My First century: warning LONG
So, I am just copying what I put into the CA thread (there are additional photos there):
WARNING LONG!
So, as Jo already said, we did the Holstein 100 century route yesterday along with my roommate Amie and her friend John. It was a great day, with amazing scenery and great company!
The weather was great, except for the crazy wind that whipped up in the afternoon (it actually blew me over late in the day and I have the chain ring bite to prove it).
Amie, John, and I met up with Jobob, Leebob, Trekhawk and AKAKim at the Tomales high school around 7 am, got riding by 7:30 or so and quickly the sane people doing the metric spit off from us crazy century folks. The morning was great.... the views up Coleman Valley road were inspiring, the cows were on the road, and I made sure that Jobob knew what I thought of the climb (I was telling her that "Coleman Valley $ucks!" in the photo... my language got progessively worse throught the afternoon ) We then had a great decent after the first rest stop followed by lots of rollers (some a bit larger than rollers).
I started feeling pretty crummy around mile 60 or so, stomach feeling off all that fun stuff. We got to the top of a small climb and I asked for a break.... that is when Jo made me eat some clif blocks... wow, what an amazing food! I felt better within 5 minutes and was good for the rest of the ride (with additional food at the upcoming rest stops). Thanks Jo for making me eat! I have to say, it is really great to do your first century with someone who is experienced to help through all the little things like recognizing when you need to eat something when your body is telling you that you don't want to eat.
The wind really picked up in the afternoon, did a bit of drafting which helped a lot, but not with the crazy cross winds that would totally blow your bike around. Got the the last rest stop just before the Marshal Wall (at around mile 90 ) and they told us that if we kept going there wouldn't be any food at the end and we should just SAG in. My response was at mile 90 NO WAY was I giving up. Well, we started up towards the Wall thinking that like the other hills it would block the wind a bit.... OR NOT! The wind was whipping straight down and across the hill. Amie and Jo take off up the hill, I got part way up, stopped to rest my legs a bit, and when I went to start again the combination of the steepness and the crazy wind blew me right over. I extracted my self from my bike, noticed a really great chain ring bite on my right shin and that I was going to have a mother of a bruise on my left hip. I ended up walking the next steep section of the hill as there was no way I was going to risk getting blown over again. Got to a less steep section, and was able to climb the rest of the way up.
At that point Jo took off towards the finish (Leebob had been waiting for us at the finish after doing the metric). Amie, John and I took off down the long decent and then took the turn onto HWY 1 along Tomales Bay... by this point I was cursing up a storm as this section had a ton of small hills, but bigger than rollers. I was down in my granny gear on pretty much every hill and was cursing the race organizers at every turn. When I made the final turn towards the finish line I knew I had done it and sped up. When I rolled into the High School Parking lot, Amie, Jobob, Leebob, Trekhawk and AKAkim where there cheering me on! John came rolling in a bit after me, and then one final guy who was out on the course behind us, so I wasn't last!
After getting cleaned up a bit Amie, John, the Bobs and I went for dinner in Petaluma...mmmmmm.... Milkshakes! and then drove home and crashed!
So, the stats for my first century (from my new Garmin Edge):
Distance: 103.81 miles
Ride Time: 8:12:39
Avg. Speed: 12.6 MPH
Total Ascent: 8447 ft. (I think that this is a bit over.... I would say an average between Jobob's profile and mine is probably correct, so somewhere around 7000 ft.)
It was a ton of fun seeing everyone at dinner, and meeting Trekhawk! Thanks so much Jo for riding with us, I think that it made a huge difference for me to be able to do the full century, so THANKS! And Leebob, Trekhawk, and AKAkim, thanks for hanging out until we finished! That was a long wait!
THere are photos over in this thread: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...t=14961&page=8
