The ride that wasn't meant to be

Sigh.

I mentioned earlier that I had a truckload of evening meetings this week. After shuffling my training schedule around to accommodate both those and my sore knee, it turned out that every person but one had something come up and couldn't make yesterday's meeting. Sigh.

But! Trying to stay positive, I said to myself, "Even though you want to take the day off running, you can still go ride your bike! Riding outside is way more fun that riding on the trainer!" So I gathered my bike stuff, loaded up the car, and headed out... to find that it was starting to rain. Sigh.

But! I checked the radar and it looked like just a squall passing through. "I'll sit in the car and wait it out!" I thought. Finally, it cleared and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful night -- and as an added bonus, the rain had scared most everyone away from the park, so it was calm and quiet riding.

Until mile 9.9. I rounded a corner and noticed a weird sound. "Is that the smooth concrete making that noise?" I thought. Then my back wheel started feeling strange. I pulled over. My back tire was completely flat.

Are you kidding me?

NOOOOOOOO!

I wasn't far from my car so I just walked it back. Several people called out to ask if I needed anything -- thanks, nice people! By the time I got there, it was past dinner time, so I decided to cut my losses and head home before I got struck by lightning or eaten by a velociraptor or something.

I felt a small gratification after I tried to pump my tire up at home to assess the damage, and it deflated immediately -- I wouldn't have been able to use a CO2 cartridge and it was the right decision to hoof it back. Still: Now I have something else to worry about before my 70.3 in 11 freakin' days.

Maybe this means I got my flat tire out of the way and won't have to worry about it. Either way, I'll get a chance to practice changing a tire.