The Beacon Message Board

This may sound obvious but I just wanted to remind club runners that if you do a club run when it's only just above freezing and it's raining it would be worth wearing enough to keep warm (or carrying an extra layer).
You might be wearing enough to stay warm whilst riding, but if you have to wait around for 15 minutes due to a mechanical, you're going to freeze.
That's not aimed at anyone in particular, I'm sure we all get caught out by the weather sometimes - but today's B run probably isn't one we'll all remember fondly!

We as cyclists witter on about road safety and irresponsible drivers but quite often we completely ignore common sense when it comes to personal safety in winter conditions. On an A run some years ago, a guy turned up in shorts and t shirt. The temperature was 4C and it was raining. We should have refused a ride. On our return I stopped the ride as he was veering all over the place and was clearly hypothermic. A volunteer took him to the station and accompanied him home on a heated train.

When I ran the Sunrise and Snowdrop Express, the temperature plummeted by 10 degrees Celsius in the course of a day. We had three hypothermic riders after the ride and had to sit the next to heaters and provide warm food and drink. After that incident, I purchased foil blankets to hand out in case of emergency.

A few years ago I was riding across the Elenydd in some pretty cold and sleety conditions. I lacked spare sources of warmth and realised that my ride was verging on lunatic. Had there been a mechanical, I would have been in serious trouble without recourse to any help and assistance.

Fenella, you are perfectly correct on additional layers. By coincidence I was talking to another Beacon member on the same matter yesterday and he carries a silver foil blanket.

Something I learnt from mountaineering is, always carry self-protection such as spare layers and a survival bag. A survival bag is not practicable in this situation but a silver foil blanket is essential.