It could have been worse!!!

Last weekend I decided to cycle to work one day, so I looked on the Met office website to see which day would have the best weather, it was Friday.

So I prepared my things last night, water bottle, rucksack full of my things, wash stuff, fleece jumper, and spare clothes, waterproof high visibility jacket, gloves and my MP3 player, laptop and mobile phone, all sorted.

I thought I would set off early so that I would not be rushing, so I left at 7:20am to get to work for 8am. Started off when it was just light enough to see the road, knowing that part of the journey was in a bike lane shared with the footpath that had no street lights for about 2 miles.

Just after setting off it started to rain, I thought I would chance the rain, after all it is only 6.5 miles and felt good about my decision. The further I went the more it rained, but I carried on, listening to music on my MP3 player and cycling. I was wearing a waterproof high-visibility jacket but I have no lights until I get my new bike, but it was just light enough for it.

I set off and everything was fine, got to about 4 miles in and had to go up over an bridge, struggled a bit with that and had to drop a few gears. I thought that I would need to stop and have a drink, so I decided to stop at the bottom of the downward part of the bridge, after all if you do the work you should have fun with the easy bit.

Once I decended the bridge, the few seconds of not peddling gave me the strength to carry on without stopping. The rest of the ride was so pleasant that I could have carried on for a few more miles, the rain did not bother me, I was just listening to my MP3 player and continuing, not thinking about my destination or how far I had done, just continuing.

I got to work, got a wash and put on fresh clothes and felt fantastic.

When it got to 4:15pm it was starting to get dark, I worried a bit as I don't have lights, as long as it was light enough it would be ok, most of the cycle paths home are off the road on the pavement anyway. 4:30pm came and I packed up and left, it was getting dark, but it was still just light enough to see, and it was not raining, just wet under foot.

Set off and everything was fine, I had to take it easy as it was too dark to see everything. I got to the bridge that I had problems with earlier. I didn't realise that the other way, the cycle path disappeared into grass and mud. So I struggled up this hill on a mountain bike with street tyres in the dark, wheels slipping and inches from the road.

I made it to the top and thought it would be an easy decent, still on grass and mud, this time hard to control the speed. Once I made it to the bottom, I then had to cycle home 2 miles more with no street lights, the only light was car headlights. on a 2 foot wide path. Road on one side and a large ditch on the other side.

I finally made it back, which took me nearly an hour to get 6.5 miles.

Never leave you house without lights, you never know how long you are going to be out, or how dark it will be on your way back.