Poor, poor, Professor. It’s been nearly a month since we’ve been to the Chase due to a fairly life changing event – we’re buying a house! This is awesome, but quite time consuming, so our weekends have been filled with house viewing, form filling, and efforts to destroy the weeds that are triffiding over the garden of our current house.

So today was our first ride in ages. I actually felt a bit queasy and nervous going out, as if either Follow the Dog had gotten harder in our absence, or as if I’d forgotten how to ride a bike. I needn’t have worried though – I actually felt really comfortable and confident, and despite the Chase Trails pixies having been busy the planned spike-filled death pit hasn’t been built yet. I think having a break has actually done my legs some good, I didn’t have any knee or muscle pain and could easily get out of the saddle throughout the ride.

It was good to see a lot of beginners and families out on the trail. It was particularly impressive to see tiny children quite happily tackling the Stegosaur with aplomb. I have to admit, I was also impressed by a dad and his little lad doing section ten. Not only was the tiny lad doing a decent pace, but his dad managed to do pretty much the entire section whilst talking on his mobile phone. I suppose I should have been appalled by his lack of consideration for health and safety, but… he rode the entire section one-handed, whilst holding a conversation on his phone. Like I said… impressive.

Only sour note of the ride was going into the berms just before Werewolf. A rider came barrelling behind me and yelled, “MOVE”. I pulled over just before the last couple of turns before the drop, and the rider went past without so much as a “Thank you”… then proceeded to hop off his bike at Werewolf and walk down. Sir, you are a terrible human being.

Anyhoo, course of action for the next few weeks:

Move house!

But keep riding!

Get my ass out of bed before 11am on a Sunday and help with trail building, particularly now there are Chicken Runs under construction!

Vote for Chase Trails in the lottery awards

But for now, I’m watching The Day After Tomorrow. It kind of sucks.