A Close Shave

One of the nice things about training on rural roads is that there is not a lot of traffic, no pollution and pretty scenery. The downside however is narrow roads with no edge markings. Since I started cycling I haven't had any problems though, even when I cycle into Uni when there is a bit more traffic about the vehicles have been pretty respectful and give me a reasonable bit of space even when there is also oncoming traffic. Anyway for those of you who think you know where this is headed - actually you're wrong - I set out for my cycle this morning and once again didn't encounter any problems - well, not with traffic anyway. I'm still tired from the 2 and a half hours spent picking up hay on Tuesday, but had a good cycle nontheless, 10Km in 23.23. As I was doing a half brick this morning I had to follow the cycle with a 1.5km run. The road I live on goes straight for about half a km and then there is a really sharp bend, because you can't see what's coming around the corner unless you pull out to the middle of the road, and that's exactly what most vehicles do, slowing down in case anything is coming the other way - I've been living here 6 and a half years and never seen an accident so this seems to work well. As a sensible rural runner I, of course, run on the 'wrong' side of the road, i.e. against the traffic, so I can always see what's coming. This morning as I approached the sharp bend I could hear a car coming so ran off the side of the road onto the very small grass strip at the side, but the eejit driving the car had decided that their best option was to drive really fast and also off the edge of the road - i.e. on the same grass strip as me ... hmmm, car vs. runner - don't think I'll take that on, so I had to dive into the bushes to avoid being mown down by the stupid b***h (oh yes sad to say it was a woman) in her toy 4 wheel drive (probably a dumbass rav 4) with crappy personalised plate. So ms '4 EVE A' beware, I know where you work. Yes of course she works just down the road at the goddy school, why am I surprised - they are all crap drivers! Actually that's a bit unfair, but they are obviously all townies, they took over our local rural school building when the school closed due to falling rolls. Within a week of moving in they were complaining about stock crossings on our road (urr, hello, this is farmland what do you expect!) and they all own big cars and drive way too fast down our road. It's particularly bad whenever they have some sort of function on at the local hall as the traffic volume is horrific and every single one of them uses our road as a short cut (which is about 100m shorter than staying on the main road!) and goes too fast. UGH. So what do you think readers? Should I:

a) Write a letter of complaint to the council about the traffic generated by their use of the school and their inconsiderate driving
b) Write to the school telling them what I think of their crap driving in general and Ms '4 EVE A' in particular
c) Chuck a cow pat (or a rock) at '4 EVE A' next time I go past?

I will leave it in your hands.....

Final comment is that despite my bush jumping I still managed an ok time on the run - I guess the extra adrenaline helped! Once I work out how to do the graph properly I will stick up a picture showing my various times and (hopefully) the improvements.

Stay safe out there, and if you're driving, SLOW DOWN.