81 miles! 13 flats!

i'm a few days behind. this is my report for march 19...

i intended to ride my first solo century of the year today. i got up early and enjoyed a beautiful ride from my in-laws' house in south wichita east down macarthur boulevard to kansas 15 and then south through derby and mulvane, turning around at greenwich and riding back. the weather was perfect. the wind calm. all was right.

i stopped for what was supposed to be a short breakfast. ate three pancakes with natural peanut butter smothered in syrup. delicious! saw my wife and daughter off to the crown uptown theater and prepared to ride again.

my plan was to ride west to cheney and then south to argonia. that would give me approximately 60 more miles and all i'd need to do is grab an extra seven miles. that was the plan.

things did not go as planned. i took my bike out of their garage and felt the sickening thump, thump, thump of a flat. i was glad it happened there rather than on the highway, so i popped back in the garage, patched the hole and reseated the tire. i was good to go...again.

i rolled out of the driveway and headed south to 33rd street, a right hand turn took me out to seneca and a left put me on this busy street. everything was good and right with the world. i cruised down to macarthur and took it west. i stopped somewhere between west and meridian to take off a layer or two. that was the last good thing that happened.

i decided when i reached kansas 42, to take it home rather than go through cheney, so i turned southwest and rode on.

i don't know when it first happened, but somewhere after clonmel, i felt that thump, thump, thump again. my rear tire was soft. i aired it up and rode on. four miles later i had to air it up again. for the next i don't know how many miles i had to stop and air up every four to five miles. it was not pleasant.

i limped home and fixed the flat. then i went out to ride a bit more. i didn't even make it a mile and a half. thump, thump, thump. deciding this was not my day, i rode back to the garage and parked my bike.

i will ride again another day. (81.52 miles @ 15.6mph)