Justinslow
Lovely jubbly
- Location
- Suffolk
Well ?
Ha ha yes, ok,
27 riders, about normal they tell me, no problems getting a start, everyone really friendly.
Rode the 4 miles or so to the event and then another 4 or so as a bit of a warm up after signing on and to kill a bit of time them back to the meeting point for my start number which was "12". I thought I'd be one of the first to go being a noob thinking the fast boys/girls would be starting later so everyone gets back in good time. Anyway, started 12 with all manner of pukka TT bikes around me (and some "standard" roadies aswell) and thought I was going to get passed frequently!
Waiting for the countdown wasn't really sure what to expect and then we were off! Probably started a bit too quick (for me) but like others have said it's so hard to pace yourself from a standing start when you've been hanging around for 10 minutes or so them suddenly you're into it.
Got about a mile into it and was thinking "what the hell am I doing" blowing hard. But started to relax after that and it got less tortuous!
Half way still nobody had come past and I hadn't looked behind. Rounding the roundabout which marked half way you're then facing the riders behind you, so you can see how close they are. Two were pretty close and it was only two that came past the whole way. The return trip was into a headwind - not too bad but bad enough when you're flagging, pushed on as hard as I could and made it back!
My throat was sore, nose running, eyes watering, almost felt like my throat was bleeding, legs not too bad, just exhausted.
Overall pretty pleased with my time strava saying 28.35 which beats my September practice time by a couple of minutes and a similar time to my mates, but there were some proper quick people there, they just come past and disappear!
At the time I wasn't sure if I enjoyed it or not as it hurt.......a lot, but looking back now, sat at home, yes definitely enjoyed it. It's a weird feeling, it's bloody horrible but it's also bloody brilliant!
Oh and the Argos Ventura didn't let me down and held it's head high yet again, will post my official time and where I came out of 27 when they are on the club site.
https://www.strava.com/activities/286691220