In spite of it being my favourite ride, it seems that I was in fact doomed not to make it to Whitstable this year. I'd missed the last two on account of my asthma playing up and clashing with the Mildenhall rally. I'd also become a Darkside convert earlier in the year and the Whitstable route is eminently 'bentable, so I decided to sign up for this one and risk having to pull out if the weather was going to be too cold to breathe properly.
Fortunately, in spite of things being a little moist, that was never an issue.
I'd come off the bike on a patch of diesel about two weeks ago, which is what I'm currently blaming for the higher than usual level of knee dodginess. After enforced resting of assorted bruised limbs, I'd done some experimental riding on Thursday and decided that I was okay on the recumbent (my elbow still isn't quite right and objects to more than about half an hour on an upright bike).
Having seen various weather forecasts and failed to find one that was satisfactory, I was impressed by the turnout, especially by those who haven't done one of these rides before. The ride started well, with an abusive motorist and a near miss from an unidentified liquid that was thrown at us from the footbridge at Embankment, but was otherwise relatively low in zombie-related incidents. Though I was called a slag for lying down on my bike somewhere in the vicinity of Greenwich, which was a new one.
The toilet stop at Surrey Quays, while a good idea in theory, was marred by the complete absence of any loo roll in the ladies'. Perhaps they need advance warning to stock up
My knee started to make its presence felt around Plumstead, though in a non-specific kind of way. By Dartford it was officially Not Happy, rising to actually painful by the time we got to Gravesend. It was an annoying sort of pain that was more to do with being at certain angles rather than the amount of force I was putting on it, so spinning a low gear, while probably wise, didn't really make it hurt any less.
As the ride got to the good bit on the road out to Higham, I was in rather a lot of pain and not in any state to appreciate it properly. I decided that I was unlikely to make it all the way to Whitstable without damaging something, and even if I did, it would be a fairly slow and miserable affair. When we got to Rochester I realised that I could barely walk, which decided it. Consulting the internets revealed that the trains back to London were already running from the station just round the corner, so I bailed.
For reference, Rochester station has a waiting room with a rather lovely fan heater in it.
Slow train to Charing Cross made for a reasonable snooze, then a short easy ride to Euston, where I decided that a 17.50 walk-on ticket back to Brum beat hanging around for 5 hours for my booked train. In spite of anti-inflammatories, my knee was excruciatingly painful for the duration of the journey back. But the pain was massively reduced as soon as I got back on the bike for the 5km ride home. Odd.
It's now mostly okay, and I can walk down stairs without pain, which is a good sign. Seriously hoping it'll be okay for the York-Whitby ride next week.
Whitstable will have to wait until next year.
