On Sunday I completed my first long awaited century ride. It was a great day especially for the fact that most of Long Island saw major thunderstorms in the afternoon, but they stayed west and we were riding east. The sun was shining with lovely blue skies, temps in the mid 60's and winds in our favor.

At about 80 miles clouds started coming in and we thought rain might follow so we picked up the pace and that is when my legs were tiring out. I also knew the ride would end with a roller coaster of rather steep hills. So I started sucking on those sport beans as now there were no more rest stops. At mile 95 my friend got a flat so we changed that, but for me it was good thing. I needed that bit of rest and time to stretch. While desending down the first hill I worked my gears so I was just moving almost effortlessly up and down the rest of the hills. I felt like I got my legs back. It just sprinkled it bit when we ended the ride (Montauk Point) so I guess the storms just went out to sea and missed us. I am usually not that lucky.

I took a vacation day yesterday, road a 20 mile recovery ride and watched the hightlights of the Giro Italia in the afternoon. I feel wonderful and looking forward to my next organized ride in August then again in October.

~ JoAnn