I woke up, in my B&B this morning, at 6.00am and looked out of the window.  Fine, sun rising, looking ok…  I performed my ablutions, looked out the window, and it was hammering it down!  My heart sank, but I got myself sorted anyway, knowing that since I hadn’t brought my waterproof with me, wearing it wasn’t an option anyway!.  Breakfast, 2 weetabix, low fat yoghurt, milk and black coffee, was thankfully pretty much what I’d have had at home, so that set me up ok.

I loaded the car, and headed off in the rain to the National Botanical Garden of Wales where I parked up, signed in, and joined the gathering throng.  By now the weather had cleared, the sun was coming out, and I was down to just two layers – sleevless + windproof gilet/jacket.  After some official speechy stuff, I was near the front of the 8:00am massed start, and we headed off.

The first 70 miles were fine.  Not too hilly, mostly quite scenic.  The Black Mountain – the big climb of the day – came about 20 odd miles in.  A very long slow slog up, followed by a scary too steep, too bendy, too “oh my god that’s a cliff edge” for me…I think I actually preferred the up!  I chatted to quite a few folk along the way, even getting a donation to my charity – so that was nice.  After 68 miles or so, at the 4th feed stop, the Merlin 1 route headed for base along with the guy I was chatting to, and my Merlin 2 route heads off on its own…

And that’s where the trouble began.  I didn’t see another cyclist for an hour and half.  There was a punishing headwind, on uninteresting, built up, frequently major with traffic, roads.  I realised I’d miscalculated how much further there was to go, so that I had considerably longer left than I thought.  There were very few “repeater” signs so I was almost constantly convinced I was lost.  I didn’t eat my lunch roll – it just didn’t appeal, so I picked the ham out instead, which in retrospect was a BAD idea.  My morale just sank, and sank.  Between 5 and 5 1/2 hours was a VERY black time.  It always amazing me just how low you can get in the middle of one of these events…which is probably why I just had to pull over, check the map to see that I wasn’t actually lost, and have a brief howl.

Luckily just as I was getting myself together, I saw two cyclists coming up behind me a way back.  Reassured that I wasn’t actually lost in Llanelli, I got back on, cycled along to the next feed station, where they met up with me.  We chatted a bit, and headed off together.  Sadly I and 174 (never did get the name) dropped the other chap fairly soon, but there was no way I was doing anything other than trying to get me “home”.  I can’t tell you much about the last however long.  Me and my new mate stuck together – he helped me keep going by being someone to talk to, and I helped him keep going by being in the lead.  My eating went to pot – I didn’t want to.  I had to make myself drink.  There were a lot of grinding ups, and not enough lovely downs.  It was just a long hard unremitting slog all the way back…

And 112 miles actually turned out to be 122 – which ain’t funny.  Having to retrace a chunk of the beginning of our route didn’t help, or make much sense and again – not enough signs left us nearly ready to call it quits before we found the left turn that rejoined the Druid route.  I had to take a gel near the end as the end kept being not quite yet..and I was starting to get that wobbly faint feeling which is generally considered to be a bad thing….

If I’d known that only 22 out of 250 starters (according to the food station man) people were doing the longer route, and that those 50 miles would be so bad, I’d have stuck to the 70 mile Merlin 1 route.  I can’t blame the weather, as we only got rained on twice – and briefly at that.  There were plenty of feedstops (6 in total), staffed by very friendly helpful Macmillan folk (I believe), so my bottles were kept topped up, and I did eat bananas.  A lot of the road surfaces throughout were bad, which didn’t help.  It was just a world apart from the first section of the ride…  If you’re thinking of doing the Merlin Ride, I’d recommend you stick to one of the shorter routes!

We finally got in after yet another bottom gear uphill grind – probably last as the broom wagon was sweeping up those few remaining.  The show had packed up, everyone had gone…it was not the most wonderful way to end an event.  We did have a nice chat with the organising folk, after having pointed out (not the first to do so unsurprisingly) that 112 miles is not 122.  They asked how it’d gone and being less than tactful I believe I said that “the last 40 miles sucked”.  To excuse my tactless behaviour, I did clarify, and hey, I was tired and very ouchy!  I’m not sure I’d have made it without my mate’s help, nor him with mine, so that was very equitable – and should he happen to be reading this – many thanks 🙂

Stats for you:

Cycling time: 8:10 ish (me)/8:32:50 (officially)
Distance: 122 miles
Avs: 14.9 mph
ODO: 1084 miles

Food consumed : 2 Torq bars, 3 *750ml Torq Energy, some ham, 1 1/2 bananas, 1 High5 with caffeine gel. (Yes – not enough!).

After all that, my average speed was pretty good – faster than the Dragon Ride – but it felt SO much worse.  I was kinda chuffed to see my new bike tick over to having done 1000 miles though 🙂  And there was one particular lovely downhill early on which I was flying down only to discover that there were traffic lights and queued cyclists 2/3 of the way down and…….just as I approached, the lights changed, and I just flew past them all on the outside…  A very nice moment *grin*.

Right now lots of me hurts – lots.  I’m relieved to say that’s my last LONG distance sportive this year…and I shall now be chillin’ until the L2P which is all of just over 2 weeks away!  Sponsor me – now!

PS: why is it when ever I end up cycling with a fellow male cyclist, they’re always full of how strong I am, and powerful, and so forth?  If that’s the case, then why the bejesus aren’t I any darn faster? 😉