Day 252: Sneaking out Early before the Rains Began

After having a night of difficulty sleeping, I got up and basically raced around the house gathering up my road riding gear. I was trying to get out the door before the latest in a series of storms hit. The skies were clouding up as they zoomed into the area from the southwest. Where I live I can watch the clouds forming and driving their way east. Today they were coming in fast and being driven by high winds.

I rolled out the door at a few minutes past 9:00 am this morning I had extra rain gear stuffed into my jersey pockets. I knew that it was beating the rains was going to be really close, but if I rode fast I just might make it out and back before they hit.

As I rode out towards Tiburon, I noticed that we were already experiencing flooding in the low-lying areas. We’re having some extraordinarily high tides associated with the current full moon. It made me wonder about what’s going to happen when the heavy rains that are predicted hit today. The prediction is for 12 hours of rains! At several points during my ride I either had to ride around or through flooded streets.

I made it to Tiburon after needing to change routes here and there due to the flooded and impassible streets. I helped a rider that was out of sorts due to the floods. She didn’t know where to go, so I told her to follow me. I slowed down my pace and got her back to the bike path at Blackie’s Pasture where we went our separate ways. She was very grateful for the help.

From there I rode around Tiburon’s Paradise Drive at full speed. I’d sometimes be hit with extremely heavy headwinds, and at other times the tailwinds would send me sailing. As I hit Corte Madera, and while riding on the bike path that's across from the CHP station, I was riding along the bike path at 30 mph! I wasn’t even pushing that hard at the time. ;-)

I rode back via the bike paths and arrived back at the Corte Madera town square at about 10:20 am and I was thinking about my favorite Al-anon meeting that was in progress nearby. I thought about dropping in, but I didn’t want to be a spectacle in cycling clothes, etc. I hate missing that meeting, but R2R takes precedent these days, and this morning was the only time that I could ride, AND stay dry.

I made it home just as the rain drops began to fall. As of this moment we’re being hit with really heavy rains, and I’ll be really glad to be staying out of them! Warm and dry is a good thing for me. Tomorrow may be a different story.