Well I rode the 34miler yesterday, didn't finish in the top three (or the bottom three ). I took the advice of StephenH to make a decision at the splitting up point of the two courses. I started strong and finished strong, in a sprint with 3 other riders.

The course was rather hilly throughout (1235' of climbing) with strong head winds (25mph according to the race director) for the first half of the race. I live in West Texas, Lubbock, so I'm use to the wind and wasn't worried about that. However, the hills kicked my butt. Riding in West Texas doesn't allow for much hill training, go figure.

I'm glad I didn't commet to the metric century and regreted the ride. Now, I have to find somewhere to train on hills and figure out how to ride them, right gears to use when to use them etc...

My wife finished 4th for her age group in the 10K, our 4 kids had all the free Dr. Pepper they could swallow and I got my race cherry popped; what a great weekend.