Sunday, August 25, 2013

Aug-24: Bridge Out -- Maybe Not.

A beautiful day it was.
LOW humidity.
High temps in the low 80's.
It felt more like NW Illinois in late August, not central North Carolina.

After the first intermediate control at Underwood Grocery (see the interactive map),
The route climbs the toughest (not the steepest) climb of the day,
Rolls past the estate of [someone], and
Eventually crosses NC-57.
Between NC-57 and the turn onto Hall Dairy Rd,
There is an extremely annoying big, yellow dawg (on the right).

I'd fallen back on the aforementioned climb, but
Needed to catch up to Byron, BobB and Mick,
None of whom had previously done the route,
To inform them of the dawg.

I had to yell to get their attention.
I had not finished the sentence describing the dawg,
When someone asked, "that dog?"
"That's the one."

That dawg was in for a bit of surprise.
As BobB was on his Seven, and equipped with his air horn.
As Byron noted, "Bob takes the prize for best dawg-deterent, today."


At approx. mile 67, the route uses Cornwall Rd to connect
Mountain Creek and Little Mountain Creek roads.
The very first time anyone rode this route,
Ricochet and I discovered that the bridge was undergoing destruction.

The bridge was certainly not passable the second time anyone did the route.
Not even passable to randonneurs.

The bridge was also not passable on the third tour.

Of course, bridge destruction was completed and now bridge construction is underway.
But the bridge is still closed and not passable.
Or is it?
BobB, Byron, Mick -- after we had walked our steeds across.  Getting off the bridge and onto that gravel was a bit more interesting than it looks in the photo -- there was a nice chasm between the edge of the rough bridge surface and the gravel.  [Photo credit to:  me.] 
However, that "amount of closure" is not going stop any randonneur worth their salt.
Especially anyone that dealt with the MUD PIT in May on the local 400 (warning:  no pix on that post).
And all four of us had done that ride.

We had lots of fun on the day, but
The above are the highlights.
So, the above is my story for this ride.
A story to which I will be sticking.
=================================================
Aug-24

--> 'Road to Hicksboro' perm -->; 149.4 m.;  est. 10h05 in-motion; 14.8 mph.  
 _pre-ride commute:  9.0 m.; 0h34 in-motion; 15.7 mph. 
 ___Hix:  127.8 m.;  8h37 in-motion; 14.8 mph; official elapsed time:  10h26. 
 ____ post-ride commute:  12.6 m.; 0h54 in-motion; 13.9 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: __6 rides; __643.3 m; _42h25; 15.2 mph; __694 RUSA kms.
Aug tot: __6 rides; __631.0 m; _42h25; 14.9 mph; __756 RUSA kms
YTD tot: _41 rides; _4508.5 m; 307h52; 14.6 mph; _5867 RUSA kms.

j.i.c. I want to add something, later.  

Friday, August 23, 2013

Aug-22: Dead Skunk in the Road 103k perm-pop

Mick emailed the afternoon / evening before:  "want to do Bahama Beach tomorrow, with an early start?"
Thinking BB would be easy and a nice ride, I replied, "7 am start."

Next morning, as soon as I threw my leg over, I knew I was in trouble.
The hard leg work from late Tuesday made itself KNOWN.
Very tired legs. 

9-mile commute to the start.
Lately, I've been doing that in 31-minutes in-motion.
Thursday, 38-minutes.

During those 38-minutes, I decided that despite what we'd agreed the previous evening,
"Let's just do the standard route, with no free-route 'wing-it' variants,"
That we were doing some longer but flatter options.

Mick agreed to trade miles, with some traffic on the first variant, for climbing.
He was soon glad he agreed to that, because he quickly discovered that his legs were tired. 

"Flat Start" variant added 2.6 miles (if'n I recall correctly),
Includes a higher elevation than anywhere on the "Standard Route,"
But that high elevation is attained via a false flat, and
"Flat Start" takes 4 of the 5 climbs on Victory Ch / Kemp Rd out of the mix.

I labored up Stagville Rd.
Mick wanted to stop at the Bahama Fire Station (the one in Bahama).
Something about a throne.
I refilled the one water bottle that I'd already emptied.
(It wasn't hot, but it sure was HUMID, early in the day.)

Down to Lake Michie.
UP the Michie Wall.
I commented that the wall was easier than Stagville Rd.
Mick thought the break at the fire station may have made a difference.

