Nov-11: Three Steps OEO 209-km Perm

I'll skip how a ride went from 2 riders to possibly only 1 to 6 plus another doing Hope Springs Eternal and yet another doing the Bunn Warmer plus a late addition for OakElmOak to 7 doing OEO and 1 doing BW.  I'll just note it was an impressive crowd:  everyone except the route owner and me have done multiple 1200's and/or 1000's.  Mick and I have not gone beyond 600.  And Mick and I are also the slowest.

Three Steps:

1.  MaryF reaches 10-thousand RUSA kms for the year.  Adding to her impressive list of randonneuring and RAAM and other UltraMarathonCycling accomplishments, about 40-kms into the ride, Mary reached the 10-thousand RUSA credit kms for the year (all she needed was to then complete the ride and get credit).  It was decided that Hopkins was close enough to the 10K point; we stopped and took a pic to commemorate the first NC randonneuse to become a 10K-Hound:

L to R:  IanH, StevenA, me, Mary, BryanR, TimL, MickH.  Interestingly, all the current and past 10K-Hounds are on one side of Mary, and those not are on the other side.  Serendiptious grouping.  WayneC behind the camera.  (Photo originally on Mary's Facebook page.)

2.  BryanR mixed it up with TimL for the CL sprints, and later paid the price.  I think Bryan may have snuck the first one; after that, and being on his home turf, Tim allowed no more such silliness as he picked it up from way out -- e.g., half-a-mile or more before the CLs -- and deterred any save the most foolish to contest the issue.  Bryan was the only one foolish enough.  He posted on Facebook that he couldn't keep up with the rest of the crew in the later 1/3 of the ride.  I thought he was unable to keep up with himself.  On the other hand, he has been trying to convince me that he is slower than me this year.  This was the second ride in 8 weeks where he made his statement on the road, drifting backward.  I will need more evidence before I am convinced.

3.  Getting back into the environs of Raleigh, Ian was behind me on one of the climbs on Buffaloe Rd.  As we crested the ridge, he told me he was going to "bomb the descent" and came around.  I decided to change gears from 39/15 to 50/11, try to grab Ian's wheel, and see what would happen.  Well, in about 7 pedal strokes, I had his wheel, and then had to sit up and use the air-brake and also feathered the front brake once.  Coming to the bottom of the decline, I did NOT waste my momentum and hit the pedals hard, and passed Ian on the immediately following incline.  Where was the "bomb" part, Ian?

4.  Okay, so I need more than three easy steps.  At the finish, Mick revealed that he had crossed the 15-thousand RUSA credit kilometer mark late in the ride.  That makes Mick (this year) and TimL (last year) the only two North Carolinians to exceed 15K kms in a single calendar year.

5.  Some of us left immediately on completing the ride.  Tim to drive back to Wilson (he had noted earlier in the day that Elm City, the turn-around for this perm, is only about 5-miles from where he lives); Wayne to drive to Durham; I had another 9-mile commute to ride, and didn't want to do ALL of it in the dark (only had to do 83% of it in the dark).  The others waited for Bryan and got another group photo at the finish:

This photo also was originally published on Mary's Facebook page, with a caption explaining that Bryan, Mick, Mary and Ian were in the photo, but that Wayne and Tim had to leave before the photo.  I was not mentioned.  I guess I didn't "count", even though I was the one that had advised Mary of the ride; sniff, sniff.  (StevenA only did the 108-km Bunn Warmer, so he obviously didn't "count" -- Steven did capture and post on Facebook a couple of my favorite parts of the BW/HSE/OEO course.)

Summary:  beautiful mid-November day with great companions on a pretty darn nice route.  What more could one ask for?
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Nov-11:   

--> OakElmOak 209-km Perm -->; 148.1 m.; 9h39 in-motion; 15.3 mph; OEO elapsed time:  10h15.

 
Q-1 tot: _22 rides; 1,610.3 m; 108h42; 14.8 mph; _1947 RUSA kms. 

Q-2 tot: _29 rides; 2,711.5 m; 182h48; 14.8 mph; _2700 RUSA kms. 

Q-3 tot: _32 rides; 2,958.9 m; 197h17; 15.0 mph; _2983 RUSA kms. 

Oct tot: _10 rides; __868.8 m; _58h45; 14.8 mph; _1089 RUSA kms. 

Nov tot: __3 rides; __339.1 m; _22h19; 15.2 mph; __419 RUSA kms.

YTD tot: _96 rides; 8,488.6 m; 569h51; 14.9 mph; _9138 RUSA kms.