The Best Laid Plans

as the saying goes "Gang Aft Agley". Or translated into modern English, often end up down the toilet. Literally.

The plan for Horseshoe Pass Audax Weekend was a bit involved. Matthew (middle son) was attending Teesside Uni for an Open Day prior to making his UCAS choices on the Saturday, the Audax was the Sunday.

GPS was plotted (properly) earlier in the week, and we decamped to the Land of the Prince Bishops (County Durham.....this is educational y'know) on the Friday to stay overnight at the el-cheapo TravelLodge. You gets what you paid for, and we obviously hadn't paid for much sleep. Breakfast at the neighbouring Little Chef (more of THAT later) resumed some semblance of normal service, and off we trotted to look around the Uni.

Curiosity sated, we set off on the return journey mid-afternoon and arrived back home early evening after which bike prepping was hastily done and car packed for the following morning.

I retreated to bed at about 10 p.m., and stayed there about 4 hours. The wee small hours of the Sunday are best glossed over, but I know now why the lavvy and the washbasin are next to one another. I don't think I have ever felt quite so ill, and despite my every effort to the contrary (including getting up at 6 a.m. to get dressed) the Audax simply wasn't happening. I spent the whole of the Sunday being poorly, the eventual culprit suspected to be Little Chef Baked Beans which was the only thing I had eaten that no-one else had.

I felt wiped out until about the Tuesday, but worse still I had missed the last 200km event in the Audax Calendar.