My first Century

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Well for those of you who don't know, I'm not 100 years old. A "century" in cycling terms is simply a one hundred mile bike ride. This weekend I completed my first. It's a significant mile stone in my triathlon career and my training for Ironman. 

About a week ago a friend asked me if I want to join him and a couple others on a ride in Clermont, Florida. He said they had planned on doing about 105 miles. My first thought was, "Am I ready for that?". Secondly, I started running previous distance rides through my head. There was a few 50-60 milers with my friend Jeff, the two half-ironraces (56-miles), one 80 miler again with Jeff and more times than I can count on the 40 or less rides. I talked with Knikie and verified with my Coach that this idea wasn't too soon or too much or both. I got the thumbs up from both. YeeHaw! It was on.

We drove up Friday night with plans for a 7:30am start on Saturday morning depending on the light and breakfast timing. 

6:30am the alarm goes off and everyone straggles out of bed and makes their way to the free continental  breakfast. We sat down and ate trying to get in as much as we could comfortably hold in the belly, filling the tank so to speak. There were four of us; Andres, my friend and my Coaches husband. He is a pretty tall Columbian guy who can ride a bike very, very well. The other two gents, Mark and Wilmet, were friends of Andres. I had met Mark on one other ride. Both of them as Andres had told me prior could ride very well and that we would be in good company. Mark, your classic red head, talked proudly about his 18 year old sons exploits, heading off to college and time he had spent with him recently. Wilmet is a really friendly and fun guy, laughing and joking and telling stories most of the way up. As breakfast ended everyone headed back to the hotel to get dressed and loaded up.

As we started out the door I sat my foot on the pedal and pushed off with my other. I didn't hear the normal snap of my shoes cleat locking into the pedal. So I lifted my foot and leaned over to put it down, unfortunately my foot never left the pedal, as it turns out it was indeed locked in. Over I went, about 3 feet from the hotel room door. I was laughing so hard I had a hard time answering Wilmet when he asked if I was alright. Here we were heading out for a hundred miles and I was on the ground in 3 feet. Figures...

Clermont is known for its rolling hills and long low traffic roads. There are a few hills that have been named as they are notable as your riding up them. Buckhill, "The Wall", and the infamous Sugarloaf (pictured below) are a few of them. We would hit all three and Sugarloaf twice. Around mile 25 we hit Sugarloaf for the first time. We were managing around a 20 mph pace until we hit the side of the hill. By the time I hit halfway I was down to 10 mph, each pedal stoke was getting increasingly more difficult. 9 mph, I can start to see what I think is the top, but its not. 8 mph, I can see over the top of what I thought was the top and the top is really about 250 yards away (says the spray paint on the pavement). 7 mph, not real sure I can push the pedal down on the next stroke as I have no momentum to carry it over. Finally I hit the top and it starts to level out. Mark is coasting up ahead of me Wilmet and Andres are still making their way up. The house at the top of the hill always has a water station setup for the cyclist and we took advantage of it.
Wilmet had not been riding as much as usual prior to coming, enjoying the time with his family had taken priority over the holidays. So at mile 60 he bowed out and headed back to the hotel. So now there were three of us, the wind was picking up and the over cast skys had been threatening, I really, really wanted to get to one hundred and I was getting a little worried. We stopped at a park, Mark and Andres seemed a bit down after Wilmet's departure. Everyone took care of business and ate a little. After that there were a few short discussions on the final route and we were off. I felt good after the short break. I rode behind Mark and Andres until we got back around to some familiar territory and then I hopped on the front and pulled them along as far as could. For those of you that don't know, in cycling, you can draft. The guy in front breaks the wind (ha, ha) and the guys behind don't have to work as hard and can conserve energy. So I was doing my best to keep them fresh so that we could all make it to the 100 mile mark. 
We stopped again around mile 80 and the guys took in some much need ice cream. I didn't have any as I knew we still had 20 miles to go and I was in unknown territory, my body felt good and I didn't want to change my diet of granola bars, gels and a gatorade like sports drink called HEED. We were quickly back on the road and around mile 90, Sugarloaf was looming again. This time my legs were already burning before we started. When I saw that 250 yard mark this time, I realized that the first time up this thing I had plenty of power to turn those pedals over. This time was really hard. Everything burned. As I crested the top my GPS beeped letting me know we had hit 91 miles. We rode down the back side of the hill and looped back around to climb the back side. It wasn't as bad as the front. Andres swapped places with Mark this time and I remained in the middle. On the way down the front of the hill I hit 40 mph. Andres hit 50 mph. His record speed down that thing is 55 mph!!! That's scary fast on a bicycle. Can't believe the guys on the tour cruise around in a pack at anywhere from 35 to 45mph!! Then descend down the alps at over 70!! 

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, until my GPS beeped in the hotel parking lot reading 100.0 miles.... 7 hours later that was it. A smile came over my face and we were done. 

In closing I want to put a quick reminder to all of those that said they were going to donate but haven't yet. If you plan on donating there is no need to put it off, the more we raise the more we will encourage others to donate!!! Plus once it's done, you won't have to worry about forgetting!!

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