01\11\15 - Steam Ride: Chiltern Pub Crawl 200km Audax

Thinking that I'd get my November 200 done ASAP I entered this without reading the small print.  Whaddamistakertomaker!  It was an AAA event ie bloody hilly.  Starting at Ruislip but mainly set in the Cotswolds you'd expect a few lumps and maybe some bumps but some of these posed quite serious problems.  It's all very well suffering physically uphill, but no fun downhill on the mental front.  Some of the descents were as steep as the climbs.  Therefore brakes fully on and travelling at speeds equivalent to climbing speeds.  And less fun as everywhere was wet although it didn't rain.  But there was patchy, thick fog.  With sunset at about 16:30, the day was fine and it was still possible to navigate after 17:00, but it quickly went dark and foggy and I was surprised to discover that it's possible to travel over 30 miles without seeing a street light, or any built-up areas, not even in the distance!  In the fog my helmet light was just reflecting all its light back into my eyes and whilst my bike lights did their best it was not always possible to see the potholes before hitting them.  So I got slower and slower.  With a one & a half hour time extension (due to the difficult terrain) I got back with 25 minutes to spare although it never occurred to me that I'd exceed the time limit.  Eleven down, one to go!  PW