Jul-03: IvaHawk 104

Another early morning on the "Bay Leaf - Oxford - Bay Leaf" perm-pop.
This time with my friend Iva "IvaHawk" A.

Prompt 0600 start.
Sun trying to peak over the horizon of trees and between the clouds.

We timed our arrival at the stop-light for NC-98 poorly.
We had to wait at least a minute-and-a-half.
The entire time there was a slow-motion tennis-volley of vehicles on 98.
Luckily, a southbound vehicle pulled up to the light and that tripped the induction loop.

Only 2 or 3 northbound vehicles between 98 and Old Weaver Trail.
Southbound traffic, headed into Raleigh for a day of work, etc., was the usual heavy load.

Iva and I were chatting about all the important things of our worlds,
And my cycling brain, the course knowledge part, rolled over to automatic.
Iva and I were chatting away, having a grand time,
When I suddenly realized that we were descending toward Falls Lake, again!
The "Oxford" route does not descend to Falls Lake a second time outbound.
Uh-oh, on non-thinking auto-pilot, I had made the turn onto Old Weaver
As if doing the "Denny's Store Sortie."

"Iva," I yelled, "we're on the wrong course!"
A couple bonus miles for us on the day.
One might expect a little better from the route-owner.

Back on course and cruising along, we made nice time.
There was intermittent weak sunshine between mostly dominant clouds.
The advantage of that being that the temperature would be retarded in its daily climb.
And that would allow us to stay cooler.
Silver lining.

We, by which I mean Iva, needed a nature break outbound.
[I can't recall what we used to call those on "Irregulars" rides.]

According to the note I made on my control card,
[Surprised I bothered to look, aren't you]
We arrived at the turn-around control just east of Oxford at 0816,
[The receipt is time-stamped "08:19:39"].
Given the pause at NC-98, the ~ 2.1 bonus miles, and the nature break,
That seemed a pretty good outbound result.
Especially as we had chatted the whole way.


We left the control at 0830, rode the kilometer on US-158, and
Turned southbound on Antioch Rd into a surprise.
Apparently, we had been feeling really, really good on the outbound / northbound trip,
Because we were now confronted with a significant southerly headwind.
[Significant by central North Carolina standards, that is.] 
Dang!

There was no chatting on the homebound leg;
The person behind could hear words spoken from the person in front,
But the wind carried the responses of the one behind away toward Virginia.

My notes on the control card indicate that we arrived at the finish at 1039,
[Surprised, again, aren't you -- that I actually looked at and referenced the card]
Adjusting for the couple minutes of pauseage due to waiting for traffic at stop-signs,
2h07 in-motion on the homeward bound leg.
[Oh, that's much better than I thought.  
We must have hammered it pretty hard coming back. 
Hammered for us, that is.  
These things are all relative, you know.] 
==================================================== 
Jul-03:  

--> Oxford 104-km perm-pop; 72.4 m.;  4h41 in-motion; 15.4 mph. 
 - pre-ride commute:  5.6 m.;  0h23 in-motion; 14.5 mph.
 - - Oxford:  66.8 m.;  4h18 in-motion; 15.5 mph; elapsed time:  4h39. 

Q-1 tot: _21 rides; _967.6 m; _65h57; 14.7 mph; 1136 RUSA kms.
Q-2 tot: _24 rides; 1954.2 m; 134h57; 14.5 mph; 2573 RUSA kms.
Jul tot: __1 rides; __72.4 m; __4h41; 15.4 mph; _104 RUSA kms.  
YTD tot: _46 rides; 2995.2 m; 205h35; 14.6 mph; 3818 RUSA kms. 

==================================================== 
10-years ago:  

On Jul-04-2004 [pre-blog, and certainly pre-rando], I made my one and only appearance at a prominent local charity ride, the "Firecracker."  The ride doesn't start until 8 am -- well, by the time all the announcements, etc. are completed, more like 8:10 am.  It was HOT.  It seems it is always HOT for the Firecracker.  I rode a 29-lb. (that includes saddle-pack) mountain bike with slicks and "cages" for the pedals (i.e., clips).  I completed the 31.7-mile "50k" ride in 2h22 in-motion, 13.3 mph avg. 

A certain person named Lynn did the "100k."  Even she noted that it was HOT.  I think she did the Firecracker one more time, but then swore off the event as too crowded and too hot.  

Ha!  I just recalled -- we were supposed to go to a party given by one of Lynn's cycling friends, but the directions were so atrocious, and despite assurances from the host that she would leave her cell phone on in case anyone had trouble finding the party in the wasteland that is Cary, NC (my description, not the host's), we were unable to contact the host, and we never made it to the party. 

==================================================== 
5-years ago:  

On Jul-03-2009 [which was before I took up the rando thing], I rode my first ever "Kerr Lake Loop."  Back then, MikeD had a mini-map of the rando Kerr Lake Loop permanent on his blog, and I painstakingly ripped off the route using that mini-map (except I missed one turn, but the result was just as good, or nearly so).  Here follows a link to the blog post / report I made back then -- one thing, that ride was the first time I and the Irregulars rode over "Stovall Mtn" -- I knew what to expect because I had driven Mountain Rd previously -- the others kept wondering where the "mountain" was, until they saw it.  Oh, and the report made at the time skips over the mountain-passage -- because I thought it unwise to scare Irregulars who were not on the ride that day from giving Mountain Rd a try some time in the future.  [2009 was before many of the Irregulars had ridden a century, and certainly BEFORE most of them went on to do one or more of the audaciously named North Carolina mountain centuries.]  

Jul-03-2009 blog report:  ("Irregulars" Kerr Lake Loop)  


Interestingly enough, not quite six months later, I introduced MikeD to Mountain Rd, and he promptly modified the rando Kerr Lake Loop.  (Pizza in Stovall, and a mountain)