Along with a few friends I’d got tickets a few weeks ago for a double bill of Terminator and Robocop at the local independent cinema on Friday (despite having watched both of them at home quite recently). Unfortunately I’d failed to register that it was no longer a few weeks ago, or in fact any weeks ago, and only twigged that I’d forgotten to go at around the time the first film was finishing. I did at least manage to leap on my bike and get into town in time for the start of Robocop (actually in plenty of time for the interminable adverts for mobile phones, broadband and joining the army). It’s still an entertaining film, and I’m increasingly of the opinion that it should correctly be classified as a comedy.
After a slow parkrun on Saturday we had the return of the friendly FRR vs Framlingham Flyers track challenge. It was split into three races based on estimated time, and I opted for the sub-21-minute race, despite not having actually run 5k inside 21 minutes for a while. Sadly the expected benefit of a running track didn’t materialise, and I felt pretty awful for most of it, coming in at around 21:30 – barely any quicker than last week’s parkrun. Still, most of us decamped to the pub afterwards, which was much more enjoyable. It turned out that we’d tied on points, but they gave it to us on the basis of having won all three races.
On Sunday I’d somehow been talked into a 50 mile bike ride, starting with a large breakfast and a pint (!) at the Cricketers, then out to the pub in Laxfield that we’d been to on the Camra pub crawl, via the Railway in Framlingham. It was a nice day and actually didn’t feel too strenuous, despite me being on my fixed-gear gravel bike and everyone else on their fancy road machines.
Funnily enough, as I braked to a stop outside my garage I looked down at my watch and saw it tick over from 49.99 to 50.00 miles (although Strava decided to trim it back down to 49.99, which will at least annoy the rounder-uppers). That might be my longest ride since that time in 1990 when I decided to ride my mountain bike home from Birmingham to Totton (132 miles), straight down the A34.