Well, I'm still here! Phew! Got through that one by the skin of my teeth!
Argus Cycle Tour and Hubs:
(Note: I started writing this a few days ago but have only just finished writing it.)
Last weekend (Sunday 1st), entries opened for the Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town. 109km around the Peninsula. A very popular event where approximately 35,000 riders take part (a bit like the London Marathon, I suppose!) It is getting more popular each year, as entries are filling up quicker every year. Last year I believe entries closed after only a few weeks.
Hubs has been building up to the date when entries opened for this race for the last 6 months or so, so that I could enter him into it. At least, that was on the understanding that certain other members of the family in the UK entered it too! He said he didn't want to do it on his own. (Aahhh!) So, me having entered him last Sunday, he is doing the Argus next March! Exciting! Also, a couple of relatives in the UK are actually coming across to do it too. Even more exciting! And he won't be doing it on his own!
He can't keep making the same old excuses about his training now! "It's raining, I can't go out." "It's blowing a gale out there." "I've got too much to do." Etc etc.
I had (jokingly) been threatening to put my entry in, heehee, but not until there were only a few entries left, and it has been filling up really quickly already. As I write this (Friday 6th), there are under 1000 places left. It only opened last Sunday. It would be such fun to have the last entry!
However, Hubs has been trying to dissuade me, at least for this year. He says we can get a 'proper' bike for me, like his, with better gears that will be much easier to ride. You mean, there are actually bikes that are easier to ride?? You saw the pic of my bike on yesterday's post. I love the red colour. Much nicer than his boring silver colour. Then, he says, we can both enter the Argus the following year (2015) - that would be a much better idea, and give me a lot more practice and training. Mind you, I might even get the hang of drinking from the water bottle on the bike! Bonus!
He does have a point. Well, several actually. For a start, I haven't actually cycled more than about 25 kms in the last, oh I don't know - many, many years! He bought me my current cycle about a year ago. Actually, no, he didn't buy it. He swapped it for a couple of old sofas that Alfie had wee'd up! It is an 'ok' bike - a proper mountain bike, quite old, and therefore quite heavy, but I certainly don't intend flying over logs and rocks on the mountains and through thick mud on it! Ugh! I'll stick to our local roads, thank you, and try to enjoy it!
It does have rather odd gears, but as long as you use them properly (which I tried to do last time I was out on it, as you know - I was concentrating really hard!) they seem to work ok. Wow, what a difference it makes going up hills or into the wind in the right gear!
I probably don't actually need a new bike but it would be easier to do the Argus if I had a new bike!
I suppose if I did really enter the Argus this time round, then the logistics of getting all our bikes and people to Cape Town, etc. for the race would be totally messed up. For a start, we only have a cycle carrier on the car for 2 cycles. Also, at the moment, we are a cycle short and need to find another for one of the relatives coming over (so if I end up getting a new cycle, then that relative will, at least, have a decent bike to use rather than my current one with the funny gears).
If I did enter the Argus, then Hubs would feel compelled to hold back and wait for me to catch up, even if I told him to go on at his own speed. I would feel bad about that. But - is he implying that he would be in front of me?!
And if I entered the Argus, well, we just haven't planned for me to do it. It's not about me this time, it's about Hubs and the other guys coming across to do it. It's just not right, really, is it? Why can't they have their moments of glory - all guys together - they will have earned it! I completed the London Marathon, so why shouldn't he be able to do something that I haven't done. Something that he has achieved, and the others with him. I would be so proud!
And, no doubt, they will want massages afterwards by their better halves. Well, I know Hubs will anyway! So, who would be able to do that for him if I needed one myself?!
And how on earth do I, realistically, expect to be able to ride the 109kms required to complete the Argus - and there are hills. It might be really windy. It will certainly be really crowded (although possibly not right at the back!) And it has to be completed within 7 hours. There are cut-off points all the way around the circuit. Do I seriously think I could pedal fast enough on that bike to complete it?!
What if I got a puncture? The last time I fixed a puncture I was about 14 years old!
It would have been nice to try and do it but, as Hubs says, there is always the next year. And I will have had a year more of riding by then, too.
Oh well...
Still, will have to keep checking the entries. If there are any left by tomorrow morning (Saturday 7th), maybe I will have to enter...
Just for fun...
No comments:
Post a Comment