2010-07-24 - Dunwich Dynamo DD18

• what you experienced - longest ride I've ever done, bitter demoralisation (did i just make that word up?) after cycling about 2 miles into Dunwich Forest following a group of about five others having missed the turning to the beach and then having to stop and sit down, my third moment of getting lost on the ride.
  
• how you felt - great until I realised at about 90 miles that there's another larger and more painful wall shortly after a person physically and psychologically hits the first wall.
  
• what you ate - mix of flapjack, sweets and horrible sandwich (pretending to be sun-dried tomato but was actually just mixed peppers) at town hall half-way stop. pretty much failed at packing good food.
  
• what you saw - lots of impressively fit ss and fixed riders, a small group of which I attempted to ride at the back of for a short while until they out-paced me.
  
• your pre-ride prep (or lack thereof) - erm, nothing fitness-wise.
  
• your bike - one of the four or so langsters I saw on the ride, mine with very noisy sprocket, green with white-wrapped bullhorns and 48x16 gearing (incidentally a monumentally crap gear for tired legs and hills).
  
• your pics - http://flic.kr/p/8mBP45 <-- Me, sweaty, tired, just dropped bike pump, which several kind riders pointed me back to. camera ran out of batteries by the time sun had come up, so vainly this is almost the only pic i have :(
  
• if you could ever imagine managing London-Dunwich-London - with friends to pace myself with, a better gearing (44x16 / 46/17?) and some nicer food I can just about imagine this being possible.
  
• strange Essex people - I went to school in Essex so they seemed pretty normal, nobody believed the bunch outside the pub directing people to the town hall and they seemed genuinely upset that they didn't seem trustworthy!
  
  

Note to the (blond?) saffa cycling (geared) alone having seen his own party of seven slowly whittled down who got me back on track the second time I got lost, you were very patient and so thank you!