A Blast From the Past

From 2008 (before this blog existed):

Mon Date start / course __comment ______Miles H.mm avg mph
Dec _14 _Y'ville: BR #2 __PaulN, Harvey _48.9 2.54 __16.9 

That Youngsville ride with Paul and Harvey -- was a GREAT ride -- for me. 
Not so great for Paul nor for Harvey.
Paul had been hardly doing any riding.
Harvey hadn't ridden at all since his first Bridge 2 Battleship five or six weeks earlier.
 _And, if I recall, had hardly run or anything else one might construe as exercise.

In other words, they each were a bit "off".
I was looking for my first ever 100k to avg 17.0+ mph.
Harvey showed 1 minute before wheels-away.
 _And managed to blow both valve assemblies out of his tubes.
 ___The valves were still good;
______but he had managed to unscrew the "open-and-close" part of the valve assembly.
 _______I have only ever seen one other person do that -- me.
We (well, Paul and Harvey) got the valves fixed and . . . we were finally underway.
 _But no longer was I hoping for a 17.0+ mph 100k. Just a 45 or 50 mile ride.
 ___But, by golly, we were going to avg 19+ coming back !

The wind was in our face going east/southeast -- that was the plan.
There was one point, on a slight downslope, where Paul was leading, pedaling hard,
 _Snapper was second, barely pedaling, and 
 ___I was third, sitting up to catch air and feathering the brakes.
The wind was just enough to bother the lead rider, and for the other two to benefit by staying in the "wind-shadow".

Fyi, eastbound on Bike Route #2 from Youngsville gets flatter the farther east one goes.
 _It gets a bit boring if one does not see the "beauty" in riding through the eastern NC sticks.
 ___The rando guys seem to have some interesting photos from time to time, though. Hmmn. 

When Paul and Harvey had used half their "kitchen pass", we made a small loop and turned around. 

The guys still didn't know it, but by golly, we were going to avg 19+ mph on the homeward leg.
 _Even if I had to pull the whole way.
But I figured that Harvey and Paul were each good for some strong pulls.
 _I was sorta' wrong on that. 

Harvey ran out of gas six miles out.
__On a road that I know he could do 27 mph today.
____All the way in to Youngsville. Unassisted.
I took the lead . . . and man, it felt great.
__I KNEW I could pull both guys the last six miles at a speed that would get to 19+ homebound.
____I hadn't felt that good while exercising since ~ 10 years before -- when running.
Paul took a two mile pull, from 4-to-go until 2-to-go.
Then I was on familiar ground . . . and after we had finished the ride,
  _Harvey commented that it seemed like somebody was picking up the pace the whole way back. 

I admitted it was me, because we were going to avg 19+ on the homeward leg, even if I had to pull both guys the whole way back. 

First and probably last time I put a hurtin' on Harvey. Ditto Paul. 

I used to drag out that ride just to tease Harvey. 

But now it is just a great memory.
 _