I'm back, and have been for a while.

So, the brochure said "rolling terrain." Uh, yeah. If by "rolling" they mean "the first half of the ride contains four Hills of Death," sure. The first was a mile or two into the ride, and I sure as heck wasn't expecting it. I walked about a third of it. The second one, as I later found out, is known to the host club as "Devil's Backbone". I walked half of that one. Apparently someone threw up on it. I walked a fair bit of the third one. (I was not the only one to walk these!) After the third hill, there was some flat ground and the rest stop, where I topped up on Gatorade and water, and a banana, and a strawberry, and PB on bread, and chex mix. They fed us well. Lest you think that the first leg was all uphill (it felt like it!), there were some nice descents. As it turns out, I'm not too afraid of them any more. Just descents on crappy pavement. I hit 35 on one, and that was with me applying the brakes!

Post-rest stop was the last of the Hills of Death. Not steep, just long and the grade kept changing. I walked the initial part that was steepest, then hopped back on the bike and ground out the rest at 8mph. I rode part of this route with someone I met through work. He dropped back, though, because he had some derailleur issues. Lunch was also generous. A hot dog, chips, another banana, salad, a cookie. Picked up a bag of peanuts to go. The last 10 miles weren't bad in terms of terrain, but it was hot and open farmland.

A fair number of the roads, being rural, were chip-seal. If I ever do this ride again, it will be on carbon or steel that fits properly. And I will be much better at hills.