Why is it that on prime bike riding days, they schedule some damn race that closes all the roads that I like to ride? (Well, okay, they weren't actually closed but they were diverted and crowded.)
Yesterday after the rains fell, I went out for my ride. Sure, I passed a couple runners, but it was a nice day out and I see runners all the time along the Portsmouth road, so I thought nothing of it. Occasionally, I saw people who seemed to be waiting for someone. As I approached Kingston it occurred to me that it was a race of some kind. Always quick on the uptake, I almost immediately recognized that the clapping the people along the street were doing was for the runners not for me.
I then tried to get through my normal route but was waved off and diverted by someone wearing official looking gear. I had to find an alternative route through the borough. A few minutes later, back on my route, headed for Teddington.
It wasn't until later, as I passed Hampton Court that I hit the biggest group of runners. Running wherever they damn well pleased occupying that moral high ground that they feel is theirs alone. They they were running all over the foot and the bike path. One was even running in the middle of the A309. It was as if he felt that he had a right to be wherever he wanted. The cars had to swerve to avoid him. I had to swerve to avoid him.
I had not only the wind, but the runners to contend with. It was my fond hope that they would be diverting into some other route before the roundabout at the Lamb and Star, but I had no such luck. It was only the two-mile portion of the ride that goes from Kingston to Teddington and then back to Hampton Court that was runner-free. I even had to sit in The Portsmouth Road for five minutes waiting for a break in the runners big enough to walk my bike through to get back to the house!
I hope that wherever you are, you are not being kept from where you want to be.
Don Bergquist - 03-April-2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, United Kingdom
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