I was really liking the variety of my newly created Curly Q route, so I repeated it for my next two rides. The GPS tracking for Runkeeper (the iPhone app I use to track my rides) got all jacked up on July 23, so I can't really address my splits and overall times, but there's definitely something worth mentioning from that particular ride.
I live in Valencia, CA, which was obliterated in Season 6 of the show 24. It's also where Seasons 1-3 of Weeds were filmed, so you may have seen where I live but just didn't know it. Anyway, Valencia is a suburb of Los Angeles, and despite the fact that the city and surrounding area is home to more than 160,000 residents, there's still a lot of undeveloped land and the wildlife that comes with it.
So on the night of July 23, I was on another Curly Q ride. This route follows McBean to its end, then turns onto a street that is residential on one side and undistrubed wilderness on the other (Copper Hill Drive). So I'm following Holy Crap Hill up and around, and I see two mid-sized dogs going for a walk -- by themselves. It looked like they were just a friendly couple out enjoying a leisurely stroll on this warm summer evening.
I didn't want to scare this canine couple and watch helplessly as they got spooked and ran right into traffic. So I slowed down and approached cautiously, figuring I'd give them the "kissy" sound to let them know I came in peace. As I approached, I noticed they froze and were in the "fight or flight" stance. So I slowed to a crawl, and this is when I came to a startling realization.
These weren't dogs at all -- they were giant raccoons! And they looked pissed. As we locked eyes, I thought to myself, "You were a Boy Scout. What do you do when you encounter wild raccoons?" Before I could even answer, one of the masked marauders jumped into the bushes and the other one took off running.
Now I found myself unwillingly chasing a raccoon while yelling, "Dude, just jump to the left. Stop running!" The combination of adrenaline and the fact that I'm five times bigger meant I was gaining on this critter fast. And now I was worried about me darting into traffic to avoid a confrontation. Thankfully, before I veered hard to the right (which, as you know, I'm prone to doing) and found myself playing chicken with oncoming traffic, the raccoon spotted a small tree on the left and made a desperate leap, grabbing onto it as I flew by.
Unfortunately, I'll never know what effect the added surge of adrenaline had, since the aforementioned iPhone app went a little cuckoo and didn't record my ride properly. But I do know that my ride on July 21, this one and my subsequent ride on July 25 were identical distances. And the time difference between the rides on the 21st and 25th was 3 seconds, so I'm guessing this ride was on par with the other two (seeing what a consistent emmer effer I am). And with a pace of 4:41, I once again raised the bar for myself and had a good "raccoons while riding" story.
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