Day 257: Getting Pummeled by the Rains

As the heavy rains passed through here early this morning, I was really happy since I thought that I’d get another day of good riding weather. Since getting sick on Sunday, I’ve been dreading the idea of being out riding in the cold and wet weather, and thus far this week I’ve been lucky.

The skies cleared by 9:00 am and the sun was shining through my office windows, so I was itching to get out there for my ride. After a lengthy conference call I was finally able to gear up and ready to head out for my ride.

As I left today I was thinking about how nice the weather was, and that the sun felt absolutely great. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so I didn’t even think about checking the radar at Weather.com. Ooops!

By the time that I had reached the east side of Highway 101 (A short three miles from home), and headed towards Tiburon, I looked back at Mount Tamalpais and the thunder clouds were building quickly around the mountain. I carried on to Tiburon, and by that time I was feeling the temperatures dropping quickly, and the first heavy rain drops began to fall.

I kept pedaling hard in hope that I’d get around the back side of Paradise Drive before things got ugly. Unfortunately, today I was going to get wet, and I had no rain gear onboard to protect me. I reached the Corte Madera side of the ride when all hell broke loose, and I was still 20-30 minutes from home. I was getting blown around by the winds and pelted by the heavy rains. The temperature must have dropped well over ten degrees during today’s ride. I was worried about lightening, and even more about my body's temperature.

I cut the ride shorter than usual, and peeled off from my normal route. I headed home via the bike path that runs by Horse Hill and Highway 101. I was getting really cold, really fast, and given that I’m sick right now I needed to get out of the frigid weather!

By the time that I made it home I was soaked all of the way through. I was even sloshing around in my road shoes. I was trembling and immediately headed for a hot shower where I could hopefully thaw out. A half hour later I was still shivering, and even now four hours later, my hands and feet are still tingling.

It will be really nice when winter has passed, the rains have stopped, and the weather becomes conducive to helping me rather than impeding me.