To review my thoughts on those rides, click here.
Hmmn, that's a bit silly: when someone clicks on that above "click here," they will get this blog post and the previous three. LOL at myself.
I recall that each of the previous three times I did the Mule Pull, I was tired from the previous day.
And, re-reading what I wrote back in 2011 and 2012 -- yikes! -- SEVEN years since I last did this route!
Anyway, re-reading the previous posts absolutely confirms that I was tired each of those times.
But somehow I always thought I should enjoy the route.
This ride. Cycle commute to the start.
According to my Excel log, it was about 16.3-miles from my hovel, through downtown Raleigh, past Shaw University, or more like through Shaw University -- I had never noticed that I was riding past or through Shaw on previous rides down Blount Street. Several of those previous rides were in pitch-dark conditions, so that might help explain my lack of notice, but I dunno'.
I stopped at the Hardee's (?) about half-a-mile before reaching the meeting place that Dean had always used. Said stop to acquire some breakfast and a receipt.
Then on to the shopping center parking lot looking for McDave.
We had failed to precisely nail-down the expected meeting place.
But not to worry, I spotted him right off.
The ride.
McDave took over ownership of Dean's routes when Dean decided to retire from rando.
However, McDave hadn't gotten around to riding any of the routes since assuming ownership.
So, this would be the "test ride" of McDave as a perm route owner.
And as a result, we would be on "best behavior" since Dave would send the cards to Crista for approval and confirmation that he has a basic understanding of what he is supposed to do.
[Interestingly, when Dave and I did a 6 am pre-ride of the Picnic 100 in September, Dave told me that Crista indicated to Dave that he had forgotten to sign the cards as route-owner. My memory may be failing me, but my recollection from when I did my first route-owner submission is that I was NOT to sign those first ride cards, but leave that to Crista. I would have sworn that that is what I did, what MickH did the day before on his first ever route owner experience, and what Lynn did when she and I broke in Lynn and the "Raleigh-Berea-Raleigh" route.]
McDave is fast.
I am not.
But lucky for me, Dave had done a very hard NC mountain 100-miler the day before, and
He was a bit tired.
My first indication that Dave really was TIRED, was on the climb up to Stancil Rd:
I rode Dave off my wheel on that short but steep incline.
Wow!
But Dave being TIRED, and me perhaps being on a little tired, from our respective day-prior adventures, meant that we could ride together without Dave having to TRY to slow down and me having to TRY to pick up my pace.
Also lucky for me was that my hands did not give off as much in the discomfort front as they had the day before. As I type this on September 26th, my thumbs are still not completely recovered from the fall I took on August 9th, but they have not been the source of agony for a couple or more weeks. The main "thumb problem" at this time is the slowly worsening arthritis / tendonitis in each thumb.
I enjoyed the entire Mule Pull course, with one MAJOR EXCEPTION:
There is a half-mile on NC-50 just a few miles before the finish.
Seven years ago, that half-mile was not the most pleasant of places to ride,
But now, it was hair-raising!!
Dave had expressed his skepticism just after the start of the ride.
He lives and rides down that-a-way, so he has much, much more experience with what is happening to traffic, etc. just south of Raleigh and Garner than I do. Actually, I have no knowledge / experience from down that-a-way.
Anyway, as soon as we were off NC-50 and atop the little rise immediately thereafter,
I forcefully indicated to Dave that a new way around Lake Benson was needed.
Dave may have indicated that the alternative, Old Stage Rd, is just as bad.
Dave and I may have discussed the NC-50 situation when we did the Picnic 100 pre-ride, but I'm not sure about that. I do know that after the Picnic, which was only five days before I'm actually typing this, I looked hard at the map and concluded that the current version of the "Benson Mule Pull" has outlived its usefulness as there is no safe way from the start to get around Lake Benson. I sent an email to Dave, apologizing for sticking my nose in too far, indicating the prior thought.
Dave responded that he agreed with me.
And that he will mothball the Mule Pull at the end of the year.
Sad.
But SAFETY first.
Dave collected my card at the finish and Crista must have approved, because I have credit for having done the Benson Mule Pull on August 8, 2019.
Post-ride cycling commute.
I still had to pedal my way back to north Raleigh.
The part that I was skeptical about was Garner Rd to get to the southeast corner of downtown Raleigh.
That was a breeze, with little traffic and no concerns.
The only "difficult" part was getting across downtown Raleigh.
All the downtown streets and stop-lights are configured for easy north-south travel.
East-west not so much.
The only "good" east-west travel road is Peace Street.
And that gets WAY too much afternoon traffic for this cyclist to venture onto.
Additionally, Peace Street is currently a hodge-podge of potholes and repairs and worse.
However, I obviously made it across downtown, and on up to my hovel on the north side.
Total ride distance and time for August 9th:
My confuser was set to the wrong tire size and was slightly over-estimating distances.
Further, since I reset the confuser after the morning commute, and again after the ride proper, it was not until I added things up, and adjusted the distance to remove the over-estimating that I discovered that I had ridden 99.7-miles on the day, with a total in-motion time of 7:14 -- the afternoon commute was SLOW, at least partially because the last half-dozen miles were on the sidewalk, and that is always a slower ride.
IF I had known that at the time, I might well have added on three-tenths of a mile to claim a century.
On the other hand, since I have ridden 100-miles or more, at least 201 times as I type this, I might just as likely not bothered with extra 0.3-miles.
Seems to me that I stopped by Lynn's on the way back.
That would be 1.6-miles from my hovel.
And as soon as I stopped at Lynn's just to see how she was doing,
She put me to work doing some yard and/or house-holdy chores that are difficult for her to do.
I could be mis-remembering.
I think I can check on Facebook and/or some emails to possibly confirm,
Regardless, the above, though pretty boring, is my story, and I'll likely be sticking to it.
Unless I confirm that my "Lynn chores" recollection is misplaced.
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