IF

IF, by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
------------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia link.
The Wiki article seems awfully narrow in its description and understanding of the poem.  Nothing is mentioned about the millions of American boys that receive graduation cards with that poem as the message.  Maybe it is no longer acceptable to present boys trying to become men with that poem.

On the other hand, maybe more adult men should re-read the poem occasionally.
And some women, too.  The thoughts hold true regardless of the sex of the reader.
Staying calm in the face of calamity, esp. a false calamity, has a lot of merit.

One thing I didn't know, but should have expected, was that this Kipling poem was yet another where the inspiration came from a British Empire battle or war.  My now-ex father-in-law's favorite poet was Rudyard Kipling.  I don't understand why, because his thoughts were more along the lines of a matured Mark Twain as regards war.  When Roland died, I spent a long time searching through a volume of Kipling poems looking for something appropriate to read at the small graveside gathering (five people if I recall correctly) we had as a last remembrance of Roland.  There was a larger gathering for the "celebration of life", but the graveside gathering, at the grave of Roland's older brother Mack, was quite small and intimate.  Anyway, I guess I should not have been surprised to learn that a battle had inspired the poem.

Mar-25: Modified "TT" / Cadence Route

Pull up a chair,
Let me tell you a story:   

The "Gab Brothers" indicated interest in doing Bahama Beach on Sunday.
They inquired as to my opinion on a "weather window".
I checked the weather forecasts:

• WRAL showed 60 to 70% chance of precip for all hours on Sunday, 
• weather dot gov showed 50% on the day, but I could find no hour-by-hour info, 
• weather dot com showed 10%  for the morning, rising to 20 & 30% later in the day. 

I'd informed Ricochet a few days earlier that I intended BB @ 0800 on Sunday.
0800 seemed as good or better than any other options, so
That is what I suggested to the "Gab Brothers".
Then I retired early for the night.
---------------------------------------------------------------
At 0600 this morning, I could see stars.
Seemed weather dot com had been correct.
(Jumping ahead -- as I type this, it still appears that weather dot com was correct.)

With the weather dot com forecast, and the stars visible at 0600,
I was sure at least some would be at Bay Leaf at 0800.
I did NOT check my e-mail.
Why bother?
We're "talking" randonnuers here.
They'll certainly be there.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I decided to change my rear tyre since the profile on same was so incredibly FLAT.
Did that this morning since I had plenty of time.
But when I went to throw a leg-over, I realized that I had forgotten to pump up the tube.
Put a little air in, I could hear the tube "crinkling" and moving about.
I let the air out.  Then started pumping up again.
Got to around 50 lbs pressure and heard the tube "crinkling" and adjusting inside the tyre again.
Went to let the air out and BANG !! -- sounded like a gunshot.
RATS !!

Not enough time to change tyre again, and make it to Bay Leaf by 0800.
So ... I drove to the CVS at Bay Leaf, arriving at 0750.
No one there.
Deep sigh.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Drove the 2-kms to PUE so I'd have a better situation in which to change the flat.
As expected, the gunshot tube is WAY beyond patching.
The spare tube I've been carrying -- I confirmed that it had a hole.
Patched with one of those postage-stamp sized temp-patches.
(Since I'm out of permanent patches.)
Using the flat of the rear bumper of my CRV as a bench to get the patch near perfect.

Inserting the patched tube into the tyre,
Suddenly LT says "hello" from two feet away.
In my concentration, I had heard neither him nor Red Rocket ride up.
LT thought I was going to have a coronary on the spot.
(Well, if I had, at least he is a trained / certified EMT.)

Chatted for a moment or two while I continued to insert tube in tyre.
They invited me to ride with,
But I wasn't sure I was in the mood to ride with anyone, and
I didn't want anyone else to be effected if the temp-patch failed.
LT and RR left.