Next variant to remove some climbing:
Pass by Ellis Chapel Rd and continue to Hall Rd.
Mick complained I was skipping his favorite road.
However, he did appreciate the much easier terrain on Hall Rd, etc..

Robert's Chapel Rd is a fun road to cycle when one is fit and not tired.
It is a fun enough road if one is fit and very tired.
I think I stayed in the 39/15 the entire time on Robert's Chapel Rd.,
It seemed pretty easy.
Of course, I was going pretty slowly.

No need to mention Little Mountain Rd..

On Old-75, we encountered the first interesting thing of the day. 
Half of a very wide mobile home on flatbed, blocking most of the road. 
Wide-load follow pick-up blocking the way to the flatbed. 
But the interesting thing was the other half of the mobile home. 
It appeared to be half on and half off another flatbed, and 
Stuck, straddling the ditch, and blocking more of the road.

Cars in front of us were turning around.
We chicaned through.
There were three vehicles waiting on the other side of the blockage.
I stopped to tell each of the three drivers that they might as well turn-around, and
Find a detour, because that one half of the mobile home didn't look to be going ANYWHERE,
At least not for quite a while.

The first driver took the information in stride.
The second exclaimed, "I don't know a detour!"
I should have told him to follow me into Stem, but I didn't think of it until too late.
The third driver and passenger were incredulously excited by the news.

A long stop in Stem.  About 29 minutes.
The grill-cook had had to leave (we never knew why), and
The check-out clerk was doing double duty.
He apologized for the delay when we paid
(After telling him we would eat and then pay for our snacks.)
We didn't mind the long stop.

Zoom down from Stem to the I-85 overpass,
Then time for the third flatter variant on the day:
Hester Rd.
Mick commented half-way across Hester that he liked the road.
Everyone does.

However, Mick apparently failed to notice the dead skunk. 
He also claimed he didn't smell it. 
I think he may need to have his olfactory nerves checked. 
Because the skunk, although tucked against the grass at the edge of the shoulder
Not IN the road (as per the title of this post), 
Definitely skunked up the fragrance after I passed it.

Picking up the fragrance after passing the skunk also informed me that
The 12.6 miles from Grissom to the finish of the ride would be into a light breeze.

It wasn't a headwind.
Instead it was a cooling breeze.
And cooling was definitely appreciated as the temps had climbed well above 80F by the finish.

Mick's confuser reported 70.7 miles.
That would be 113-kms (for 103 credit).
Neither of us minded the extra distance.
[I think Mick's confuser might have measured a bit long. 
At least his works.]  
===============================================
Aug-22

--> Bahama Beach 'free-route' perm-pop -->; 92.3 m.;  est.  6h26 in-motion; 14.3 mph.  
 _pre-ride commute:  9.0 m.; 0h38 in-motion; 14.0 mph. 
 ___BB:  70.7 m.; 4h55 in-motion; 14.4 mph; official elapsed time:   5h30. 
 ____ post-ride commute:  12.6 m.; 0h53 in-motion; 14.1 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: __6 rides; __643.3 m; _42h25; 15.2 mph; __694 RUSA kms.
Aug tot: __5 rides; __481.6 m; _32h20; 14.9 mph; __551 RUSA kms
YTD tot: _40 rides; _4359.1 m; 297h47; 14.6 mph; _5662 RUSA kms.

j.i.c. I want to add something, later. 

Monday, August 12, 2013

Aug-10: Picnic Brevet Pre-Ride

[I previously sent an email to the NC-Rando-List-Serve with my pre-ride report. 
Such as it is / was. 
Therefore, this report is "experiences" rather than the "facts" of that pre-ride report.]  
======================================================== 
 
0555 - head out for the start of the pre-ride, roughly a 15-mile commute.
Wondering what the temperature was, I activated the confuser console.
It immediately went blank.
Aha!  It is not the sensor or the sensor battery that is bad,
It is the console battery!
Will deal with that later.
Strange though -- the console display had been quite bright up to moment of failure.
  
Arrived Alan's about 0655.
Hmmn -- no one else here.
Guess this will be a solo 200.
That's okay.  I like solo 200's.
This will be my third solo 200 this year.
--------------------------------------------------------------  
Alan emergd from his mostly dark house.
We take care of some paper-work.
And chat a bit about the plan for next week's picnic.
I pushed off at about 0704.

I rode 1+ mile to the McD's (start of the 7Cs perm-pop).
Refilled one bottle with fresh, COLD water.
I had consumed one entire bottle on the commute, and
The McD's was the logical refill location.

