I can't remember the last time in my life that I was "Stuck" in a storm. In fact, I am sure that most people can't really say they have been stuck in one. What I mean by stuck is you have no trees to hide under, you have no car to climb into, and you have no building to go inside to wait it out. You are just out in the rain and completely exposed to it...It was pretty intense.
The ride to work was good. I learned that hiking backpacks and helmets can be your enemy. As soon as I started going downhill, I would lean forward. This would cause my backpack to push up on my helmet...which would in turn push my helmet over my face. I had to loosen up the backpack so that it would sit really low on my hips to keep it from interfering with my helmet.
So the weather report for the day was raining with lightning. I was skeptical. It looked quite nice in the morning...and considering the weather that we've had, I was convinced that there would be no good opportunity to do this.
The way to work was nice. The roads were wet and dirty so I got a lot of dirt on my, but other than that, it was nice.
I was at work thinking about my ride home about 3:45 and I looked at Google Earth. I saw a pretty intense storm coming. I decided to get out of there.
By the time I got changed and ready to go, that put me right at the front edge of the storm.
As I started riding, the temperature dropped a lot, and it started raining very heavily. Dumping. Huge drops. It was intense. It is really hard to keep your eyes open at 20 mph in heavy rain.
I got completely drenched and cold and really didn't see myself finishing another 13 miles...I didn't really see myself finishing 5 miles.
I ended up having to make the call to have my wife come and meet me somewhere. :(
About 5 minutes after I made the call, the storm passed over. It was the wierdest thing to enter a park and see a storm in front of you and be riding towards it. I was able to see the dark, intense clouds, and I was able to see the downpour and all of the storm characteristics. It is just so different to experience weather on a bike than a car. Although the rain stopped, I was still soaked through to the bones and figured it would probably still be a good idea to get picked up. It would be even more foolish of me to say I don't need a ride and then have to call back 25 minutes later.
Needless to say, I probably need some pants for riding other than my track warm-up pants.
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