And we're OFF! :) Holy BALLS it's cold! I was shivering for the first 10-15 minutes. Spinning fast to warm up...my legs AND my body! Pretty crowded at first, but I stayed to left and passed a bunch of people. For the next two hours I had one mission and one mission ONLY: MAKE THE CUTOFF! We turned onto a nice smooth asphalt road. I love asphalt. And it was gradually downhill with rollers. The wind hadn't picked up yet so I was moving pretty quick...19-22mph. I knew that the roads were not asphalt all day so I wanted to make as much time as I could while the roads were smooth. Passed a bunch of people. Tried to catch onto a few pacelines but they were all moving too fast. Spent most of this time in my bullhorns because there were lots of people and it was a busy road. I love asphalt.

Just prior to the 20 mile point I had averaged over 19mph but I was just about out of water in my aero bottle. Since I had made such good time, I decided to stop at the 20 mile aid station. I literally ran through, shoved my aerobottle (with bike still attached) under a cooler, refilled and RAN! I didn't lose more than a minute. Got back on the road and not a half mile later I dropped my chain. GRRRR! Had a hard time getting to the side of the road (lotsa bikes) but finally did and didn't have too much trouble putting the chain back on. Back on the bike and moving on. At this point my HRM is totally screaming at me...but I (figuratively) stuck my fingers in my ears and said, "Not listening!!!" I think it was showing zone 4/5...but my zones are probably off because I never got to redo my LT test before the ride. So 4/5 was probably more like 3/4. So I wasn't TOO worried...my RPE was telling me that I wasn't working ludicrously hard. Had a gel at the 0:45 point and had been sipping off of my 300 cal bottle of Cytomax every 15 minutes. The roads got a bit rougher after the 20 mile point. But then we found more asphalt. I love asphalt. Right about now my GI issues decided to surface. Ugh. It's gonna be a LONG day if that keeps up! Getting periodic intestinal cramps every few minutes. But...keep pressing. Now I'm REALLY watching the clock. I put my cycling computer on 'speed average'. I needed to keep it above 17.5 to make the cutoff. It was over 19 at the 20 mile point and on the rougher roads I watched it tick down a bit to 18.5. Ate another gel at 1:30...ended up getting part of this one on my hand and handlebars and had to wash it off with water. Oops...remind me to pay attention when I'm eating gels!

Finally at 1:50 on the clock I couldn't stand not knowing how far I'd gone. So I switched over to distance...33.25! I had at least 10 minutes to go 1.75 miles (if the course was accurate). I think...barring a flat...I can do that! Kept pushing and next thing I knew I saw the 'Rest Stop Ahead' signs. Woohoo! The cutoff is at that rest stop! I pull up around 1:57 on the bike computer clock and it's chaos...huge rest stop...100 miles to the left...70 to the right...I turn left! Bypass the rest stop because I was carrying enough food to get me to 50 and I had just filled up my water bottle 15 miles before.

Immediately past the cutoff I throttle back...BIG TIME. I really eased off. And we turned into the wind...which was starting to pick up. So I dropped into my easiest gears and just spun into the wind for a bit. Now it begins to set it...holy crap...I'm going to ride 100 miles today. Shit.

Still getting some intestinal cramping. I'm thinking that I'm going to HAVE to stop at the next aid station. The next scheduled was just a water stop though...around 40 miles or so. But as I pulled up to it the sign said 'Restrooms'. Hallelujah! I'm SAVED! Literally...the water stop was in front of a church who was kind enough to open up their bathrooms to us! Woohoo! Real bathroom! I'm all over that. Filled up my water bottles and hit the bathroom. Got rid of some 'stuff' which helped the cramping a little bit but it wasn't completely gone. But I got back on my bike and kept moving.

