The Wetter The Better

A bracing cycle ride this morning is just what the doctor ordered to clear the head of last night’s beer. I don't actually feel too bad, so I must have got my units about right. Well I didn't wobble of my bike. No idea what those units were though, too many 6% and 7%’s in there to calculate it.

The chilly morning prompts a first outing of the season for my long cycling trousers. I even had to stop and put my jacket on. It was at least a sobering experience. Hope it warms up or else they'll be chipping the ice off the River Trent tomorrow morning before they send the competitors into it.

Had to dodge a pedestrian this morning, who was in the middle of the road. People whinge about motorists and cyclists ignoring red lights but pedestrians do it too! He walked straight across the crossing without looking when I had the green light.

L could have done with a similar sobering up technique, she reckons she was still swaying from side to side when she staggered around town at lunchtime. That's what hitting the fruit wines as well as the beer does for you.

After work I cycle down to the Embankment, which is the start of tomorrow’s Survival Of The Fittest event. They are allowing people to register and collect their race numbers a day early. It’s raining when I get there and the organisers are stood outside, looking up at the sky, smirking and rubbing their hands with glee. The wetter the better I guess.

They offer me a choice of t-shirt colours, red or white. Red isn't my colour, so I go for white. However the folly of this idea soon hits me. Survival Of The Fittest is the only race I know where it seems to be the done thing to wear the race t-shirt during the race. Normally this is a definite no no under the strict rulebook of race t-shirt etiquette. How white this t-shirt will be after a dip in the Trent I’m not sure.

Then it's home to carbo-load with pasta. It’s not hard to be AF, after quite a heavy night last night at the beer festival plus both the kids are out, so all the more reason to stay in. In fact in view of that, I can feel a really early night coming on. A race night should be an early night anyway.