**Woke up early to the same pitter-pat, but it was not only the pitter-pat of rain, it was the pitter-pat of her three cats all runing around begging to be fed. Damn pussies. But I had to get up (it was 6:30am - dreary saturday - still dark and raining) for the Heart of Virginia Century bike ride.

I was almost dreading the prospect of spending the next 10 hours in the rain. I quietly washed my face, changed into my bike gear, and finished packing my gear for the day - said goodbye with a gentle kiss, and schlepped my bike and gear down the 3 flights of steps to load my car in the rain at 6:45am.

After everything was loaded - drove the 30 miles in the rain - it was still dark and raining hard. Light was just coming up. Finally got to the park where this "HUGE" - event was gonna happen (rain or shine)...I pull into the muddy field...holy crap..there are less than 50 cars here. This did not look good. The whole "parking lot" was a muddy field liking a resemblance to Woodstock - which was difficult to maneuver dry clothes off over muddy sandles. The few people that were there were hard core - like me I suspect. I'm not crazy, but I was having a realization - that, maybe I was.

At this point it was raining hard, I finally got my bike all together and geared up - I was fully clothed in layers of multi-weather bike gear - colorful. I checked my supply of hydration, gel packets, cell phone, cyclometer coordinates, cue sheets et al. Registered - with less than 25 people (there were supposed to be about 350 riders)....the few of us milled about until I asked, partially joking..."...so...um...who's doing the full Century?" (I originally planned on doing the full century, but the scenario started to look less than bleak and seriously "iffy")

Everyone looked sheepish until these 5 dudes all dressed in red and yellow rain gear piped up, "...yea, man...you in?" I said, you guys are crazy. Here it was Hurricane Ivan - the winds where whipping it up - and raining like crazy - lots of flooding. We decided to just go for it. We'd do the first 41 mile loop back to the start where we'd meet the 63 (metric) century riders for that leg. If it turned horrible...we'd just say the heck with it. So, just the 6 of us decide to head on out - it was raining like crazy, hard to see - gusts of wind to knock us off the road. Unsure why we were so determined. We started out slow then formed a nice paceline then there was a quick wreck behind me, no one was hurt, we regrouped and moved on. Finished the first loop of 41 miles back to the basecamp, took a rest, then moved on.

About 1 mile into it, we realized - we sure are moving fast - average speed 32 mph. Holy crap - the wind was pushing us sooo hard that we were sailing. It's a great thing to happen, when you are heading that way. This same wind that was pushing us forward was going to be a huge hindrance coming back. we flew that 32 miles - got there in an hour. We had a short stop then had to head back (the temperature dropped - got cold, worried about leg cramping and hydrothermia) then trudged back. It was miserable. We barely managed to get above 18 mph - full on headwind. But at that point - 70 miles into it, the rain started to slow down. We finally made it back. There were more people cheering us on than actual riders. It was bizarre.

I finally got back to my car after getting the most obnoxiously ultra bright pink t-shirt for this Century. But as the 6 of us said during the 100+ mile ride, "I biked through Hurricane Ivan, and all I got was this uber-Gay t-shirt".

Drove back to Richmond, took an amazingly comforting shower - cleaned up. Drove with my friend to see all the damage that happened during the Gaston floods (few weeks ago) in downtown, ran a few errands - including the grocery store to get all the stuff for the Paella I was to cook for the evening.

Spent the evening cooking Paella (recipe to follow at a later date - here and/or on Knees and Bees), having a few glasses of wine and watching Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson (wow, what a fucked up film - it's interesting to hear a first on full take on mental terms with a psychologist - dead on). We were both wiped out afterwards - we just brushed teeth and fell asleep. Long ass day and the sleep was nice - was breezy cool fall air under feather comfyness, cats pawing at my feet thinking they are mice. (**written following my trip to Richmond on 9/19)

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