Definately harder than I have ever attempted. The 101 miles wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The hills were about what I expected. I would say I was average on the hills because I didn't have to walk up a single one, although the thought crossed my mind. There were times I was in the smallest chainring and largest cog spinning at 95-100 rpm and going 5 mph....and still passing a few on the way up. Suffering is what this is but the relief at the top is just awesome.
It got to a point before the top that I could feel the hill easing up on me. I wasn't quite to the top and it would just seem to get a little easier although I didn't notice a change in the grade.
The downhills were awesome. 40mph is fun. You really couldn't go much faster for several reasons. One I didn't know the course. Two, there were cars on these roads and at times the road was big enough for A car. Three there were potholes and sticks on the road at times and finally at the bottom of most hills was a stop sign. However, downhill was fun.
It was interesting to note that Marc and I were able to still cruise at 20+ when it was flat, which wasn't much and we would pull away from the other riders. They would catch us on the hills.
This ride was a lot of fun. My first century and my longest ride ever. My longest before this was 50.
There were sag stops every 20 miles or so and lunch was at mile 57. The only problem I had was when I was running low on water and we had just passed what should of been a sag stop at mile 70 or so. I was a little worried I wouldn't make it to the next one at mile 89. However it was moved up to about mile 74 and I was able to refill. I never really thought about being done until about mile 80. I knew we were close and I just wanted to be done. It took us a little over 8 hrs overall and I was getting tired and ready to be done when we finished.

Knowing what to expect will go a long way to being better prepared. If this course was flat I don't think I have any problems with conditioning. For next year I will need to be more consistant on the trainer through the winter months and get outside more than once before going on this ride. My only outside ride before this was a 42 mile ride the week before that I thought was hard. So I guess just training.

No real warm down, rode into town to the College and showered and went to eat. Had a few beers and went back and was in bed at 8:45 and slept 11 hrs.


Hills and training


This is a lot of fun and something I would like to continue to do every year.