The next 12 miles are a little hazy...but I think the roads bounced back and forth between shit and asphalt. I love asphalt. Mostly crosswind out of the North...bits of headwind here and there. Still cramping. HR is still a little high (mostly zone 2/3) but I really feel like I'm taking it easy. So I wasn't worried. Had another gel at 2:15 in and still sipping on the now slightly more diluted cytomax. Tried to pick up with some groups. But every time we'd hit a hill I would get dropped :( Or I would be working so hard my HR would skyrocket. So I spent most of the day alone. Once I was riding by myself on the right side of the road...in my aerobars...and a group pulls up alongside me. Three riders about 2-3 feet off to my left. I glanced over at them. Next thing I know I hear an annoying female voice from behind me..."Get out of your aerobars in the group." Um...there isn't anyone ahead or behind me. I immediately fly off the handle (of course) and shout, "I'm not IN the group, I'm NEXT TO the group. Don't tell me how to ride my bars." Then I did what every logical cyclist would do....I dropped her ass :) Ate some PB crackers around 3 hours. At just over 3 (3:03 on the bike computer, 3:07 on the gps) I hit the 50 mile point.

Finally pull up to the rest stop at Mile 54 (also the turnaround point on the loop). Oasis! Fill up both bottles on the bike. Jog to the porta potty trying to 'loosen things up a bit'. I'm in there for...awhile. But when I'm done...I'm feeling better. Grabbed some food since I was now down to one gel. I grabbed a small handful of candy corn (yum) and a lemon creme cookie (double yum) which I ate right there. And I stuck a cookies and cream powerbar in my pocket for my next two feedings. I lost at LEAST 5-6 minutes at this rest stop.

Leaving this rest stop I'm feeling pretty darn good. The intestinal cramps only made one or two more brief appearances after that point. So, mostly solved. I was feeling so good that I had forgotten to take my Advil. I actually STOPPED on the side of the road to wolf it down because I didn't want to ride any further without more Advil.

I quickly realized there were SEVERAL reasons why I felt so good leaving this rest stop. First, we had turned to put the wind sort of at our backs. It was still mostly cross, but was so strong it had a decent enough component from behind. Second, well, I had mostly resolved the cramping issues. Third, I love asphalt. And fourth, my right foot which normally starts acting up at 25 miles, hadn't started acting up yet. On a whim I had decided to try taking my innersole out of that shoe. I was carrying it in my pocket in case that turned out to be an insanely bad idea. But...it turned out to be a fabulous idea. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, I made fabulous time for like 20 miles. I hammered with the wind at my back. Since the cutoff I had been trying to stay in Zone 2/3. But with the wind I pushed it up to allow occasional jaunts into 4. Had to take advantage of the wind! Especially when there was asphalt. I love asphalt. Had half the power bar at 3:45. Skipped the next water stop....there was only 24 miles between the rest stop at 54 and the next rest stop. But at about mile 70 or so we had to turn into the wind for a very nasty stretch. And the road was really bumpy. So bumpy in fact that it jiggled the wires loose on my bike computer. I didn't realize it right away and estimated that I lost about a mile of data. Stopped on the side of the road to tinker with it. It jiggled loose again not long after but now I could fix it on the fly since I knew it was just the wire. But...now the 'actual ride time' data was invalid :( Good thing I had been keeping track of it all along. The wind turned into a crosswind and I was starting to get a bit tired. That road was really taking a lot out of me. Ate the other half of that power bar at 5:30 in.

I finally pull into the last rest stop just in time. I was out of water completely and only had an inch or two left in my cage bottle. I rush through the aid station...fill the water, grab about 5 vanilla creme cookies (which are not NEARLY as good as the lemon creme...but I like them anyway). I was there only 3 or 4 minutes and it only took that long because the water was seriously a few hundred feet away from the road. Who planned that? I pushed too hard leaving that aid station. But we had a tailwind again so I wanted to take advantage of it. And I forgot how long 22 miles can actually be :) The only other thing I ate the rest of my time was those 5 cookies...they were in my bento box and I had one every 15 minutes or so. But I was drinking a TON of water! I almost finished both bottles on my bike in the 22 miles. It was getting hotter.

