Last August I shamefully withdrew from an audax ride because of heat exhaustion on an unseasonably hot day, that really, I should not have attempted. Yesterday I redeemed myself.
Downs Murmuration 300, or as I called it: Downs Retribution: a route using mostly quiet country lanes & roads past farmlands, & with minimal highway action.
Weather forecast was dry, early fog, & 4°C-21°C, much more palatable for this cold weather weirdo 
than peaking in the low 30s. I stayed at the same airbnb as last time at Toowoomba & cycled the 13km to the start point to meet with the ride organiser & other randonneurs for a 7am start.
A couple of hiccups to start, but the ride otherwise started smoothly. Caught up to a randonneur on the 400km route when he stopped & we shared some chats until his turnaround point at 100km in, a locality called Bell, the first control for both of us.
I contemplated that I’d pushed a few too many watts whilst riding with him so I eased it up just a little as I headed on solo towards Jandowae, where I quit last time.
Me looking (& feeling) much better:
I reached the Jandowae control, bought some water, chatted with a staff member there who remembered me from last time, & I was a bit embarrassed, but then realised that having a heat-exhausted cyclist spending hours in their café just to recover, is not something they’d see every day. The two staff members said I was looking a lot better this time. I felt pumped to leave on my bike & not in the sag wagon, but reminded myself I was only halfway. And faced the cross-headwind for 50km on the south-southeast highway to the next control at Dalby. I decided there was no sense fighting it, it doesn’t get harder, you just go slower, & I allowed it to take longer.
Onward, heading east. This time a cross-tailwind for about 30km past more recently-harvested cotton fields. But it wasn’t much faster; the road had imperceptibly tipped upward at an average of 0.146%
Then with about 65km left on my randonneuring quest the sun set. I was hoping to be a bit closer to home by then but c’est la vie. The sun sleeves (ironically) went back on, as did the glove liners, just to take the edge off the cold that I was expecting. And it did cool off quite a bit. Especially around a lot of the creek crossings, where it feels like you’ve just walked into a fridge… brrr! But thankfully, having eased off earlier, I still had some energy left in the tank & could pick up the pace in situations where I needed a bit more body warmth. Felt relieved to see the lights of the town of Goombungee which signified 28km of randonneuring remaining, then got really excited when I could see the lights of Toowoomba. Then just over 13 hours after having started I arrived back at the park at Highfields. Thought to photography myself at the gate, but didn’t stop for that or to timestamp & sign my card (I figured I could remember the time & write it in later), I just wanted to get back to base. Felt so good to walk in the door, knowing I’d ticked that one off & put my earlier DNF behind me.
(
Blue for the audax route; red for the commute)