Must have left PUE at about 8:51 am
(based on how long it took me to do the ride I did and when I finished).
Rode past the CVS at Bay Leaf at 8:54 (I was fast from PUE to the CVS); still no one there.
I rode west on Norwood, and at some point decided to do a modified "TT" / cadence route.
20.3 miles in 1h08 (and change).
Rounds to 17.8 mph -- fastest ride since Jun-30-2010.
Lemon-aid.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Mar-25:  

PUE:  Norwood-Hickory-CP-Panoramic-U-turn-CP-MVC; 20.3 m.; 1h08 in-motion; 17.8 mph.  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: _10 rides; __593.1 m.; _39 h, 35 m; 15.0 mph. 

YTD tot: _22 rides; 1,610.3 m.; 108 h, 42 m; 14.8 mph. 
----------------------------------------------------------- 
[edit Mar-26:  By 8 pm, i.e., 10 hours after completion of the above ride, the tyre / tube in question was completely flat.  Aargh.]

YELLOW

EVERYTHING in central North Carolina is YELLOW, now.

The cars, the buildings, the trees, the grass, the air, the roads.  All YELLOW.
The surfaces of quiet ponds and surfaces of the backwaters of the lakes.  All YELLOW.
The surfaces of the water reservoirs.  YELLOW.

As one rides their bicycle down the road,
The center-line of the tyres become YELLOW.
White skull-caps become YELLOW.
Black ones, too.

YELLOW because of the pine pollen.


All food has only one taste right now.
You got it -- YELLOW.
Yellow pine pollen.

Come back from a bike ride,
All one can taste is the yellow pollen.
All one can smell -- if not "stopped up" -- is the yellow pollen.

Mar-21: Bahama Beach Spring Equinox 103-kms

Lots of shades of newly minted, spring-green today.
Lots of other colors from bradford pears and wisteria (?) and redtips and azaleas and what-not.

Bovines and equines, but no llamas nor alpacas nor mules nor donkeys.

Sunshine and clouds.

Calm winds.
Some head-breeze the last 12-miles or so.
(That's when I kindly let Mick lead for awhile.)

Repeated down-and-up.
Some mostly flat near the end.
But NOT right before the end.

Warm.
Humid.
It did not rain on us.

Seems Spring has sprung.
(Yeah, I know.  I should leave the bad-puns to the Phun Physiologist.  That's his turf.)

All-in-all:  a pleasant 100+ km ride, taking it mostly easy.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Mar-21:  

--> Bahama Beach 103-km Perm-Pop --> ; 74.2 m.; 4h50 in-motion; 15.3 mph; official rando time -- 4h55 (for the perm-pop only).  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __8 rides; __511.4 m.; _34 h, 20 m; 14.9 mph. 

YTD tot: _20 rides; 1,528.6 m.; 103 h, 27 m; 14.8 mph. 

Mar-18: 200k Pre-Ride w/ the "Gab Brothers"

Fearless Leader RBA Alan greeted us warmly.
I asked, winking as I did so,
If he had been able to carefully check the road names during his pre-ride.
Alan grimaced / grinned and said, "no."
He knows the course too well.

I decided to try and check all the little green road-name signs for consistency with the cue sheet.
I know the course too well, also.

Well ... make that ... I know the roads too well, also.
Because on this ride, I noticed lots of houses and things I'd never noticed before.
There are still things I've not yet noticed, though.
"Gab Brother" #2 asked about some semi-notable thing,
I don't recall exactly what;
I responded that I hadn't noticed,
But it would probably only take another 3 to 4 rides for me to notice it.

After all, it had only taken 5 or 6 times before I finally noticed the old dam below Snow Camp.


Before going on to the "road report", let me go back to before our start.
Alan gave a very short report of the pre-ride of the day before (Alan, MikeO, Jerry).
The most important thing seemed to be Jerry finding and "un-losting" a couple of visiting cyclists,
And more importantly, the reward that followed.


