Well I went and I finished! It wasn't pleasant, at least not the first half. We started on the water, rode east about 10 or 11 miles, and then turned north. If you don't know Connecticut, turning north means going uphill. So we climbed. And climbed. And when you thought you were done, you climbed some more. In the end, we did 3300 feet. I went slow, used my granny gear liberally, and just went with it. The nice thing about this ride is that there's no set start time. So that meant that there was a constant stream of riders catching up to me and I was never alone. I really couldn't take much more leading up to the halfway point, and I was beginning to overheat. I stopped, poured some water on me, caught my breath, and continued on. On one of the uphills I had to make a right and two cars nearly collided in front of me, killing my momentum. On one of the big downhills, I heard a clunk and realized my bag had popped off the bike The second rest stop was a welcome sight. I knew the worst of the hills were behind me. There were some nice downhills, and I hit 45mph on one of them. But it was still rolling and my legs were tired. Slow and steady, I continued on. When I was a mere mile from the end, the guy in front of me hit some rubble in the shoulder and went flying into a signpost. He wasn't seriously injured, and while rolling on the ground in pain he screamed out "MY GARMIN! MY GARMIN! Where is it?!" There was a cop at the intersection we just came from, so we flagged an oncoming car to go get him. I continued on and finally made it to the end. Well, the end of the official ride. My brother lives two miles from the start, so we just rode to it, adding an extra 4 miles to an already long day.

Am I proud of myself? Yes, I was really surprised at how well I did. Would I do that particular ride again? No, it's just not fun. It's hard to enjoy the beautiful scenery when your gasping for air and focused on climbing the next hill. But I think it gave me more hope of completing my century in two weeks. That ride isn't nearly as hilly, so I think I have a chance.

Here's the elevation profile. As you can see, there were few breaks to be found.