With that increased friskiness came more options as the new season began this month. I had been looking forward to SIR's Chili Feed brevet. New terrain, a chance to get out of town and a large contingent added to the sense of anticipation. The weather forecast dampened my enthusiam a bit as it did not look promising for photo-ops, but I decided to bring a camera along regardless. The morning began with a steady rain. I was glad that John and Joanne had decided to drive to the start from the Kent Best Westerm. Geri and I had a good look at the hill that I would have had to climb to get to the start while driving to have dinner the night before. Geri had offered to give me a ride to the start if I wasn't able to hook up with John and Joanne.
The rain, the dark, the hustle and bustle at the start of the ride were sorta deja vu all over again.
The snake of red lights at the start of the ride along with the sense of "not quite in control" that rain, darkness and steep downhills brought had a quality that was flat out deja vu and was my sensory highlight of the event.
My priority during the 1st half was to keep up with the mix of riders I found myself with, some of which were familiar faces. A paceline which had formed in the flats after the first control fell apart on the hill prior to the Black Diamond Bakery control.
The following interval felt sluggish. Contributing factors were actually having to read the cue sheet, uncertainty of directions as my computer mileage was off, tightness from staying too long at the control and being bummed at riding by myself. Luckily I only made one wrong turn with a minimal distance penalty. A few riders passed me to both annoying and reassuring effect. Nothing looked particularly photogenic.
Helped by Dave Rowe's friendly wheel I made it into Greenwater. A short stop but enough to provoke a good case of Raynaud's phenomenon. Thereafter, a dyssynchronous return to Kent, including yet another wrong turn.
Dyssynchronicity is, if it's confined to a hobby, not something to lose sleep over. But it makes no sense though to feel bummed about a leisure activity, and so I think about why. Back to too many options. Be social?, ride fast?, take pictures?, eat stuff I like? As I pondered these questions, Beth Hamon and David Rowe posted blog entries that helped me organize my thoughts . Not an easy task which is why this entry posts 2 weeks after the subject Brevet. Doing the right thing requires a truthful answer to the question- what do I want? At this time, if riding fast is the goal, then there's not much room for anything else. I do better with company and that's independent of drafting. I also need to be less self indulgent with chow- for me that means using Perpetuem. My friends know that I have not tasted that stuff since August. Speed is not going to be my goal every time I get on a bike, but sometimes going as fast as I can for a given distance is what I need.
