Onboard the Raleigh again this morning for a 06.45 start and I was heading to the Civic Hall, Blackshots Lane, Grays for the annual Thurrock Cycle Marathon. But I wasn`t taking part myself, just going along to meet up with club mates I`ve not seen for awhile. It was a warm and overcast morning and for some reason I was wearing arm-warmers and tudor longs! I took a slow lazy ride along Fen Lane to Bulphan and into Church Lane to see the fly tippers have been busy again! Such a shame as this is a lovely lane to cycle along. Onwards to Orsett and those lovely potholes to Baker Street Windmill, then onto Stiffrod Clays Road to reach Civic Hall a little after 8am. The Gateway CC were just starting to put up their information stand so I did my bit of supervising, well it got me out of work!
I was rather glad I had the arm warmers & tudor longs on as it felt cold standing around for riders to set off on their ride. First to arrive back was the 7 mile riders, so myself and David Fish were kept busy handing out Gateway CC info sheets and chatting to riders even the sun came out too. Once the 21 & 42 mile riders came back we were really busy!
After saying my goodbyes I headed for home retacing my route out, but those arm warmer were now off and bare arms were now catching the hot sun,only wish I wasn`t wearing those tudor longs! The climb up to North Ockendon in Fen Lane had me beat and so I had to walk up! I then decide to get a few extra miles in by taking a longer route via Ockendon Road, Pea Lane and Dennis Lane to reach home by 2pm with 26 miles done.
Some of the riders getting ready for their ride either 7, 21 or 42 miles.
The Gateway CC team with the information stand
