May-22/23: Morrisville 600 km Brevet

I pulled the plug after 300 miles due to serious chaffing in a tender spot. 
Camaraderie.  Bonding.  Personal goals.  Shared goals.  Determination.
Those can get one through a lot.
But they can't get one through certain pergatories.
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I was writing a detailed write-up to replace or augment the criptic entry above ... but lost the internet connection mid-story and lost the write-up to that point.  I knew I should have drafted the dang thing in Word, and then copied over.  I didn't.  And losing the text that I had written ... fits with a DNF ... don't you think.  Therefore, I will leave my detailed story on the DNF floor, except for the following:

Thanks to Maria, Vance, BobO, Sridhar (someday I must learn to spell his name), Al P., Ian for being riding companions.  If I missed any, I'm sorry.

Thanks to all those with whom I interfaced (now isn't that a big word signifying ... what?) at the controls.

Thanks to all the volunteers, especially Alan and Dorothy and Jerry and MikeD.  Too bad Jerry couldn't supply the only thing I really needed to keep riding ... uh, NO. 

Thanks to Branson and Glenn for post-ride advice and Glenn for sharing his Shennandoah story.  The things men can bond over /:roll-eyes:/ . 

Thanks to Lt. Dave and Mrs. Lt. Dave and Zeke, the Wonder Dog, for rescuing me.
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I learned some things on this ride and on the series in total.  A key one is:  don't read the other blogs until AFTER you have written your own story. 

I know that I can do the 600 distance, but I would like to confirm it.  Not for the hardware.  Just because.

I am trying to figure out another 600 I might be able to do this year.  Can't do Tony's Labor Day event ... I'm supposedly ridng the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway just a week later ... and I'm not endangering that trip.  Tony has another 600 in October ... but that looks to be another F-L-A-T, likely sore-a$$ adventure if I were to try that.  There are apparently two 600's on offer (one in June, one in July) near the Quad Cities, along and on both sides of the Mississippi River.  Those start on the Iowa side just north of the Quad Cities, go up and down the Missippi bluffs heading toward Galena, cross the River, go places in Illinois such as Apple River (it ain't flat there), goes up and down the bluffs on the Illinois side, and does more Iowa bluffs.  Sounds really hilly.  Certainly no Tony "Little Switzerland" adventure, but not flat.  I would already know half the towns and likely some of the roads ... but from a car, not from a bike.

I will have to do another 200 km brevet as due to timing of joining RUSA and doing the Morrisville 200 and results being sent in and ... I will likely see the central North Carolina rando crowd at Alan's August-14 ride. 

I hope to see some of the central North Carolina rando crowd on a Pemanent in June and/or July.

I will not see the central North Carolina rando crowd at Byron's L-L-L on Memorial Day Weekend ... I plan to give certain body parts plenty of time to heal.
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For other, more interesting insights on the 600k, see:
 Biking Around NC with Bob
 Geof's SR adventure
 Sagittandy and JayJay ambushed us
 The Workers' pre-ride
 MikeD's road-side write-up, with photos and extracts
 Doc on a Bike -- his bike is red -- I saw it
 Vance thinks Irrelevantly
 Maria's extensive report - makes me feel a wimp for DNF'ing my write-up
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May-22: 

Morrisville-Steadman-WhiteLake-Wilmington and back (I obviously didn't make it all the way back); 300.3 m.; 20hrs, 51min in-motion time; 14.4 mph. 

Q-1 tot: 16 rides; __938.2 m.; _60 hrs, 39 min; 15.5 mph.
Apr tot: 10 rides; __717.9 m.; _45 hrs, 27 min; 15.1 mph.
May tot: _8 rides; __776.1 m.: _55 hrs, 01 min; 14.1 mph.
YTD tot: 34 rides; 2,432.3 m.; 163 hrs, 05 min; 14.9 mph. 

I did accomplish one thing on the ride, I have now raised my "Eddington cycling number" to 65.  One note on that:  I count rides, not days.  So I have at least 65 rides that were at least 65 miles long.  The big interweb and most blogs that have mentioned the Eddington cycling number refer to "days" instead of rides; however, I am confident that Eddington had never heard of randonneuring, and that the blogs that pop up when one "googles" the phrase are not blogs of randonneurs (one blog that I saw was discussing an E of 21 - you get the idea). 

Just for giggles:  I now have 85 rides of at least 63 miles, 71 rides of at least 64 miles, 65 rides of at least 65 miles, 59 rides of at least 66 miles, 58 rides of at least 67 miles, 55 rides of at least 68 miles, 51 rides of at least 69 miles, 48 rides of at least 70 miles.