Interesting things on the day:

• We "found" the tail-end of the marathon and half-marathon walkers and jogger/walkers; the runners were long gone.  That pedestrian traffic on the roads won't be there on the 31st.  But it kept our minds busy for a couple miles. 
• 
  
• "Yard art" on Castle Rock Farm Rd / Old Switchboro Rd all still waiting / posing for pics. 
• On the return, a large ostrich had joined three bovines in one of the fields on the north side of Castle Rock Farm Rd.  We see llamas and alpacas in many places in central NC, but first ostrich on a farm for me. 
• 
  
• The UFO on Siler City - Snow Camp Rd has an additional vehicle alongside. 
• The purple-silhouette woman seemed more prominent (on SC - SC Rd). 
• The historical marker alongside that large church on SC-SC Rd indicates that there has been a church there since at least 1757.  Also mentioned something about the "Regulators", but I didn't read fast enough.  Maybe next time I'll be prepared to read. 
• [edit Mar-29-2012]  Thanks to Branson (see comments below), who seems to know all the history stuff, or how to access the on-line history stuff, neither I nor you have to wait until "next time":  http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?sp=map&sv=H-73 
•  
• One should definitely downshift as or BEFORE one turns off SC-SC Rd onto H.A.Rd.. 
• Gab Brother #1 and I each failed to do that ... and each had to muscle it up the slope. 

The UFO now has a "companion vehicle".  You'll have to do the brevet to see.  
Thanks to "sag" of  "sagittandy" blog fame for the "undated" photo. 

Road conditions:

• Parker Herndon Rd, outbound, is smoother than it was because of some effective patching. 
• I failed to notice inbound, as I was intent on catching the Gab Brothers. 
• 
  
• The eastern 1-mile of Castle Farm Rock Rd is smooth. 
• Old Switchboro Rd at the west of end of Castle Rock Farm Rd is nice. 
• The several miles in between are still rough. 
• People on 35 to 42 mm tyres will likely not notice, though. 
• 
  
• The NC-55 shoulders, outbound and inbound, have a lot of gravel and sand "washout" and other debris.  Riding the fog line seemed best to me.  Otherwise one would be swerving back-and-forth between the shoulder and the lane; better to just claim your position and let the traffic go around; there are two entire lanes each direction (and a suicide lane -- I think), and there shouldn't be that much traffic. 
• 
  
• I can't think of any road that warrants special mention because of a poor or bad surface -- just about every mile of every road (except as noted above) is nicely smooth.  It used to be worse.  There has been some improvement even since I first did Alan's brevets in 2010.  However, I understand that the roads used to be much rougher.  

Terrain conditions and flora report:

• Although Gab Brother #1 will likely disagree with me, the repeating climbs back up from the many little creek valleys don't seem nearly as difficult as they used to.  Your experience may differ. 
• Green.  Green.  Everything Spring-Green!  With redbuds and bradford pears and tulip magnolias and everything else bursting out in appropriate colors.  Two weeks on, the particular species most noticeable will likely have morphed-on, but it should still be a glorious outing for anyone that appreciates spring flowers.  (And, since I noticed things were covered with yellow pollen on Monday ... maybe the pollen will be not be bad on the 31st.  WAIT ... I recall that the 2010-400-km-brevet was run in a pollen storm -- especially visible at night.  Therefore, expect pollen in the air.) 

Gab Brothers?

• #1 (Dean) and #2 (Mick -- he claims there are too many rando-Mike's in NC) repeatedly dropped me off their front.  
• They were usually having a fine old gabfest. 
• I couldn't properly hear them. 
• And they didn't need a third, mostly boring, voice to drag the conversation down. 
• As noted above, after being dropped off the front, I had more time to notice things I'd not before. 
• One notable exception.  I had stopped at Frosty's and was munching on a bit of food, and they got ahead a few minutes.  Catching them took my mind away from paying attention to the road conditions on Jones Ferry / Hamlet Chpl Rd and also the first half of Parker Herndon Rd.  However, as I type this, I recall that there are still plenty of chips / top layer of asphalt missing on JF/HC Rd.  Shouldn't be a problem in daylight.  Shouldn't really be a problem for night-time 300 and 400 finishers either -- the missing bits are not yet holes, but remain only 1/4 inch or less deep. 
• The extra minutes at Frosty's did allow me to be the bearer of good news about the NC State victory in the men's round-ball tournament.  (There were outdoor speakers at Frosty's tuned to the sports radio station.)  

