ToDo List: 200K...Ride Saga

[Thorn]

What's a little rain amongst friends and derrailleurs?

We had planned this ride back in Spring. The start and finish of the century ride was 12.5 miles away from home...hmm...125 miles. Perfect. Rest stops. Sag support. What more could you ask for? Should be easy.

Let's see....all week NOAA kept changing the forecast. High of 65. 20% chance of rain. High of 61. 60% chance of rain. Eeks. But Friday night, they'd settled on 20% chance of rain before 7AM, no thunderstorms, and very small amounts of rain. The high was supposed to be 61 and the morning low 50. OK. We'll do it.

Woke up to wet roads, but no rain. Dressed in my woolies, flipped on the head lights and headed out. It wasn't too cold. This would work, right? Got to the start, picked up the cue sheet, took and gave abuse from my favorite LBS guys waiting to do SAG. We were a little later than we'd like, but not too bad.

Put away my jacket, my head light, and tried to start riding....flat! Arrggh...these tires are bullet proof! Teach me to ride through downtown in the dark. Oh, well, I'll ask the LBS guys to change it...such decadance. Quick as can be they changed the flat, booted the tire and off we were. OK. This will still work.

As we ride, we ebb and flow, riding into and out of groups. About 15 miles into the century, a woman's bike gives out. Argggh...we've fixed this problem for her before. We can't abandon her. We have to stay and help. But, we're pros at this, and we patch her up in 10 minutes and she can hobble the bike to the rest stop.

First rest stop...ah...the ride hosts really know how to bake. Excellent cookies. This is going to be a great ride! We're off again in no time....

...and then the skies open up. This is not a light rain, this is *rain*. Jackets on. Oh, well. It is still early in the morning and it was 20% chance before 7AM. So the forecasters are a little off. It will be a short rain, right?

Nope. 10 miles later. It is still raining, but I'm not too cold. The jacket is repelling water and my wool socks, while saturated, are keeping my feed warm.

Decision time at the next rest stop...cut to 62 or ride the 100? The rain has stopped. The skies are looking lighter. Oh, what the heck, we might as well ride on. Dumb...dumb...dumb...

Only a couple of more light soakings as we pulled into the next stop where we learned that only 40 century riders had come through. Yep...only 40. 300+ showed up that morning, but only 40 kept going. Are we the brave or the stupid?

As we're debating the question, the skies really opened up again. OK. Let's make this the lunch stop and chow down while we wait it out under the ramada. And, then, off we go again.

The rest of the ride was pretty much the same pattern ... rain ... cookies ... questioning our sanity ... rain ... cookies ... questioning sanity ... rain ... cookies ... no question, insane .... but we made it. 127.5 miles.

In the end, I think I felt like I'd done the easy job. At least I kept moving and burning calories to stay warm; the rest stop volunteers didn't have that luxury. For them, it was a cold, damp day. I swear they were colder than we were. Hats off to them and rest stop workers everywhere for supporting us crazy riders.

ToDo List: 200K...DONE!

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, congratulations! You are a better woman than I! The longest, wettest ride I've ever done was the Seagull century on a tandem with DH. Started out dry but quickly turned wet, windy, and COLD. DH's lips were blue and chattering towards the end. I had to give him "stoker pep talks" lest we not finish the last 10 miles (and on a tandem, I kinda needed him to finish so I could). It was brutal!

Huge props to you!

[Thorn]

Thanks...I was surprised that we could do it and that we stayed warm. Of course, I was TE-prepared with all my woolies. Amazing difference. I kept thinking that I should have set up a SmartWool stand at one of the reststops--could've made a fortune except for the fact that cyclists don't carry money!

DH didn't cold this time. Usually, he does, well before I do. But, at least we had the ability to plop him at a rest stop or sag him back to the start while I went home and got the car if we needed to. You're much stuck on that tandem...ouch.

[pll]

Wow! Congratulations. I bet the shower afterwards felt glorious.

[Thorn]

Yeah...I have to admit that I had to question why I had put my foot down on DH's suggestion that an 80 gallon hot water heater would not be a ridiculous purchase for a 2 adult household!