The last 22 miles sucked. After that tailwind gave out, we ended up in a HUGE crosswind. Like...the blow your bike over kinda crosswind. And this was also the hilliest 22 miles of the course. Only one or two of them classified as true hills...but they were bigger than most rollers. the crosswind made it brutal for awhile. Then we finally turned onto a nice asphalt road with the full force of that wind blowing at our backs. I love asphalt. I hammered that section! I'm sure there was some more headwind and tailwind and crosswind mixed in...but things got pretty fuzzy. Around 90 my right foot pain finally kicked in. Hey, that's SUBSTANTIAL improvement over the usual hurt after 25...closer to a solution!!! But that made me start to pedal funny and my right achilles started to hurt so I tried to think about flexing that foot a lot. All I remember is that from the five mile point we didn't have the tailwind anymore...but we didn't have a full headwind either. And the biggest hills were there. I tried to stand up on one of them just to get it over with and my right knee told me that it wasn't a good idea. Sharp pain just above the kneecap. Must have been from pedaling funny. Okay...I'll stay seated. HR was beginning to creep up but at this point I didn't care anymore. With so little to go it didn't really matter. Make the final turn into the expo area and WHAM! Get slammed by the full force of the wind out of the north. It was (and I'm not kidding...this was what the ride officials were saying) 35 miles an hour...and we were pedaling the last 0.5miles straight into it. Uphill. That absolutely SUCKED. Finally roll across the finish line. Yay!

Nothing really. I pushed hard enough to make the cutoff. I cross-checked HR with RPE all day to keep myself from pushing too hard. I did start my final push for the finish too soon. I'd wait longer on that. And maybe in general try to keep my HR lower all day. I got impatient.

A lot of people just parked their bikes by the food tent, but I needed to go back to my car for my ID and food ticket so I wheeled my bike to my car and put it away. Put my sandles on, grabbed my jacket and other stuff. By now I'd had so much water in the last 1.5 hours that I really needed to pee. And the last few intestinal cramps were deciding now was the time to resolve themselves. So I hit the porta potty on the way to the food.

Ate half a pizza and grabbed a coke. Once my belly was full of pizza I got myself a Shiner 96...wow, there is more than one kind of Shiner and it's actually GOOD! I was standing there sipping my beer and another guy (I think he said his name was Dan) starts talking to me. He is apparently an aerospace engineer in Dallas. He thought it was neat that I was a pilot. We talked about biking, flying, etc. for about an hour while I drank my beer. He left to drive back and I was standing there staring at my empty beer cup thinking...gee, I really want another one. But it was almost 4pm and if I didn't leave soon I would do my entire drive back in the dark :( As I was about to leave another set of guys (from Maine) asked me about my Harpoon bike jersey. They wanted to know all about the Brewery to Brewery ride. So I told them about it. They thought that would be a fun thing to do next year. I'm thinking about it too...why not give it a third try? Definitely get a cool jersey :) Finally walked back to my car and pulled out around 4:15pm. Needed gas for the drive, and needed to hit the bathroom again...yeah, stupid intestinal cramps were not done yet. So I stopped in Austin. Forgot that it would take me 40 minutes to drive across Austin so I was going to end up in the dark for most of my trip...drat! Anyway, took me four hours and 20 minutes to get home...two more bathroom stops after the gas stop. But I finally got home. Whew.


I lack the power to stay with a group on a hill and generally lack the power to keep up with most of the groups. So...power.


This was an absolutely fabulous ride! I would definitely do it again. Super well-organized and tons of volunteers and food. The course was incredibly well marked and most of the riders were very friendly all day. I think one of the reasons I liked it so much was because of all the asphalt. I love asphalt. I'm used to riding on chipseal which really pains your body and wears you out faster. I concluded that the saddle on my bike really doesn't suck. I didn't have any saddle issues all day. My saddle was SUPER comfortable. It must be the chipseal I usually ride on. The winds were truly in our favor most of the day...they were not as strong when we were on the Northbound trek and on the return trip it was mostly crosswind. Which is dangerous and annoying, but at least it wasn't a headwind. That last half mile into that wind was brutal...I could not imagine having to do that for more than a half mile at a time (which is about how long we were directly into the wind for once or twice). Definitely a good course for my ability. It was a Century PR by 0:55....yeah, I know no two centuries are created equal, but I'll still consider it a PR. I probably pushed slightly too hard...but I would rather push a little hard and get done sooner than lollygag and be out there forever.

All in all, I had a super day!