Dear Douchecanoe at West Creek – Thank You.

This evening marked my first “regular season” training class outside. It was cold! One half of me rejoiced because NO MORE TRAINER on Tuesday nights; the other half was wondering how to keep my fingers from going completely numb and thanking god I’d bought toe covers last year.

I had been concerned Cyndi was going to start out doing a time trial, but it had been raining all day and West Creek is pretty messy right now. Loose gravel, winter pot holes, you name it. All the construction going on there hasn’t helped the road conditions.

Instead of time trials, we did small loops of the flatter side of West Creek, going into Zone 4 (read: heavy gear, as fast as you can), followed by a short recovery before starting the same loop again. I was feeling good, considering I’ve had a whole lot of unspoken anxiety about any type of speed on the roads.

On my third loop, I was spread out from the rest of the team. I heard a car come up behind me. I was in the right lane, close to the edge. And for those who might have a snarky comment, there is very little traffic at WC at this time of night. I was wearing reflective toe covers and had a lighted vest that is a shout out to some sort of insane rave giveaway – in other words, it’s hard to miss me. Oh yeah, I have a hideous hot pink helmet with a reflector in the back. So there was no way this car didn’t see me.

I’m sure you know where this is going. Instead of moving over into the left lane, which by the way was completely unoccupied as there wasn’t another car on the road for a 1/2 mile in either direction, he got CLOSER to me. By the time he actually passed me, the side view mirror on the passenger side was so close it nearly clipped my shoulder. I veered to the right and then kept myself in check. If I’m going down, it’s not going to be the same way as during OBX. I’d like to create new accidents instead of repeating old ones.

After the initial bolt of sheer terror that I was going to be mowed down on my first Tuesday night class, I felt only intense anger. There’s an entire road. There’s no traffic. Why do people have to be such a-holes?

I rode the rest of the loop steaming mad, then realized I had started shaking again. I took a few minutes off my bike, let loose a stream of expletives during my short conversation with Cyndi, then got back on my bike for another loop.

So I do owe this guy some thanks. Even a month ago, if I’d have had a scare on the road, I wouldn’t have been able to get back on my bike so quickly. Things have changed, and I’m get

ting more confident. Although I don’t enjoy being angry, it’s better than being scared.

I’m counting this one as a win.