I just started riding this year and my goal was to do a century in October, to give me time to train. I got bored and decided I was missing too many rides, plus the century I wanted to do was the same weekend as another event I had planned. So I said, what the heck.

I did a metric century, and then my BF and I did an unsupported 70 or 80 mile ride on flat roads. Enough to say, well, ok it's only 20 miles more and plus you get food and rest stops and you can take all the time you want.

Then we did a century, and it wasn't a big deal. Granted, our times weren't super fast, but we did it and felt good afterwards. A few weekends after that we did our own century, a 50 mile trip out to my dad's house and then back, unsupported, and we realized that 100 miles is mostly mental, especially if you're ok doing 65. The hardest thing for me was the 80-85 mile mark. My mind wanted to stop riding, but what was I going to do? I had to keep going. That's the thing about century rides. If you get tired, and I did, you can just pull off the side of the road and rest a minute. Even if you have to do this several times, it's ok (unless there's a time cutoff). Also I think it helped that I didn't have a bike computer, so I couldn't eagle-eye the distance. I think that would have made it seem like much longer! I just rode until the next rest stop, and then it was over!

K.