What a Valentine's day

It's been raining all week long.  All night on Friday it rained.  The forecast for Saturday:  Cold, with a 30% chance of rain.  I called the Team In Training hotline to see if the ride was on for Saturday and it was.

I arrived at the Orinda BART station at 7:30 a.m.  The temperature:  high 30's.  The roads were wet and covered with debris from the week of rain.  The morning was cold.  I'll tell you one thing, not all 95 of us showed up that morning.  I was nearly fully prepared for the cold.  I had everything to keep me warm except for a beanie.  One of the coaches was nice enough to lend me one.

The ride for me was pretty uneventful.  For others, not so much.  The coaches were collecting tubes to change flat tires.  One bicycle nearly met its maker after a crash  (okay, it did meet its maker when the bike shop put it back together).  

I probably wouldn't have ridden on my own that day.  I wouldn't have risked crashing due to wet roads.  I'm glad I went.  These guys have to ride in the rain.  You just slow down a bit, anticipate the slipperyness and ride a bit more carefully.  

Oh yea, and it only took me an hour to clean all the gunk off my bike...