We had an excellent ride with almost no noticeable breeze all day, good company, and nicely cool conditions.  We did not hurry while on the bike.  We did not hurry the controls.  We finished in 10h01.

And Jerry did not get my share of the homebrew!


I'm not sure what "job" I'll be doing on the 31st, but I hope to see the usual crew, and more.


One last thing:  I am confident that the cue sheet is absolutely correct !
Click here for Alan's website in general.
Click here for the 200-km cue sheet currently on the website.
The sharp-eyed may see why my story, which I'm sticking to, is that that cue sheet is correct.

Mar-17: Looping Falls Lake with "the Mallet"

I met my cycling friend Paul "the Mallet" early Saturday morning.
So early that lights were required during the cycle to the meeting point.
After ... some preliminaries ... we set off to loop Falls Lake.
Not a circuit of the ENTIRE lake, just what everyone refers to as "looping the lake".

It was a beautiful, calm morning.
Fog giving way to bright sunlight,
Not long before we got to Cheek Rd across the widest part of the lake.

Crossing the lake on the Cheek Rd causeway,
Enjoying the sun, the calm, the SMOOTH lake surface,
Suddenly Paul draws my attention to the lake two miles to our west.

We are in bright sunshine,
Two miles west, where the lake narrows
To essentially the channel of the Neuse River,
A cloud is resting upon the surface of the lake.

Dense fog cloud.
Blanketing the lake surface,
And the "hills" and trees on each side.
The top of the fog cloud was about another hundred or two feet above the tops of the trees.
Slowing drifting off, away from the base of the fog cloud.
Being pushed by the gentle breeze.

Sorry, no photo.

By the time we looped around to where that early morning fog remnant gave us the above view,
All was sunshine and building warmth.

Only two other interesting things on the day were ...

1. A hand-cyclist in the midst of the Gyro-"A" peloton. 
2. I dropped the Mallet on the Ghoston climb.  And he didn't even have a 20-lb barbell in his bag!  

Paul being three months away from any real cycling,
Combined with apparently getting a bit low on energy,
Did the trick.

I doubt I'll ever get to the top of any other climb before Paul.
And certainly not to the top of mountain climb.

Still ... 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
We had a enjoyable time in the early day sun and calm.
That is my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Paul might even agree with it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar-17:  

--> Falls Lake Loop --> ; 59.3 m.; 3h51 in-motion; 15.4 mph (we were avg'ing 15.8 when we went our separate ways after 50.0 miles together -- probably avg'd faster than that around the lake).  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __6 rides; __311.5 m.; _21 h, 16 m; 14.6 mph. 

YTD tot: _18 rides; 1,328.7 m.; _90 h, 23 m; 14.7 mph. 

Chillicothe

Occasionally ... well, okay, sometimes bordering on obsessively ... I check the "stats" from the "ClustrMap" and/or the "PageViews".  This morning, the ClustrMap stats indicated the following recent visitors:

Tuesday, March 13 @ 22:08 : Raleigh, North Carolina, US

Tuesday, March 13 @ 21:19 : Chillicothe, Illinois, US

Tuesday, March 13 @ 20:24 : North Aurora, Illinois, US

Tuesday, March 13 @ 20:11 : Lawrenceville, Georgia, US

Tuesday, March 13 @ 10:24 : Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, US

Tuesday, March 13 @ 05:28 : Brussels, BE

Tuesday, March 13 @ 04:21 : Mountain View, California, US

Monday, March 12 @ 14:18 : Morrisville, North Carolina, US
Monday, March 12 @ 11:48 : Durham, North Carolina, US                                                                            

You can guess from the title of this post which one caught my eye.
Chillicothe.

