Hotter'n Hell 100 - CycleCentury

The first 30 miles were with a nice tailwind and I felt fabulous. Unfortunately, there was a serious crash about 22 miles in and we all had to walk our bikes for about 2 miles. Serious delay.

After 25 miles, the 100K'ers and the 100M'ers break off and we headed into a bit of a crosswind. At about mile 35, we turned onto a heavy chip-sealed road and into the wind. It kind of sucked. Slowed my pace and just hammered up the hills one at a time. At the mile 40 rest stop, I drank a bunch of pickle juice and tried to eat half of a PB&J but it was not going down easily. I ate banana thirds and a GU and filled up my bike bottles with gatorade/powerade at every rest stop.

At mile 50, I was starting to feel it a little. Fortunately, we were riding through Burkburnett and the people there were super cool and one guy was standing on the street with his hose and sprayed us down! Felt great!

Miles 60-77 or so were really difficult. I hit my wall and was taking it one rest stop at a time. I had my Cateye set to avg speed so that I didn't focus on the miles (I had it set that way most of the entire ride). At the mile 68 rest stop, I was really struggling and so were most people - the tents that had the A/C blowing into them were cram-packed with people sitting or lying on the ground. I commented to someone that it seemed like it had heated up 30* in the last hour and they said 'tell me about it!'

Fortunately, the rest stops got closer and closer together and were about 5 miles apart after that one. I stopped at most of them and made sure to drink all the pickle juice I could get my hands on. I also filled up my water bottle with powerade/gatorade and made a point to try to drink it before I got to the next aid station. I also sipped on water from my camelbak, which I filled up at every other aid station. Despite all of this, I never felt like I needed to use the restroom.

At mile 80 or so, I got a second wind. I felt better and was charging up hills and attacking the flats. By mile 90, I felt like I'd just gotten on the bike and was passing a ton of people. At the mile 90 rest stop, it was manned by fire fighters who had brought their truck and were hosing people down. I was completely drenched, including my socks, and I swear that made all the difference in the world in cooling down my body temp. After that point, I practically flew home (didn't hurt that we had a nice tailwind and were on super smoothly-paved roads).

What they don't tell you is that this ride is actually 103 miles, so I was a little disappointed to see my Cateye crank over 100 miles and not be anywhere near the finish line. We road up a steep overpass with about a mile to go and there were two guys lying on the shoulder of that overpass. I stopped to make sure they were OK and then headed on.

I cranked it into high gear and rode into the finish feeling great. This wasn't really a "race" - there were no clocks, no AG-ing, nothing - so the finish was rather anticlimatic, but it was nice to pass through the HHH arch anyway. Actually, I'm surprised at how fabulous I felt - I really could have kept riding for a good bit. Next year, I'll have to see how long I really could keep going.

(race time is what I hit in exactly 100 miles - my total time for the 103 was 6:45)

Sleep better the night before, eat more the night before, and put on more sunscreen (I'm burned in places today). Oh, and use some sort of anti-chafing cream because I was feeling it at the end.

Stopped for just a minute at the Plano Bicycling Asssociation (my club) tent and then road over to the car, about a mile.


You know, I really can't complain about this at all. I wish I had a higher average pace, but I didn't have any expectations except to finish for my first century. I feel really good about the fact that I didn't take long rest breaks and I'm really surprised that there were SO many people that were having a hard time. People that seemed super fit (men in particular) were having a much harder time than I was.

Next year, I'll do more lengthy training rides (my longest was 60, but I regularly ride 100+ miles in a weekend) to get used to the heat at that time of day.


After having raced running and triathlon events, this is my first pure cycling event and I have to say that the organization and friendliness of the volunteers is outstanding. Volunteers would practically beg to hold your bike so you could go to the restroom or stretch. When I would ask for a cup of water to fill my camelbak, they would just take the camelbak and do all the filing themselves. I loved the spectators and everyone seemed so happy to have us there (I don't blame them - 14k racers brings a lot of money to the cities surrounding Wichita Falls, probably 10x as much tourism related revenue as the rest of the year combined). The only criticism I have is that the powerade and gatorade were rather watered down - if they were going to serve it in pitchers with ice, they should have made it 2x strong so that it wasn't just slightly flavored water.

All in all, a great event and one I'll definitely be doing next year.