It was cold, dark, and raining when I set out this morning -- since so many of you are Californian, I'd say it was "pouring", but being an Oregonian I just can't state that in good faith. Since Sean had cancelled, I was riding solo, but I brought a Napolean pocket full of Les Claypool to keep me company on the way.
The first few miles were great: rain, rain, and even lightning as I passed Paul st (or maybe it was another random Bayview garage explosion). My Helly Hansen ultralight hooded shell was 100% waterproof and the base layer and insulation had me warm and toasty and dry. The Chiba winter gloves and mickey mouse booties covered my extremeties and I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
Out towards the hotels, I started realizing that the water seeping down through my tights into my booties was actually a problem, and in addition, the booties are not actually waterproof (I'd assumed they're neoprene, but they're not). Around the airport, I realized the Chiba gloves were not waterproof either. This is also around when I developed "Rabies Knee", where the knit of my tights worked the water around the knee into strangely shaped foam deposits. Bizarre. Starting to get cold, and visibility is bad...
I took the deadly lagoon detour, a bad idea on a day when you're getting numb and can't see; I had one hand off the bars and one of the cracks of death launched me straight on to the pavement. Nothing catastrophic, just a little blood and some interesting new curves to my legs that appeared as time went on.
Cold, numb, and bruised I forged onwards. The rain relented and I even got some sun, though it was little comfort as my feet sat in puddles of December water. Things were fairly uneventful til EPA, where I apparently picked up some tiny shards glass in my front tire, since it sagged to flat on the marsh path just after. Undeterred, I located the glass, removed it, patched the pinhole, reflated, and rolled along.
At Embarcadero, I realized that there must have been more glass, because my front tire was sagging again. I picked up speed, hoping to make it to Google before it went totally flat. No go. Half way down the stretch to san antonio, I was riding on the rim, but lacking any more CO2, I kept going and slowly rode the last 3 miles on a flat tire.
To add insult to injury, as I was pulling up Rengstorff, a guy passed me on a G-bike.
Hope for sun tomorrow.
--eric
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Eric Altendorf wrote: > We shall ride, no excuses this time! > > Brisk pace, though I'll be slowed by mint-green colored knobbies. > > --eric >
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