It was always going to happen, the rough day was always going to come eventually. It was by no means a complete disaster, but certainly not as good as the last few days and a noticeable struggle at times.
It started as many rough days do, with a poor night's sleep, which after yesterdays fairly mega day was less than ideal. Once I'd convinced myself into a bike I thought it might improve but once we hit the Glasgow cycle path my hopes were dashed. Most of the morning was spent on poor surfaces dodging pedestrians and cyclists, and trying to follow days instructions as he led us off piste in his home town.
The poor cycling conditions certainly didn't help the first wall I hit on the trip as my legs turned slowly to mush (again yesterday was probably to blame) and the last 10 miles to lunch required a bit of determination.
Lunch, however, was a significantly better affair. Hostess by the Dumbarton MS Group in a lovely hotel. Here I was met by a surprise visit from Rob and Hill (great uncle/aunt) who I haven't seen in a rather long time. It was lovely to catch up with them while waiting for lunch to be served. Then right on cue Alexa and Thomas appeared (after living with me for a year and desperately wanting rid of me, they have traveled all the way to Cornwall and then Scotland but I just keep following them). Again this was a great catch up and we got to know some of the MS group over a lovely spread of sandwiches and cakes.
The only downside of lunch was the 38 miles we still had to cover, which turned out to initially be on ever worse paths. After putting up with it for all 12 miles with the team, I decided to sacrifice the rest of the ride and to just sprint for home, mostly ignoring the beautiful scenery, but hopefully no longer dampening the mood of the rest of the crew (who took time to swim in Loch Lomond, an adventure that would have inevitably ended up with me in A&E with hypothermia had I joined in).
While tough, the sprint was very enjoyable and certainly what I needed to clear my head as well as giving me a bit longer to rest at the finish and celebrate surviving the day with an ice-cream.
Tonight calls for an early bedtime with the hope of a better day tomorrow to enjoy the Highlands.
Well done all. I catch up with the blog every day. Keep going. Weird to see Alexa and Thomas with you. Good luck on the final days.
ReplyDeleteLoving how the flower in the picture matches my top! Was great to see you and since you've overtaken us we're now officially following you! Though I think we'll stick to trains...
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