It's snot funny

Long Melford 200k, May 23rd

My last planned long ride before easing off a bit for a couple of weeks and at last an almost perfect day for cycling - even from 8am the weather was warm with no risk of rain so all the wet weather kit (jacket, gloves, cape etc) gets left in the car. A new ride on the Audax calendar and a very well attended one, around 60 doing the 200km ride. The route was the ultimate "flat n fast" route, basically pretty much a 80km straight line from Melford out to the east coast, up the coast for 40km or so, past the occasional nuclear power station and turn for home, 80km back again.

The ride itself was a total blast, a pack of around 20 quickly formed and just motored out to the coast into a light headwind, we did the first 120km in 4 hours dead into a nice cafe by the seaside. The last 80km back home were always going to be a bit racy with the flat straight route and now a light tailwind but thankfully whilst the pace was cranked up it didn't get silly and the few times the group fractured up small hills the leaders were nice enough to slow at the top and allow people to catch up and reform. A few people dropped off the back with the pace being too much and after 185km or so I was tiring quite badly but just about hung on to the end, around 8 of us finishing together. The last 80km was dispatched in 2 hrs 10 mins, a brisk average of 37km / hr for the homeward leg.

So, a perfect final training ride. Almost...

...Apart from one guy in the pack who insisted on clearing out his nostrils every few km, just snorting the contents into the air and all over the following pack. Around a dozen times or so I got showered. And hey, what a surprise, two days later and I come down with a bug. Gee thanks - so I spend a week right before my trip full of snot and feeling crap.

So that's it, off in 5 days for some "fun".