Three minutes later, back on the bike, and riding well.
Little to no apparent effort.
The route is mostly a gentle decline for the first 15-miles.

Interesting thing -- I noticed stuff I'd never noticed while doing this route with a group.
Usually trying to stay on the wheel of some of the rational starting fast-crew,
My guess is that I haven't really looked around too much on those early miles.
I recall several new housing developments, or
Perhaps I should describe them as ugly yellow, flattened terrain,
Destined to contain more McMansions or McCondos.

There were also several runners making their way toward the American Tobacco Trail.
Also one or two apparently returning from same.
I managed a good look northward on the ATT as I slid past -- several more runners were visible.
I don't ever recall seeing so many, maybe any, runners, before.
EXCEPT on the day of the half & full-marathon.
That was an "interesting" mile or more, from the USA Baseball Complex to the ATT.

There were other more interesting "new" things (meaning some are clearly old), but
I recall NONE of them.
More on that later?

I recall some numbers:
0820 - turned off Jack Bennett Rd onto US-15/501.
Knock off the 4 minutes late start, and the 3 minutes McD's start -- I was moving well.
0823 - turned off 15/501 on Andrew's Store Rd.
0834 - turned off Parker Herndon Rd onto Hamlet Chapel Rd.
Only eleven minutes for that last bit?
It usually seems to take half-an-eternity.
Hamlet Chapel / Jones Ferry to Frosty's -- that's what usually seems a full eternity.
0857 - I slid by Frosty's.  1h50 of pedalling for 29.6 miles.  I was happy.

I think it was 0934 when I turned off NC-87 onto Castle Rock Farm Rd.
I know I looked at my watch at the county line and the road becomes Old Swithboard.
I wanted to know how long the purgatory of the Castle Rock chip seal had lasted.
However, I cannot recall what the time was.
A possible explanation later?

Backing up a bit, I think it was around 0830,
That I first noticed there was a definite breeze in my face.
"Oh, good," I thought, "tailwind on the way back."

I think it was 1027 when I arrived in at the Snow Camp store.
I definitely recall that the clerk wrote 1030 on the card.
I let the clerk know that there would be about a dozen or two riders coming through next weekend.
She turned to the other clerk and said, "Betty, next week."
At the time, I thought it was amazing that they had been thinking of us.
More on that later?

I had consumed two bottles of water in the 50-miles since the early McD's stop.
I purchased two 16-oz. Pepsi's ($2),
Drank about 8 ounces, and put the rest in one of my white KHS water bottles.
Remounted and headed for Siler City at 1036.

About the only things I recall between Snow Camp and Siler City are:
 - the house that someone had started to brick-in -- it is for sale;
 - the UFO and Moon/Mars Rover have a new companion (sort of);
 - if that "new companion" was there in the Spring, well, I can be oblivious, and I don't recall it;
 - the house with the "purple woman" -- they need to mow the grass and do some other landscaping;
 - the grounds around Rocky River Church, esp. the shade from the many trees, looked nice.
 - and there was a breeze in my face the whole way. 

I think I arrived at the Siler City store after 47 minutes of pedaling;
That would suggest I arrived at 1124.
I know the clerk wrote 1130 on my card.

I made three quick phone calls while in Siler City.
One to Alan, to ask if he could conjure up some proper brevet weather,
Meaning some rain.
There had been more SUN than I had expected, and it was getting quite warm
Alan wasn't home.  (I later learned that Dorothy had let him go to the store by himself.)

The second call was to Biker Bob.
I didn't expect him to answer as he was supposed doing either double-L or G'eD.
He didn't answer and he didn't check his voice-mail until 3:10 in the afternoon.

The third call was to IvaHawk.
He was doing the Blue Ridge Brutal 75-miler.
So I didn't expect him to answer; he didn't.
I left a voice mail that Iva should be sure to let Ricochet know that my pre-ride was
Becoming brutal due to the sun and heat and the headwind.
(Ricochet was doing the Blue Ridge Brutal 100-miler.)

Oh, yeah, the breeze in my face had become enough of wind that
The huge flag outside the Siler City control, was mostly straight-out, pointing east.
Tailwind home, baby!
I was thinking my inbound time would be faster than the 4h09 of outbound pedaling time. 
--------------------------------------------------------------   
I think I was in Siler City for a total of 18 minutes.
It took only 43 minutes of pedaling to get back to Snow Camp.
That would suggest I arrived back at Snow Camp at 1225.
I don't recall "for sure" and I also don't recall what time the clerk wrote on the card.

