Tuesday, September 29, 2009

CENTO, CEM, CIENTO, CENT, HONDERD, HUNDERT...



Whichever lanuguage you say it in it's still 100...MILES...on a BIKE. OYE.

I had some goals for this year:

Train for and participate in a Duathlon - done (2x - YAY).
Ride a Vancouver Bicycle Club Time Trial - done.
Ride a full century - OMG...DONE.

I had some idea what to expect, but really I set my expectations a little on the low side. Hills, yeah, I knew there would be hills...but I forgot to factor in the fact that we would be in the Willamette Valley and there would be wind.

Mile 0 to 22ish - pretty uneventful.

Mile 22ish - 55 We had a tailwind for the most part going all the way to Stayton. It was pretty flat with few hills. We did have a decent steep climb around mile 45 or so and I was starting to get a little cranky, I needed a rest stop. I'm used to stopping every 20 miles or so, but it became clear that wouldn't be happening. Early in this route the 62 milers split and we met up with them again before heading back into Stayton for the rest stop aaaahhhh, food and beverages!

Mile 55 - 77 We left Stayton and went into the hills. It stayed that way for what seemed forever! There were short steep hills there were hills that were steep and longer...hills, hills, hills! No matter what the size the hill there was WIND also. I passed no one and plenty of people passed me...spinning away! WHAT THE HECK?! I wanted to push those people over. I was getting less happy by the pedal stroke...what a sad, sad commentary.

Finally, as I approached the top of what would be the last big climb of the day around the 73-74 mile point  Tom was ahead of me waiting as I was grinding my way up the hill and totally demoralized - and spent. I had suffered the classic BONK.  I was ready to stop, but at this point it was just best to continue on as the finish was less than 30 miles away. Once I reached the top of the hill and nearly had a breakdown. In the midst of all my blubbering about being tired and all Tom rifled through my pack to get me a pick-me-up...I took on some GU and tried to regain my composure. I started to feel a little better - probably because I had a few minutes to just rest, but that lasted about a second. I was playing around with my computer and in my tiredness I reset my computer. All zeros came up...that was it...I LOST IT. If you know me, you know how important numbers and statistics are to me. Averages, mileage, time...everything GONE. This happened less than 30 mile from the finish. Stupid loser sticky GU fingers! The only thing good about this part was that from this point it was downhill into Silverton. Over the next 3 miles and approximately and 12 minutes I managed to get over the fact that I had messed up my computer and looked forward to a little nourishment and a few minutes off my bike. What I really needed was a rest.

The last 23 miles were okay - no real climbs or hills, but a lot of wind. Headwinds, crosswinds...from the right then the left. We had it all. There were few moments when the wind was actually at our backs...oh to have a tailwind...aaaah...those were few and far between.

So, even though I had reset my computer my "Distance 2" only had 12 miles on it, when we started the day, so I knew that we should have been coming up on the finish at anytime since we were so close to 100. NOPE - how about 3 extra miles to get back to Chemeketa? Well that sounds like fun! Yeah, so 3 miles isn't that much, but after many miles of climbing, headwinds, crosswinds and oh, the distance itself 3 miles felt like an eternity!

Overall, neither of us had a mechanical. My chain decided to not engage going from the big ring, but that was it. My pedals squeak, but that's more of an annoyance than anything.

I can't really say that I had fun, or that it was a good time...maybe in another day or two. All I can say is that it was a good experience and I got to be on my bike the whole day! That was a long 8+ hour day! We rolled into Chemeketa and started loading up our gear and changed in the parking lot (thanks to Tom for being my shield) and mosied over for a piece of PIE. MMMMM...a big fat piece of peachy goodness!

I'm sure that there will be other century's to ride...don't know which one, but I know that riding century's at the end of the season is definitely doable.

Here's looking forward to the last organized ride of the season The Harvest Century - 75 miles!

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