Crazy-Making Weather

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I get rain. I understand that spring is rainy, and sometimes windy, and sometimes a little stormy. But the last two weeks have been ridiculous. All day long, we alternate schizophrenically between sun and rain, hail, sleet, driving crazy winds (the kind with tree branches flying off and going tumbling through the air, not like gentle spring breezes), and pouring drenching ridiculous rain. You can't plan to do anything outside even a few minutes ahead of time, you can look outside and it's sunny and by the time you've grabbed your running shoes there's so much water pouring out of the sky it's like a bathtub got turned on your head.

It's driving. me. crazy.

Literally, I feel like a maddened beehive got turned loose inside my head, it's making me nuts. Can't get outside. Can't garden. Can't bike or run. I can take running in the rain, trust me I do it about 5 months out of the year. But running in a downpour with tree branches hailing down on your head and thunder cracking around? No thanks.

Luckily, we got a small break in the weather for the Ride of Silence on Wednesday, although not surprisingly the turnout was very low (gee, you think the hail, sleet, pouring rain and driving winds had anything to do with that?). That's the saddest I've been in a long time, so maybe that has contributed to my mood. As a mom, hearing a parent speak about losing their child to a collision with a car? That's almost unbearable. And yet, my kids ride bikes. How can I not have my kids ride bikes? How can I not ride a bike? Even knowing what's out there, the possible death that awaits with every driver who is distracted or in too much of a hurry? Should I just have my kids turn into these sofa slugs who get driven everywhere then? Like the blobby kids who pour out of the minivans at school drop-off lines or even at soccer games?

But what about the 10 year old killed at a crosswalk that the Ride of Silence arrived at on Wednesday. The teenager who hit him was going 65 miles per hour, and pulled around a car that had stopped for the young boy walking his bike across the street. He pushed the boy's bike 211 feet before finally skidding to a stop. Thinking of these things makes my head hurt. It makes my heart hurt. I have a 10 year old, no mother should have to lose a child like that, to someone else's impatience in their automobile. Maybe these are some of the bees in my head. Maybe it's not all just the weather.

Still, I can't wait for the weather to clear so I can... get out on my bike? What does that say about my brain then. Hmmmm....

Three Ironwomen Gone, and a Ride of Silence Approaching

Three women training for Ironman Lake Placid were killed by a single driver, and three other cyclists were injured in the same accident. One of the cyclists who survived described the accident as "like a bowling match". Just imagine.

I don't know why it makes it so much harder, but knowing that one of the triathletes was my age, 44, makes it especially chilling. You think "I was on a road on a bike today with pickup trucks going too fast and coming too close to me." So as a cyclist, what do you do? Not train on roads? Not train outside? Why are our lives forfeit when people can't take a few extra seconds to pass cyclists safely? These cyclists were riding single-file.

It's funny because on my ride this morning I was looking at my average speed for the ride and remembering Jane Higdon, an amazing local triathlete who was killed on her bike here by a truck 4 years ago. She once told me that she didn't put much stock in average paces because she typically averaged 17 mph on her long rides. I have no idea if that was true or if she was just trying to make me feel better, because she was simply an amazing cyclist who turned in a smoking 5:48 bike split on the tough IM Canada course when she was my age. But it's always helped me not to obsess too much about what my average pace is and to concentrate more on other things during a ride.

All of which sadly brings me to an event I wish would never have to happen again, but obviously does. The Ride of Silence will happen next week this year, on May 19 at 7:00 pm in hundreds of locations world-wide. You can check their website to find a location near you, and help bring attention to the seemingly never-ending issue of cyclists injured and killed on public roads by motor vehicles.