London are cancelled TFN and that they'll get back to us in about 20 minutes when they get any info. half and hour later, trains will be running to London but not for another 40 minutes or so and oh you need to go to Platform 1. Cue scene from the Titanic when they all rush to the stern and you get the idea. 20 minutes later we're all over the other side when we get the announcement "Abellio Greater Anglia are sorry to announce that the train to London Liverpool Street will now be departing from Platform 2" I kid you not, even in my sickest mind I couldn't make up stuff like this. So of we all went again with the manic station announcer berating everyone to move along the platform.
When the train arrived it was a local service with no guards van for bikes so they got stacked wherever they fitted, on 1 wheel, right and wrong way up.
Eventually I arrived in London just after 3pm, nearly 8 hours after arriving at Ipswich
Oh and then I had the fun ride back across London to Waterloo to get my 1:15 ticket endorsed for a later time to get on the 4:15 Exeter train back to sunny Somerset.
See you all again next year
