Jul-20: And His Third Ride Was P-B-P

Having opened the month doing one of Tony's Bicycle For Life mountain-ish 400's. and
Having skipped riding on the 13th because of the prospect of poor weather,
The weather turn out be great, btw -- but it does depend on the def'n of "great," and
Family obligations knocking the 27th off the calendar,
Bob needed a populaire on the 20th to keep his run at the P-12 going.

Ricochet has been working on getting his long-time running friend, DanP,
To come over to the dark side and start bicycling around a bit.
Not that bicycling is the dark side, but randonneuring might be.

Dan's defenses finally fell and he got a bike and has done a few rides.
Twenty milers.
Just before the start, Ricochet allowed that he might be asking a bit much of Dan,
As he could have picked an easier populaire.

Putting thoughts of Egypt Mtn last July from my mind,
And also thoughts of Black Creek from last September,
And even squelching certain recollections from February earlier this year,

Hoping, instead, for a repeat from 2010,
I noted, "Well, Robert's first ride was 35-miles, and his second ride was 70-miles."
Bob interjected, "And his third ride was P-B-P."
Guffaws from Robert and me (and maybe Bob, too).
--------------------------------------------------------------
As noted in the prior post, there are some reasonable variants of the Bahama Beach course;
I wanted to do the "Hall Rd variant" because I had never ridden Hall Rd.
I had told Bob I wanted to do "Hall Rd" even before Ricochet and Dan signed on to the ride.


With Dan on the ride, and not having many miles in his legs,
The Hall Rd variant made even more sense:
One-half mile longer, but flatter.
[Hmmn, RWGPS indicates almost exactly the same climbing, 
But Hall Rd certainly seemed much flatter. (?) ] 

Ricochet was anxious to leave the control in Stem, but
I was playing for a few extra minutes,
Thinking that Dan's legs might appreciate an extra 5-minutes rest.

That's always problematic.
Is a little more rest the better option?
Or getting back on the bike before anything has a chance to tighten up?

I'd forgotten that the previous time Robert and I had done BB together,
That I'd led us across Hester Rd.
That may have been Robert's introduction to Hester Rd.

Anyway, I haven't made a RWGPS map of the Hester Store variant, but
I guess I'll need to:
Ricochet Robert has fallen in love with Hester Rd.

Quiet and relatively flat -- that was his description to Dan.
An apt description.
I can't recall even a single person who has ever disliked Hester Rd, cycling-wise.

The strange thing about Ricochet liking Hester Rd, partially because of its relative flat,
Is that he LOVES Byron's Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville Permanent route
Precisely because it is decidedly NOT flat.
[And that L-L-L starts less than 2-miles from his house.] 

There are at least a couple interesting houses on Hester Rd.
My favorite is the seven-gables-house at the corner with NC-56.
[Sorry, no photo.]

Dan's legs started to show serious indications of weariness approaching Wilton.
By the time we reached Grissom, Robert was orchestrating an extra stop at the picnic table.
And sharing electrolytes and what-not, trying to fight off cramps and such.

Bob and I drifted off the front of Dan and Robert on the run-in on Bruce Garner / New Light Rd.
Robert got Dan up the triumverant of finishing climbs:
Ghoston, Peed and Mt. Vernon Church roads.
Recalling the completion of the aforementioned Feburary ride.

Robert is hoping Dan might be ready for Alan's NCBC picnic brevet in mid-August.
I'm going to suggest that Robert scale back his hopes to the picnic Populaire.
And for Dan's first 200 -- I'm going to suggest Dean's LOMBD.

P-1 for Dan.  But I wouldn't recommend that he start counting at this point.
P-9 for Bob.  And he is counting.
 
Robert appears to have picked up P-11 earlier in the month.
He seems to be keeping that quiet.  Oops! 
====================================================
Jul-20: 

--> Bahama Beach-km Perm-Pop (w/ variants) -->; 91.6 m.;  6h05 in-motion; 15.0 mph.  
 ____ pre-ride commute: _9.0 m.; 0h32 in-motion; 16.9 mph. 
 ____ Bahama Beach + :  66.9 m.; 4h28 in-motion; 15.0 mph; elapsed time:  5h07. 
 ____ post-ride commute:  15.8 m.; 1h05 in-motion; 14.6 mph. 

Q-1 tot: _11 rides; __940.3 m; _64h42; 14.5 mph; _1275 RUSA kms.
Q-2 tot: _18 rides; _2293.9 m; 158h18; 14.5 mph; _3142 RUSA kms.
Jul tot: __4 rides; __436.7 m; _28h23; 15.4 mph; __416 RUSA kms.
YTD tot: _33 rides; _3670.9 m; 251h24; 14.6 mph; _4833 RUSA kms.