Rough Night

[Trek420]

I've been reading up on the gear issue... I have a triple but it's shimano tiagra, so maybe I need to upgrade?

Tiagra is fine. Ride it till you need to replace parts. Shimano "ages together" If one part needs replacing like the front der I'd replace the whole power train then. Time for the upgrade.

By then you've trained for and done the first century and many many more. You're stronger and may want to consider different gearing. Higher cluster because you're doing more climbs and in a higher gear, maybe you get to the top and are spinning out on the downhill, or lower cluster because you want to do even more challenging hills.

I'd wait for that. Tiagra is a fine group.

Later if you go to 105 or even Ultegra you'll notice the crank set and I think it's called spline drive, thingie bopper that goes in the bottom bracket feels like a whole new bike! It's much stiffer, crisper and much cheaper than actually GETTING a new bike. But that can wait. You're fine.