Monday, April 26, 2010

Scared Spandex-less

I'm currently sitting in/near San Francisco for work. The next time I am here, I will be going home to LA on my BIKE. Such a crazy thought!

So, the weekend was great! 2 very beautiful rides, no bike pain, a little weird knee thing happening, and only 2 scrapes with death.....yeah, about that. I wasn't going to blog about this, knowing that my mother is out there reading and probably going to call me and then tell me how this California place is too dangerous and full of crazies. However, Caitlin reminded me that many of you out there are not pro kit wearing cyclists (OMG, Caitlin was sooo pro yesterday; you can't even believe the pictures that I'll post tomorrow.) and need to be taught the dos and don'ts and the importance of always paying attention to the road while you're driving.

Our entire weekend plans changed and we did rides other than I talked about on Thursday. Saturday we drove to Palos Verdes to participate in an unsantioned ALC ride with some of our ALC buddies and the Whisperer. The BW "claimed" and tricked me (she's good at trickery) into believing that there are only "rolling hills" in PV. However, PV is a beautiful town on the coast of CA. When something is on the coast, it is often on cliffs and mountains or something. This is true of PV. "Rolling hills" was actually 15 miles of uphill and 7 miles of downhill. Sweet. I was so emotional after the ride that I started crying. Honestly, there were times in the past 2 months when I was unable to stand upright that I really didn't believe I would be able to ride hills again. But I did and I didn't die!! Whoo!

The first brush with death came on Saturday at a stop light in PV. The truck rolling next to me decided that it was too busy to stop (likely staring at how amazing I look in spandex shorts) and rear ended the car in front of it. This was on a 1 lane street without a shoulder. As I watched the truck rear end the car, I realized that Caitlin was next to the car and watched and waited, hoping that the car would not jerk to the right and into Caitlin. I was terrified from the watching and Caitlin panicked from the sound. Cars crashing next to you is loud. In case you were wondering. We rode through the intersection and then stopped to stop the shaking and regroup. We were safe, but it was pretty scary. So, let's not rear end people, ok?

Sunday we headed out on our own up PCH as Caitlin couldn't live any longer without shave ice. Also, after the hills on Saturday, we needed something a little less intense. PCH is actually rolling and has no climbs. Pretty smooth sailing, except for the whole traffic/cliffs/debris combo. Early on in the ride, an ugle person driving a beat up small truck refused to acknowledge our presence and sent us far into the shoulder as we were trying to manuever into a different non-turning lane. This was not that scary but made me really really mad (see earlier post re: road rage), so I proceeded to chase down the truck to cuss the guy out, but he was too quick and luckily got away. Caitlin was pretty sure there was going to be a brawl.

The really scary, close to death experience of the weekend went down in Malibu. Please please please be aware of bikes on the road. I understand that sometimes it appears that we are not paying attention and are trying to be cars, but really we're just trying to be safe. So....

We're riding along PCH, watching the traffic and attempting to make a left turn at a stop light so that we can get shaved ice and other good things. I'm waving to the cars behind me to get their attention and make sure I see them slowing before heading into the lanes from the shoulder. (I'm getting really nervous as I type this) We noticed that a motorcyclist was clearly not slowing so we waited for him/her to pass and then headed into the far right lane as the other cars were slowing. As I was veering and continuing to watch traffic behind me, a small ugly old brown car 2 cars back swerved (clearly impatient) and sped up quickly.....right towards us. I knew that there was no way he/she was stopping or slowing and I needed to bail. Unfortunately, Caitlin was right next to me and I swerved into her. Thank God that her balancing skills have improved so much -- she was able to stay upright and not fall in front of the cars. As I turned into Caitlin trying to get out of the path of the speeding car, I heard breaks screech and closed my eyes........thankfully THANKFULLY at that moment there was a left turn lane and the car finally decided to pay attention and swerve, just missing us.

It was terrifying.

I'm still shaking as I think about it.

We will, from now on, be taking the cross walk to get to our shaved ice. However, please please pay attention to bikers and pedestrians! I (and Caitlin) have yelled road rage at bikers before, not understanding their need to take up "our" road. But, there are very few roads with bike lanes and we're just trying to be healthy, enjoy the day and do something good. Please focus. Drive safe, and if someone slows in front of you, please be aware there may be a legitimate reason.

When I get back to LA, I'll post amazing pictures of Caitlin's pro kit/sunglasses and half of our Day 5 Red Dress wear!

~~Autumn

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