A ride in the rain…
My riding shoes are propped up in front of the fire - with a steady stream of water pouring out of them.
You may recall that these are the riding shoes that cost the same as a pair of decent leather high-heeled boots and they symbolise a major turning point in my quest to do Ironman in 2011. And I actually love them as much as I love my red high-heeled boots, which is really saying something.
Back to the water.
Its been raining in Rotorua for six days straight. I realise that’s not a great advertisement for our wonderful town, but hey, its winter and its a fact of life.
This week’s RATs bunch ride had been arranged out in the Waikite Valley - a gorgeous farming valley only 10 minutes drive from the centre of town. After last week’s ride in the fog on busy main roads, we decided to take it out of town for a while. And I’d been looking forward to it all week! When the alarm went off this morning, (after a really heavy night of rain), it was dry and there were even patches of blue sky. I texted Irene, our camp mother:
“What do you reckon? It’s dry here.”
“Raining here, just moving stock, will decide in 30 minutes.”
Thirty minutes later it had stopped raining out there, and starting raining here, but we were on. I bundled the bike on the car and headed out. It was raining when I left home and it was absolutely pouring down by the time I got to town. It didn’t get any better on the other side or on the drive out to Waikite.
I arrived at the Bluff Sports Club - should have taken a photo, if that wasn’t a typical Kiwi country rugby club I don’t know what is.
It was just sprinkling lightly by this stage so we decided to “just do it”.
Irene, Cheryl and myself headed off. Straight up a hill. I am getting better at the hills but there is no way I can catch Irene, she’s a demon. Before we even reached the top of that first hill it was raining hard. And it didn’t stop.
It was actually a great ride. Very hilly and undulating with a few flats in between. On a nice day it would be absolutely gorgeous. Lush green paddocks, farm animals as far as the eye could see. Shame I couldn’t see anything out of my rain speckled glasses.
It was also a great learning ride for me as it was the first time I had ridden in heavy rain - actually any rain at all come to think of it. I have nightmares about skidding off my bike, so it was great to head down some hills, trust the brakes, and get around some corners. I also spent a bit of time standing up on the pedals today too, and while the hills are still hard work, they are getting easier.
The talking got less and less as we got wetter and wetter. An hour later we got back to the clubhouse and headed off. Cold, wet but happy.
Tags: Cycling, RATs, Riding, Waikite Valley