Aug-28: Hurdle Mills Bailout 100, modified

Last October, on consecutive Saturdays, we did two runnings of the IR Hurdle Mills 200k. Each time, the "Bailout 100" was available for those leary of riding 200 km.  No one did the the Bailout course.

This year, I managed to horn-swaggle several IRs into riding a 100-miler a month.  I haven't checked, but (perhaps) as of today, no IR has done all five 100-milers (we started in March, but skipped May - I think).  That statistic of no one having done all the 100-milers includes me.  In July, I tried to back-to-back the rando Sauartown 200 km Permanent and the IR Middleburg 100.  I bailed before the start of the Middleburg ride.  Today may have been the downfall for Smitty (it's more fun to write without the facts, so ... ); he is either nursing an injured ankle, or, more likely, surfing the waves stirred up by Danielle. 

On to the ride report.  The following is a "picture" / map of the course we rode today, and the elevation profile:

 

 
For a "google-earth" based view of the map, see here .
 _ Note:  the map is not exactly the route we actually rode.  The map shows the route turning off Brown Rd onto Breeze Rd.  We did not do that because, when I checked out Breeze Rd by car a couple years ago. the middle section of it was rough gravel.  I may have to make an "exploration" ride to find out if it is still gravel, or if the road has been Obamulated.

We zoomed from PUE to Gorman, up Snow Hill Rd (you know, if one rides that enough times, it gets easier, I think), across Mason and St. Mary's roads and up to Underwood Grocery at the corner of Schley and New Sharon Ch roads.  We paused there for a refueling stop. 

Since IvaHawk, Lt. Dave and I had all ridden Schley Rd between New Sharon Ch Rd and Walnut Grove Ch Rd, we thought we'd like to go off the cue sheet and see New Sharon Ch Rd for the first time.  Lee mentioned that he'd never ridden Schley Rd, but we outvoted him 3 to 1.  (I promised approximately the same distance -- it was about 3 miles longer -- and I promised that New Sharon Ch Rd would be slightly hillier -- it was much hillier.  Everybody was happy -- mostly because of the enhanced climbing.)

After New Sharon Ch Rd ended at NC-157, we zig-zagged onto Brown Rd.  Several kept asking "what road is this?"  Apparently they thought I was joking when I repeatedly answered "Brown Rd".  But that may have been because they thought, due to the number of near kamikaze squirrels, that the road should have been named Squirrel Rd.  Everyone else in the crew enjoyed themselves immensely when Brown Rd ended at Laws Store Rd, and ... I did not know which way to turn.  Luckily, a postman was driving by, so we asked him which way to turn.  (Lee noted that I refused to admit that I was lost; maybe I admitted that, and maybe I didn't.)

Somewhere on Brown Rd.

The hammers once again sucking "someone's" wheel.

Thanks for the photographic proof, Iva!!

Gosh - I just noticed you did get all the hammers following me:

after my orange jersey, comes Ags, Lee, LT, and drifting off the back Robert. 

 
A slightly longer stop in Hurdle Mills was followed by the continued quick pace across Charles Reade / Jim Latta Rd (we skipped going up to Mt. Tirzah) to Mt Harmony Baptist Church -- the church, not the road.  We continued on more-or-less straight, rode past the Roxboro Motor Speedway and over to Old Roxboro Rd, heading for Berea and lunch.  Very nice lunch in Berea, but a couple miles before we got there, Wendy yelled out for the crew to slow down a bit as Gary's legs were trying to cramp.  Several of us chuckled (not in a mean way) and plotted our conversations once we reached Berea.

Guess we''l have to talk to Gary about nuuu-trition, electro-lyyyyytes, proper diiii-et, and we plotted for some of us to simultaneously whip a package of Zyms out of our back pockets and asked if he'd ever heard of the product.  Why was this funny?  Because all those Zyms, plus some SportLegs, plus some e-Load, plus some "gummy-bear" supplements that several / most of us were packing were all purchased from "TLC_4_Bikes". 

After we left Berea and had climbed back up to the plateau after crossing the Tar River, Gary was lantern rouging with me, partially to discuss the "tick" that was coming from somewhere in my drive system.  After completing that discussion, to be consistent with the above-mentioned "Berea conversations", I told Gary "don't worry, I'll get you home despite your legs trying to cramp."  We both laughed at that ludicrous statement. 

Turned out it wasn't so ludicrous.  The rest of crew put the hammer down after crossing to the south side of the Tar River, and Wendy seemed to not have a lot of "go" in her legs, so the three of us drifted off the back of the front portion of the crew.  Then, the completely unexpected happened:  on one of the climbs on Brogden Rd, one of Gary's legs actually cramped!! 

Lt. Dave had earlier said that Gary needed no defence nor to make any apologies, but I had responded, "yes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't tease him -- we'll likely never get another chance." 

I think everyone had a good ride on an interesting course -- even Wendy and Gary.  The front part of the crew had all left PUE by the time G, W, and I finished our ride.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's crew:  IvaHawk, Lt. Dave, Lee, Robert, Ags, Gary + Wendy, me.
Oh, and we were joined for the first 20 or 21 miles by serendipitous PUE pick-up "Russ".
More like he grabbed onto out wheels as we left PUE.
We gave him oral directions on how to complete the Butner Prison route. 
He must have made it.  His car was gone when we returned to PUE.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Btw, this was a "Five County Century":  Wake, Durham, Orange, Person, Granville.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My stats:

Aug-28: 

PUE:  Hurdle Mills Bailout-100, w/ New Sharon Ch Rd modification; 106.3 m.; 6 hrs, 39 min in-motion time; 16.0 mph. 

Q-1 tot: 16 rides; __938.2 m.; _60 hrs, 39 min; 15.5 mph.
Q-2 tot: 31 rides; 2,263.3 m.; 151 hrs, 29 min; 14.9 mph.
Ju1 tot: 13 rides; __786.9 m.; _52 hrs, 36 min; 15.0 mph.
Aug tot: _8 rides; __597.0 m.; _37 hrs, 18 min; 16.0 mph.
YTD tot: 68 rides; 4,585.4 m.; 302 hrs, 05 min; 15.2 mph.  
 
 
Today's 100-miler means that I now have:
 _ _ _ more than 23,000 lifetime miles (more than 37,000 lifetime kms).  It is a short lifetime.
 _ And also, I now have 68 rides that were at least 68 miles.
 _ _ I.e, my Eddington Cycling Number has reached 68.
 _ _ _ I leave it to the reader to research "Eddington Cycling Number".
 
68 may seem a bit paltry in this part of the country, especially given, for example, that MikeD now has 104 consecutive months with at least one 100-mile ride, but my history is MY HISTORY.