My Mistake

Most of my emails of the team are verbose. This one wasn't:

8am
meet at brower
35 miles
easy (17-19mph) pace

it's gonna be stupid-cold...dress appropriately.

All the information they'd need, even the forecast, with none of the fluff. The pinnacle of clarity. Unfortunately, my rare proclivity for the concise went a little too far, and I left out a key line:

you must RSVP

Had no one RSVPed, I could've stayed indoors. Had anyone stated with certainty that they would be at the ride, I could've let them know in advance that I was bailing. My mistake was to allow the possibility that someone might be stuck at Brower, wondering how long to wait for me. I couldn't let that happen.

So there I was, standing at Brower, tears pouring down my cheeks from the cold. I'd been outdoors for six minutes, and already I was getting the tingling in my fingers and toes.

Two weeks ago, I rode a century with the team in weather that never got above 25 degrees. Today was only 10 degrees colder, but the wind was biting, and the multiple layers I wore did little to stave the chill. I only rode outdoors for an hour, but I was miserable, and hurting.

It's fun to throw around the phrase "stupid-cold", but today brought real meaning to what is usually an embellishment.