My legs are shaking as my foot stamps ineffectually on the brake. The car slides another foot backwards. I’m right in the middle of the road on a sharp double bend on the most notorious hill in the county. The snow is falling thick and fast and even rugged 4x4s are sliding all over the road. What chance do I have in my tiny matchbox of a car? I restart the car and try again. The wheels spin and the car swerves a bit more. What was that bit about turning the wheel in the opposite direction from how you’re… no, I haven’t got a clue. I know my dad always told me I needed to be clear about what to do on ice, but the truth is I’m a clueless stereotype of an ignorant winter driver.
On the plus side, though, this is how dedicated I am to my training. I nearly didn’t venture out for our erg session tonight. The forecast was for heavy snow, but it wasn’t to start for several hours yet. I can’t miss my training just for fear, I’d thought to myself, as I set out on perfectly dry roads.
Only our session went on longer than I’d expected. By the time we left the club house the air was thick with snowflakes and there was a slippery white layer of snow on the ground.
So now here I am in the middle of the road, feeling a little bit foolish and a big bit scared. Mercifully a kindly face appears at the window.
“Back her down, love, that’s it. Here, give me the wheel. No, don’t brake, that’s him, there you go.”
Safely on the verge, I breathe a ragged sigh of relief, just glad to be alive and not in the middle of the highway. Except that I still need to go home. My first savior of the evening slithers off down the hill and I wonder what to do next.
And then along come Wes and Dave – two heroes of the night who are “out playing” in the snow in a sturdy Volvo. Before I know it, Dave has fixed a towbar to my feeble car, rigged up a tow rope and Wes has climbed into the driver’s seat. They appear to be having the time of their lives and tell me to stop thanking them. Five minutes later I’m safely at the top of my lane and my husband has appeared on a quad bike to get me the last mile and a half home.
So what have I learned from my snowy adventure? Well, that sometimes it’s OK to miss a session. That I really, really do need to learn how to maneuver in the snow. That for all the nutters and weirdos and psychopaths out there, there are also kind and worthy souls who are prepared to get cold and wet and covered in snow to help out someone in trouble. Oh, and that my performance on the erg still sucks. I did learn that, too.
