Sea Gull Century - CycleCentury

Love this event! It's not a race, more of a carnival of bikes. But since last year I had been aiming to ride the 100 miles in under 5 hours (no drafting, ride-time only ... yeah, I know that's cheating). Loads of bike traffic early on, but thinned out a bunch after the 20 mile rest stop. Feeling great early, and the miles flew by. The winds were favorable for the first 60 miles, with just a couple of stretches that showed what was in store later. This felt much easier than last year, when it was just my second event. I was under 3 hours at the 63 mile rest area on Assateague Island (great ponies, and fruitcake!), so I was ahead of schedule, but with a headwind for most of the last 35 miles I was afraid of slowing greatly. I managed to keep around 18-20 mph for most of the last 2 hours. Tried to keep as low as possible in the wind, but my bike is not exactly aero. Annoyingly I found that lots of other riders tried to catch a ride in my draft - I would periodically look around and find that I had sprouted a peloton. Thanks to starting a bit late I had people to chase the entire way, and was only passed by a couple of pelotons and two or three individuals. Made it to 100 miles on my computer at a hair under 4:50, well ahead of schedule. Pretty stiff at the end, but very happy with the ride. Andrea did the 100k, her first ride like this in many years, and it was great that we finished within a couple of minutes of one another.

One of my favorite events of the year - such a fun atmosphere, and such a wide range of people taking part.