I'm doing Cool Breeze as well. The century, which will be my first on my single. I did Amtrak on the tandem with my husband last year and he has deemed it our annual "tandem century", so I had to find a different one to ride my first "single century". I hear the scenery is beautiful, so it's a good choice for your first. I'm all about the scenery. Did 65 miles in Palm Springs, which had no scenery whatsoever, which brought my whole riding experience WAY down!!! If I'm going to voluntarily put myself through certain amounts of pain and misery for an extended period of time, I might as well have visual stimulation and distraction!

I love riding with groups, especially if you don't get yourself too caught up in trying to keep up with certain people. But when you find that you can, it's a lot of fun. I find that most people pass me going uphill, but I pass many of them on the way down, so I usually find a group I'm pretty even with. And then it's fun when you get passed by a bunch of people who get stuck at a red light, and you get to catch up.

I do advise getting some group riding experience, but don't stress out too much. Until you learn the art of drafting, don't get too close to the back of anyone and keep your fingers close to the break for safety. You'll learn quickly how people will point out glass or objects in the road, put their hand down to signal stopping, yell "rolling" when going through an intersection, etc. Different people use different signals, but they're pretty self explanatory.

Some people stop at every red light, while others will go through if there's no traffic coming. You have to decide what you are comfortable with.

I always recommend not riding too close to the edge of the road, where new cyclists tend to feel most comfortable. The closer to the curb, or edge the more debris there will be (tire punctures), plus if you get crowded by a cyclist or car passing too close, you have nowhere to go if you swerve to the right.

Most of all HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you. If I were doing the 38 mile version, I'd totally look for you. Do you know if the 38 and 102 start out on the same route at the same time? I'll look into that and maybe we can hook up for a bit anyways.