Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Finding the unfair advantage of the blind cyclist - Stage 1 Yellow Jersey.

It has been a while I know but I've been tied up for the summer...
I made a commitment to get fit and part of that means that three times a week I drag myself out of bed at 04:50 in the morning while the rest of the world sleeps soundly, and put on the "kit". In the summer its okay as the number of items that have to be pulled on is a lot less demanding than those winter months. But I digress - I manage to leave the house at about 05:04 do the stretches as prescribed and set off towards to town, as even at this time of year the sun is not up yet, so I decide to keep to the route where the road lamps are still on. Normally my body starts to get into a rhythm at about 2 miles but sometimes it takes a bit longer, most mornings I have it in my mind to run at least 6 and half miles but I can get distracted and go on for a bit longer. The reason I say this is that jogging in the morning gives me time to think and it just so happens that this particular morning I managed to have a reasonably clear head and taking the normal route round by the railway station with the dilapidated Victorian villas, that frankly have seen better days, most of which have been adopted by the local council for all sorts of uses. I take the road past the trading estate now having completed about 3 and half miles now this morning as I get to the four mile mark just as I'm exiting the trading estate a cyclist is coming towards me, now taking into account that we are still in the half light and actually the sun isn't trying to raise itself, so it is quite a surprise to see that the lady is wearing sunglasses. That got my overactive mind thinking about the sense of that choice or perhaps there were reasons behind what would appear to be a less than sensible eye-wear choice for 05:30 in the morning? As I jogged on I thought about the various plausible explanations firstly she could be a film star on a slob day or she could be a rock star still high on last nights chemical input or alternatively she could have an eye infection, which would be silly as reducing vision more in an already limited peripheral horizon would be dangerous.
I finally decided that, even though there was a distinct lack of Golden Labrador or white stick the cyclist was indeed blind or at the very least partially sighted. Then I wondered what the advantages there could be considering that she does this journey daily and she has not been hit by a truck, car or another cyclist or maybe the devastation of running over pedestrians keeps her going. There are advantages which I will review next time...


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