I bought a gallon of water because all 4 of my bottles were empty (or nearly so).
I drank most of what I couldn't fit into my bottles;
I estimate that I left 12-ounces in the bottom of the jug.
Perhaps I drank too much water, because
My stomach felt a bit water-bloated when I left Snow Camp at 1240.

Other than the bloat, I was feeling good;
I thought I might finish by 4 pm (for a 9-hour time).
I even thought I might finish earlier than that.

Castle Rock Farm Rd, chip seal, jarring.
But I reached NC-87 with an additional 6-minutes of "negative-split" time.
I felt good.

Chicken Bridge Rd and Crawford Dairy Rd -- no recollections at all.
Wait, I recall several cars were parked on the north side of the bridge over the Haw River.
Fishermen?  Probably.

As I approached Frosty's at 2:16 pm, with the HEAT of the sun boring into my back,
I decided I needed another break.
A cold drink, some time in the air-conditioning, some time answering questions from a 5-year old,
And it was 2:40 pm when I pushed off from Frosty's.
A 4 pm finish was now out of the question, but I would certainly finish before 5 pm.

Locals will know what comes after leaving Frosty's.
Jones Ferry Rd.
Frickin' Jones Ferry Rd.
I couldn't climb up any of those rollers.
I tried several different gear combinations.
39/15 and stand  try to hammer.
39/23 and spin.
And some in between.
None worked.

The 23-minutes to cover Hamlet Chapel / Jones Ferry outbound,
Became 28-minutes to cover the reverse inbound.
[I do think the slopes are steeper inbound than out. 
Alan does sneak in some hard stuff on this / these courses.]

I recall climbing on Parker Herndon Rd,
Not entirely sure where I was on the road, and
Thinking, "I hope this is the climb to the stop sign and not the one before."
Luckily, I saw the stop-sign ahead sign just moments later.

Andrews Store Rd seemed harder than it should have been.
But once I reached 15/501, I figured the remaining 21-miles would be a piece of cake.
Swoop down Jack Bennett to the lake,
Then, essentially, the easy inclines of Martha's Chapel and Lewter Shop roads.

However, and, at the time, I didn't realize what this might mean, 
There was no sweat on my arms.
The hairs were dry and blowing in the wind.
Earlier, the arms had been soaked with sweat.

As I reached Farrington Rd, and the picnic table tucked between the two buildings at
Farrell's Lakeside, with the heat of the sun again seeming to burn me through my jersey and bibs,
I decided I needed another break.
I actually laid down on the bench of the picnic table.
I may have dozed off for a moment or two, but I think not.

After 10 minutes or so, I figured I'd better get back on the bike.
And then, as I tried to stand, WHAM -- my right groin muscle cramped.
Cramped so badly that I was suddenly nauseous.
Nausea so bad that I was invoking MariaF's rando rule:  no throwing up! 

I knew I had to get some weight on the leg, to help relax that muscle.
I couldn't bear the pain and the increased nausea of trying to do that.
I hated this sport, and I hated that I'd ever heard of this sport.
 
I thought, "who can I call for advice?"
I didn't want to call Alan, and
I was worried that others might offer to come rescue me.
Rescue me?
16 easy miles from the finish?
With hours before the time window closed?
NO WAY.

Once I realized the above, I knew whom to call upon for advice.
Me.

Get that muscle calmed down,
Get a V-8 -- which is what I should have had at Frosty's.  Doh!
And see what happens.

The muscle relaxed.
I limped into the store.
By the time I was paying for the V-8, the leg felt fine.

Before I left Farrell's, another customer asked if I would beat the approaching storm.
I looked at the black clouds approaching, and replied, "I doubt it."
And the guy kinda' laughed and said, "and you don't care?"
"That is correct," I answered, but I know he didn't really understand.

The ride from Farrell's back to Alan's was fine.
The 39/15 was an easy pedal.
The ominous storm clouds had blocked out the heat of the sun, and
There was only one flash-bang close enough to worry me.

I think I covered the last 16-miles in 1h04 of pedaling.
Oh, I did stop at the Critter's McD's one-mile before the finish,
To refill two water bottles with COLD water.
After all, I had a post-ride commute to do after the brevet paperwork was taken care of.

I think I finished at about 5:40 pm.
I was VERY tired.
 
