Storms' A Brewin'

I love riding through heavy rain. If anything I imagine it brings out my yearning to feel more Belgian. I am in no way Belgian, but I would hope I could fit in with them on the bike. When I am debating whether or not to go ride in the rain, snow or any other type of adverse conditions, I will think of how a Belgian rider would handle it - without hesitation. Just the act of thinking about that makes me know I am no Belgian. They are tough as nails and will punish you for any hesitation. It's all out of a passion for the bicycle I think.

Since I'm not anyone to be considered a "tough" rider, I absolutely love finding myself in situations where I can feel more badass. Today's ride reminded me of those times. I was riding with future IUP Cycling club president, David, who met modern day IUP Cycling's founding father Duane Corbett, today and we didn't really check the weather forecast for the day leading up to the ride. Sure I checked it earlier today and saw that rain would be on the way... I just didn't know there was a tornado advisory in effect.

Although there was no tornado, when we set out on our ride things were calm. Calm, indeed. It was the calm before the storm. The rain started slowly, but the drops were big, fast, and stung when they hit the arms, legs and face. I knew something fun was on the way. We really hit it in the last 20 minutes of our ride. Hail began to fall as adrenaline was pumping and lightening was slapping around Indiana. I loved it! Being so helpless in nature, so open to the forces that be, and soaked to the core with the feeling like I might be a labeled "badass" for riding through this if something more crazy does happen, gives me a great thrill.

Before I go too far into this, this wasn't the first storm David and I have ridden through. Last semester, (I have forgotten if I blogged about it) David and I rode through a storm in the most direct way. We hit the calm before ("oh yeah dude... it's real nice out. the weather forecasters got it wrong.") the painfully high winds whipping torrents of rain while lightening struck all around us, and the somewhat tranquil calm after the storm ("that was fun!").

Also on today's ride, we passed three girls going for a run in that mess. David and I (probably more me) felt it necessary to cheer them on, receiving a nice "Whooooo!!!" back from the three of them for being athletes in the crazy weather. What really grounds this kind of a ride is that no one really knows what race day will bring. I am not sure at what level of "danger" officials will cancel a race, but I did leave my place today expecting wet roads (before the rain really hit they were fairly dry) and race day will not stop for rain. Again, I am a wussy cyclists. It is much harder to get me riding when it is currently raining versus not caring when I am caught out in the rain after I have already begun before the it arrives.

And before too many of you think I'm actually trying to look more badass than is good for me, it's kinda like... well, it's storming now and there's nothing I can do. I will get home when I get home. I might as well enjoy it!

Anyway, it's still raining now and I am hungry.