Racing The Rain

When you ride the greenways, you’ll eventually get rained on. Most of the time it’s just a few sprinkles. Occasionally it’s more. If you don’t pay attention to the weather, you can sometimes get caught in a thunderstorm. Since bikes are made out of metal, that’s really not a good idea. If you enjoy riding and are committed to it on a regular basis, you do sometimes take a chance with the weather. I call it racing the rain.

Riding time is limited for most of us, so planning is a must. Part of that planning includes watching the weather forecasts on television and monitoring weather radars on your phone. The information is very detailed and you can plan around it successfully most of the time. You can take your rides before the rain moves in or ride where it’s not going to rain. You can also alter your route so you don’t get that far from home. And lastly, you can ask someone at home to watch the weather and contact you if it starts to look bad. All of these methods have worked for me, but they failed spectacularly one time. I was heading back south near the 401 bridge when the bottom fell out. I had checked the forecast and rain wasn’t due for hours. But it came down in sheets and I was soaked in seconds. I stopped under the bridge to wait it out and found a text message on my phone about approaching rain and a flash flood warning. I waited under the bridge for 20 minutes or so for it to ease up, but it never stopped. I rode the 12 miles home in a constant drizzle. I learned that day that the bike is much harder to clean up and dry off than I am.

I took a morning ride recently when the forecast called for a cloudy day with rain starting as early as lunchtime. It had rained the night before and there were still wet patches on the trails. I headed out on the Mingo Creek trail before turning south on the Neuse River trail. It didn’t take long to figure out that a lot of people had the same idea. There were 25 or so other bikers at Anderson Point Park, many of them stopping to get water and use the restrooms. I stopped for water myself (and to check the radar) and overheard two separate groups talking about how they had to finish by lunchtime to beat the rain. I rode south past Auburn-Knightdale Road, Battle Bridge Road and the water treatment plant. There’s a large field of sunflowers near the plant and they were in bloom. That’s a sight to see.   

The sunflowers were in bloom that day.
Note the clouds in the distance.

 

The clouds kept the temperature down, but the sun actually broke through a few times and you could see your shadow. It was nice to be a little cooler because the southern leg of the trail has hills and you’ve really got to work to climb some of them. The radar had shown a line of showers moving past south of Raleigh and, sure enough, I could see them when I got to the top of the large hill past the sunflowers. I pedaled a little further before turning around. On the way back I turned west on the Walnut Creek trail and followed it out to the tunnel under the 440 beltline. The tunnel gets very muddy when it rains so it was the ideal place to turn around. There were many other bikers out that day. I’ve never seen the trails so busy.

Sometimes it's really simple. If you're racing the rain,
keep an eye on the clouds.

I stopped again at Anderson Point Park for more water and to check the radar. A line of rain was headed for the west side of Raleigh and it looked like it would be in Knightdale in about an hour, so I rode north almost to Buffalo Road Park. I wanted to go further, but the radar clearly showed rain on the way. So I turned around.  There weren’t many other bikers or anyone else on the trail on the ride back.  As I came out of the trees into the open near the bridge to the Mingo Creek trail, I could see the rain clouds coming towards me from the west.

The breeze picked up as I crossed the bridge. I rode quickly back to Knightdale and took the first turn off the trail to get home. The breeze felt great but you could smell the rain. That made me pedal even faster. I felt a few sprinkles as I turned into my driveway. The rain started in earnest as I was wiping down the bike and hanging it on the rack in the garage. There was no thunder, but it rained pretty hard for about 30 minutes. I stood watching and listening to it for a few minutes before going inside the house. I had won the race against the rain that day…but it had been close.

I won the race with the rain that day. Sometimes I'm not so lucky.