Why?
Because I been there.  I know where it is.  I probably have relatives of relatives that live there.

My paternal grandparents and my dad's brother (that would be my uncle) and his wife's family used to bop-over to Chillicothe regularly.  I never understood why.  Perhaps some of my aunt's relatives live there.

I wonder if there are any randonneurs in Chillicothe.
Hmmn, I think I know where I can find a database that might provide the answer.


Per Wiki:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillicothe,_Illinois

Oh, in case any old "foamers" read this and the above wiki link ... I've been to and over and past Edelstein, many times.  Of course, I still think of IL-Hwy-40 as IL-Hwy-88 (they changed the number when the governor and his driver got lost because they couldn't tell the difference between IL-88 and I-88 -- one an interstate, the other not; dang big-city types, anyway). 

Chillicother, IL website:  http://www.cityofchillicotheil.com/

Town has more population than I thought.  I would have guessed 2 or 3 thousand.  On the other hand, it is close enough to Peoria that it may have been providing bedrooms for Peoria for many decades.  

Mar-10: Inaugural Warrenton - Egypt Mtn Perm

"Biker Bob", "Wilmington Rick", Jeremy S (first time meeting) and I did the inaugural Warrenton - Egypt Mtn 210k permanent on a beautiful, severe-clear day on a rolling course lined with cow pastures, mobile-home parks, and ... admittedly more dawgs than we would have preferred.  (Shouts of "no" and/or "shut-up" were effective in all but one case -- Bob decided to face down one beast.)  Also, we would have appreciated a bit less breeze / wind from the NE, especially for the first 54 or 59 miles -- on the other hand, we didn't mind the NE wind at all for most of the last 65-miles. 

Some things weren't exactly as I had recalled them, including the dawgs -- but, after all, I hadn't ridden much of the route for at least two years, and some of those roads I'd only ridden once (too much rando in 2011 / not enough adventuresome JRA?).  There were a couple valleys I had not remembered.   One segment / view was on a different road than I had recalled (only a couple miles apart as the crow flies, but separated by 50-miles of the route).  (I still think the view / side-wind climb I see in my mind's eye is on Sims Bridge Rd rather than on Gillburg Rd.)  

One thing was EXACTLY as I recalled and as shown on the digital maps, but I'm going to make a small adjustment to the cue sheet because at least two of the other three were intent on doing the wrong thing at the "turn" from Stagecoach Rd on to Tower Rd..  Namely, I'll be removing the reference to the few yards one rides on the shoulder of US-401 before actually turning onto Tower Rd.   

We had fun, took ambassadorial time at the controls in Epsom and Bobbitt, some unnecessary "stop-and-chat" time in a couple places, 35 or 45-minutes for lunch at the Hardee's in Warrenton, and of course, the other three wanted to be somewhat conservative as they never knew what was coming -- they kept asking when / where we would get to Egypt Mtn (I finally told them that it is noted on the cue sheet). 

I was pleasantly surprised when on Egypt Mtn Rd I noticed that I was about to roll 100-miles.  "Cool," I thought, "'Stovall Mtn' on KLL at 100-miles, Egypt Mtn Rd on this course at 100-miles."  WHY I was surprised by rolling the 100-mile mark while on EM Rd is a mystery:  the cue sheet clearly shows the turn onto EM Rd at 98.3-miles and the turn off EM Rd at 102.8-miles.  Maybe I should look at my own cue sheet once in a while. 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Mar-10:  

--> Warrenton - Egypt Mtn 210-km Permanent; 135.6 m.; 9h28 in-motion; 14.4 mph; official rando time -- 10h57 (for the permanent only).  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __3 rides; __219.8 m.; _15 h, 12 m; 14.5 mph. 

YTD tot: _15 rides; 1,237.0 m.; _84 h, 20 m; 14.7 mph. 