I told Alan that at least I was the first to complete next Saturday's 200k brevet.
Alan then told me that Jerry had done his pre-ride the previous day.
Dang!  No glory whatsoever.
 
From photos, I know that I always look like death-warmed-over very early in a randonnee.
But at this ride finsih, I must have looked like death-gone-cold;
Alan suggested I come inside and sit down.
[I've been in Alan's before; the above line is just for dramatic effect.]  

He also offered some of his magic brew.
I forget how Alan described the brew, except
I recall he described using some hops that he grows himself.
Actually, Alan did quite a near-monologue on brewing and hops and yeast.
I enjoyed listening.

In between parts of Alan's brewing explanations,
Dorothy sternly mentioned that she was worried about Alan riding again, and
That we had better look carefully after him! 
I assured her we all would watch out for him. 
She also mentioned that she'd gotten worried when Alan seemed so long at the store, midday. 
[One of the foreshadowings closed.] 

The brewing lesson ended when one of the Mike's called.
MikeO or MikeD.
I think the voice I overheard was MikeD.
Otherwise I would not have copied him on the thank-you email to Alan.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I was worried about the post-ride commute, but I was committed to it.
From Morrisville, the direct route to Raleigh, on a bicycle,
Is UP Chapel Hill Rd / NC-54 to Cary, and
Then continue on Hillsborough Street to NC State.
The climb worried me.
[The traffic also worries me, but I was too tired to care about that on this day.]  

In the event, powered by Alan's magic home-brew,
The 39/15 gear and the bike and I were as one.
The climb was not as steep as I thought.
It was great actually.
I was getting re-energized by the ability to do that climb rather easily,
Despite being so very tired.

Then karma arrived to smack the hubris from me.
I clipped an unseen pebble with my rear tyre.
Flatting / flatted on a short, shallow decline.
The bike became a bit squirrelly before I could mostly coast to a stop.

Changed the tube.
Finished the ride.
66-minutes pedaling, mostly uphill, for the post-ride commute.
Compared to the soft-pedal 58-miutes pre-ride commute.
I take that as a positive.
==================================================

It strikes me that I never explicitly closed the loop on the "foreshadowing" questions.
My opinion is:
Dehydration.
I drank very little between Snow Camp and Frosty's inbound.
Maybe because I felt bloated when I left Snow Camp. 
Rando friend Dean, aka, the Phun Physiologist, yesterday, put up an interesting post about drinking to stay cool.  Here's my first thought:  to avoid dehydration - drink SOMETHING !!  
==================================================

Here is the text of the pre-ride report email I sent to the NC-rando-list-serve:  
Sticking to just the facts (that I can recall):
  • The chip-seal section of Castle Rock Farm Rd is  just as jarring as it has been. 
  • The surface of Old Switchboard Rd, just as it ends at Lindley Mill Rd, is deteriorating.  Take care. 
  • There was quite a bit of gravel on Old Switchboard Rd, next to the one particular gravel driveway, the usual suspect -- between the black-and-white cow and the stop sign.  Take care. 
  • The lawn-mowing activity of numerous residents along the way had thrown a lot of mown grass onto the roadway.  Enough so that I repeatedly zigged or zagged around it.
  • The surface of Jones Ferry Rd continues to deteriorate.  However, it is still several magnitudes better than was New Light Rd a couple years ago.  On the other hand, I found that the Jones Ferry Rd rollers inbound were at least 10-times longer and steeper than those rollers outbound.  I exaggerate not. 
I understand that JP did his pre-ride on Friday.  Whereas the heat and sun got to me and may have affected my perceptions and memory, Jerry likely was not quite so adversely impacted.  He may have more useful information. 

Here is the text of Jerry's email pre-ride report: 
Following up on Martin's report, I noticed some of what he mentioned along with the chip seal on Parker Herndon being particularly bumpy. 

Yeah, it was HOT--I stopped 3 times more than I do on this route in April. Frosty's out- and in-bound and Farrell's Lakeside in- bound. 

See you Saturday morning.  

===============================================
Aug-10

--> NCBC Picnic Brevet pre-ride -->; 154.8 m.;  est. 10h32 in-motion; 14.7 mph.  
 ____ pre-ride commute:  14.8 m.; 0h58 in-motion; 15.2 mph. 
 ____ brevet:  125.2 m.; 8h28 in-motion; 14.8 mph; official elapsed time:  10h47 . 
 ____ post-ride commute:  14.8 m.; 1h04 in-motion; 13.4 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: __6 rides; __643.3 m; _42h25; 15.2 mph; __694 RUSA kms.
Aug tot: __2 rides; __275.5 m; _18h00; 15.3 mph; __308 RUSA kms
YTD tot: _37 rides; _4153.0 m; 283h27; 14.7 mph; _5419 RUSA kms.

