This Monday should be better.

After running the Towpath Half-Marathon yesterday, today should be better. I ran it in 2:14:09 - 5-ish minutes faster than the first time! I carbed up two to three days beforehand, and it really works. I was pretty consistent and ended up with a 10:14 pace. Compared to my official results from the last one, that's 26 seconds faster (although according to my Garmin, it was 9 seconds faster, I think).

ANYHOW, I'm all riding along all happy-like, if a little stiff, when the smallframe decides to be a whore. I rode it Friday, and all was well.  There was one point where I felt like it didn't idle down quickly enough, but after that, no issues, so I thought it was an anomaly or user error (like the throttle wasn't closed).

I don't think it was an anomaly.

This morning, it did it and it wasn't idling down regardless of blipping the throttle, clutching, etc. So I turned it off and pulled off to the side of the road. I restarted it, and it was idling high and loud. I thought maybe it'd go away so I went about another block - and it just kept getting louder. It sounded kind of like metal-on-metal. I actually checked to make sure the engine door and the exhaust were still on the bike because it was so loud.

I was sitting on the bike, trying to decide who to call first (my ride to work or Aaron) when two guys from the staffing place behind the gas station walked by. The one dude said it sounded like my chain broke. Whatever, but that is kind of what it sounded like. He has a 50-cc scooter and was empathetic to my situation. He said I could park it at his office, and if I needed to park it overnight, he'd lock it up for me. Luckily, Aaron is going to go home at lunch, get the Subaru and trailer, and meet me there so we can take it home.