Last Sunday I was able to get permission to ride, but it should be a quick one — because I had to be back home A.S.A.P. So my buddy & I decided to attack what we call the Sisters of Mary’s (Immaculate School) Killer Hill.

It’s a less than an hour’s bike ride from our meeting place, and that’s taking the long way. I have yet to get the grade of the slope but it’s quite steep. Oh, and this is all road.

So I woke up early. Ate breakfast (carbo-load!), showered, dressed up, decided against wearing my arm warmers as the sun isn’t shining and it has been cloudy for days, put on sunblock (just in case), filled up my hydropack’s bladder with water & ice, kissed the wife, got my helmet, gloves, shades, and proceeded to my bike.

Then I saw the rear tire… flat (freak out #2-A)!

As a new mountain biker I still haven’t purchased the necessary emergency tools I’ll need for, well, emergencies. The day before I passed by the local bike shop and bought a 3-piece Zéfal tire lever set and a patch repair kit.

OK, I thought, I’ll just text my buddies to let them know I might be late… then it hit me: I don’t have my own tire pump yet (freak out #2-B)!

As early as it was I didn’t think there were any open vulcanizing shops yet. Then Frank (my buddy who lives quite near my place) replied to my SMS saying he has 2 spare tire tubes. So I loaded the bike into the car and proceeded to his place.

When I got to Frank’s place he said he was still feeling the hangover from the drinking session he had last Friday (he wasn’t able to ride on Saturday due to the same reason) and he didn’t think he was fit to attack Sisters of Mary’s Hill (freak out #2-C)! So I just thought, F**k it we’ll just ride anywhere.

When I got home I told my wife what happened with the tire and the reason why I had to bring the car (I hate bringing the car when riding) and he said, “We have a foot pump we bought way way before for KH (our eldest son) which he never used…” FREAK OUT #2-D!

But all-in-all the short ride was fun and tiring.

Anyone else out there want to share their freak out experiences?