Brevet in-motion splits:  4h09 pedaling outbound; 4h19 inbound.  Given that I was 10-minutes ahead of the outbound pace, ... .
Brevet elapsed time splits:  4h30 outbound; 6h10 inbound.  Some extra breaks.  Some long breaks. 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Vexation

Avoid ... vexations to the spirit

From the poem "Desiderata".
Click-here for one version of the entire poem.

Explanation from Wikipedia (click-here).


Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Aug-03: 7Cs 108-km Perm-Pop

Some of the NC rando fast-crew / names are monsters.

That's all I'm typing about this ride.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit, Aug-06-2013: 
Official Results Can Be Deceptive: 
Permanent Route Name / # Distance Date Finishers DNF
NC: Clyde's Curious Critter Chatham County Cycling Circuit / 1861 108 2013/08/03 6 0
Cert# RUSA# Name Club / ACP Code Time
RUSA-T34198   7044 G__, Richard Randonneurs USA / 933095  05:20
RUSA-T34199   7794 D__, Thomas Lee Randonneurs USA / 933095  04:29
RUSA-T34200   6218 S__,  Martin Randonneurs USA / 933095  04:29
RUSA-T34201   3525 P__, Jerry N.C.B.C. / 933045  04:28
RUSA-T34202   1609 D__, Michael N.C.B.C. / 933045  04:30
RUSA-T34203    215 O__, Michael N.C.B.C. / 933045  05:15

Things not obvious from those official results include:
  • information that about 8 and 10 minutes elapsed between when a couple of people (or monsters) actually finished and when they got receipts / their cards initialed. 
  • perhaps only 4 minutes elapsed between when a couple of other people (not monsters) actually finished and when they got receipts / their cards initialed. 
  • there is no information available to this author on how much time may have elapsed between actual finishes and obtaining receipts for two additional people (also not monsters). 
  • the official results also do not indicate how much time the 2 monsters and another may have waited at the first intermediate control, nor how much time the 2 monsters waited at the the last intermediate control, nor does it indicate about the amount of time it may have taken various riders, or groups of riders, to evaluate the answer to the one informational control / admire the artistry on display. 
  • the official results do not include anything about relative exhaustion that various riders may have experienced en route or at the finish. 
  • there is also no indication that two of us separately cycled non-trivial commutes to get to the ride, and then we each separately rode even longer commutes after the ride.
With the above bullets in mind, you may wonder what elapsed times the 2 monsters might have attained if they hadn't waited at controls, possibly dawdled some en route, etc..  Personally, I've stopped wondering.

However, if you're like me, although you may use the official results from time to time to make guestimates of relative difficulty of courses or relative riding pace of others, you definitely recognize that there is a plethora of information NOT obvious from the official elapsed times.  That information not obvious from the official elpased times ... that's what makes blogging possibly interesting and maybe even useful.
===============================================
Aug-03

--> Clyde's Curous Critters, etc. 108-km Perm-Pop -->; 120.7 m.;  est. 7h28 in-motion; 16.1 mph.  
 ____ pre-ride commute:  16.0 m.; 1h02 in-motion; 15.4 mph. 
 ____ Seven C's:  67.6 m.; 3h54 in-motion; 17.3 mph; official elapsed time:  4h29. 
 ____ post-ride commute:  37.1 m.; 2h32 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: __6 rides; __643.3 m; _42h25; 15.2 mph; __694 RUSA kms.
Aug tot: __1 rides; __120.7 m; __7h28; 16.1 mph; __108 RUSA kms
YTD tot: _36 rides; _3998.2 m; 272h55; 14.7 mph; _5219 RUSA kms.


I bought a new battery for the sensor portion of my wireless cycle confusr.
It worked for all of a quarter of a mile.
Haven't had a chance to get the battery tested.
If the battery is good, then likely the sensor is crap.

The in-motion times are guestimates.
The 7C's in-motion time determined by taking the finish time, and
Subtracting the late start, the time to get a receipt at the finish, and
Also subtracting the down-time at the three intermediate store controls, and
Also adjusting for the stop-lights (esp. the one at 15/501) and stop-signs.