At this point, I had already done 250 km in the first 2 days. I originally planned to do this run in two stages, but as soon as I reached the sea at the beginning of the third day, I felt recharged.
The day was perfect, 20 C°, beautiful cycle roads passing through famous Italian coastal cities. It was like that up until half the run. I kept on going stopping just to eat and take a piss.
Then, after the only real and very steep climbing, a very aggressive storm came. I had to take cover on the side of a church in the middle of nowhere (God’s door where closed for me :c ). I stayed there for 3 hours watching my gear to avoid it getting soaked while shitting myself over thunders falling in the range of 200m. I was caught off guard and only had 1/3 of the peanut butter jar with
me lol I demolished it and ate nothing until the end of the ride at midnight because my body had already switched to fats when I restarted and didn’t want to have a sugar crash.
When it finally passed, it was 8 pm and my legs were feeling fine, so I turned my lights and spotlight on, wore my reflective jacket, and proceeded to end it with the final 70 km of a trafficked high-speed double lane road, with very poor lighting in some sections. It allowed some thinking about death, about why I took this travel in the first place and about my recent poor life choices.
It’s so easy to take things and people for granted you know, doing a trip like that and ending it with the dark helped me to see that what we normally perceive as problems are no more than a spit if compared to this cosmic mess. We should live life freely as it is riding a bike for 500 km having nothing to do except ride and stay safe.
This country, like many others in the world, is car-centric. It’s hard to practise a sport\lifestyle like ours because we are so accustomed to living quickly and having to go to places fast. There’s no space for taking an entire day to ride, and it sucks seeing people horning at you or engaging with you in a negative way, even if you are respecting the rules and doing nothing bad. Is it just because you are travelling with a bike and it looks weird?
I’Il keep on doing that nonetheless, but for now, this ass and mind need a rest.
by _domhnall_