first century ride report

another first for me yesterday, this time it was a century ride.  i did the Spin For Kids ride in Rutledge, GA yesterday, it was a great experience and a great fundraiser for an honorable cause.  The fundraiser was for Camp Twin Lakes which caters to children in need (i.e.., terminal illness, special needs, major medical issues etc).  The event was well organized and had rides of 100, 67, 50, 27, and 5 miles, so there were a lot of courses and different people out on the roads during the day.

I have been training hard for this event and had topped my long ride @ 75 miles prior to this event (last sunday), the course was divided into two loops, a 38 mile loop and a 62 mile loop, it ended up being around 101.5 miles, but who's counting :).  Being as competitive and ambitious as i am, i tried to keep up with the lead riders for the entire ride, with some success.  This was my first group ride as well and had to get used to riding in a big peloton at the beginning as well as a small paceline group toward the end (6 or 7 riders).  I felt very strong for most of the ride but started to hit the wall around mile 86.  There were rolling to steep hills throughout the course but no mountains, i think total elevation gain was somewhere in the 3,500 to 4,500 ft range, it didn't affect me until the end, and that's when my legs started to turn to jelly.  Around the same time that i wa****ting the wall, the paceline group i was in started to deteriorate (most of the other guys and one gal were hurting too), we ended up riding loosely together but not in a paceline because of it.  We pushed pretty hard, total ride time ended up being 5 and a half hours for an average somewhere in the mid 18 MPH's, total time was just over 6 hours if you include the food/hydration/port-o-potty breaks.  I did the last 10 miles on my own as i had to take a longer break at the last aid station to recover from hitting the wall.  But i finished strong, i caught a second wind with 7 miles left to go (thank god for clif shots w/ caffeine!) and almost caught my little paceline group at the end.

It was a great experience, 5 and half hours in the saddle gives you a lot of opportunity to reflect on life and what a journey this has been.  My one year surgery anniversary is in 4 days, and this event served as a kind of celebration for me, celebration of my new life, all of the hours of training, and all of the things i can now do for myself and for my family that i couldn't when i was MO.  I truly feel that i was a disabled person one year ago, and now i have a completely new lease on life.  What a journey.  Thanks for helping me share my experience.

Now on to training for my trail run and 1/2 marathon :)

Great report Bill! Congrats on the HUGE milestone, bot the 1 year surgiversary and the epic 100 mile ride... Way to go.... Let your body recover and enjoy the success! Rock on brother....

Thanks for the report! Sounds like a great ride. I'm hoping to do my first century next year!

Congrats, it sounds like you put out an awesome effort and saw some great results from that.

I love riding my bike.  Originally I saw the bike as a necessary piece of equipment for Triathlons, now I see it as something I enjoy doing all by itself.

I hope to get in a couple century rides myself next year.  I even have the crazy notion to try a coupe double centries.

Keep up the great work and go crush that trail run and 1/2 marathon.

Scott

Great job Bill!  I love these major anniversary events.  They're such affirmation of how far we've come in turning our lives around.

Cassie