I ran out of energy or gumption or both at the bottom of Ghoston Rd (9.5-kms before the end).  I was quite slow all the way up Ghoston; it has been a LONG time since I rode up the steep part of Peed Rd at 4.0-mph.  But at least I knew I would finish the ride and not end up in the ditch.  Probably took 40-minutes, or nearly so, to do that 10-kms, instead of the expected 25 to 28 minutes. 

R-20 for me; R-27 for Bob.  

First rando ride this year for Rick. 

Jeremy is new to rando this year; he hasn't been doing this long enough to be counting, yet.  

This ride also made C-25 for me (25 consecutive months with at least one 100-miler-plus ride). 

Also M-37 (37 months with at least one 100-km-plus ride). 

As for the rando P-series:  not yet this month.   

Eddington Cycling Number: 

After this ride:  84. 

Meaning I have ridden at least 84 miles on at least 84 different occasions.   

Mar-08: Chatting One's Way Around Falls Lake

Met my friend IvaHawk at PUE, ~ 7:40, temp ~ 54F, to go for an easy ride around Falls Lake.

As expected, a bit more morning traffic on Carpenter Pond & NC-98 than one might prefer.
By 9 o'clock, the traffic had thinned out.
Probably partially due to the time of day and associated travel patterns,
But also due to the roads we were on by then.

Chatting so much, nearly a no energy ride.
Chatting so much, I don't even recall what Falls Lake from Cheek Rd looked like.
Nor do I recall climbing back up from the lake or trip across ??? Rd back to Old Weaver Trail.

I do recall slipping a comment in between the other chatting,
That it was nice to be on Cheek Rd again after so long an absence.
I also do recall the Hawk mentioning, as we made one particular turn,
"As someone once wrote, who wouldn't want to ride on a road named 'Stool Tree'?"

Back to OWT, again, I only recall waiting for the light to trip at NC-50, and
The Hawk pointing out the absolutely flat, glass-like surface of Falls Lake seen from OWT.

Seemed to me that someone must have taken out the climb up to New Light Rd.
Did we go up Ghoston?  No memory.
The steep on Peed in the 50-21;
The Hawk mentioning that one short piece of that is at least 11%.

Back at PUE at about 10:20; temp pushing 70F.
Nice ride on a nice, early March day.
With good company.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
IvaHawk's story may differ.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar-08:  

--> PUE:  Falls Lake Loop; an interlude for lunch; some more riding about; 51.9 m.; 3h35 in-motion; 14.5 mph.  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __2 rides; ___84.2 m.; __5 h, 46 m; 14.6 mph. 

YTD tot: _14 rides; 1,101.4 m.; _74 h, 53 m; 14.7 mph. 

First non-rando, non-errand ride that was at least partially rando-errand-based, of the year. 

Mar-01: "oh so nice"

I used to put something on this blog after every ride ... EV-ER-Y ride ... regardless of the purpose, or course, or the why.  I drifted away from that schtick some months ago, so normally, now, I wouldn't mention one word on here about my March 1st "errand-ride".  However, ...

Riding in Summer attire (bibs, short-sleeve jersey, thinnish socks, shoes, Headsweats headband/cover, helmet, short-fingers -- no long-sleeves, no shell or windvest, no knee or leg-warmers, no thick socks, no glove liners, no long-fingers, no neck gaiter) ... oh so nice.

Thinking "oh, I could get a sunburn out here" ... oh so nice.

Sweating because it was hot and humid ... oh so nice.

Getting off the bike at 5:01 pm, and it was still 76F ... oh so nice.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar-01:  

north Raleigh --> near downtown --> really north Raleigh --> north Raleigh; 32.3 m.; est. 2h10 in-motion; 14.9 mph.  

Jan tot: __6 rides; __426.2 m.; _28 h, 52 m; 14.8 mph. 

Feb tot: __6 rides; __591.0 m.; _40 h, 15 m; 14.7 mph. 

Mar tot: __1 rides; ___32.3 m.; __2 h, 10 m; 14.9 mph. 

YTD tot: _13 rides; 1,049.5 m.; _71 h, 17 m; 14.7 mph.