Originally Posted by zacster

I did this in one day 4 or 5 times back in my youth. It is a challenge, and those last 50 miles really drag on especially since they are rolling hills. But the first hundred is mostly flat, with one short steep hill, the next 50 isn't so bad.

My take on one day vs. two has always been: would you want to get back on a bike after a hundred mile ride and do another hundred the next day? I've always said no to myself. One year when I didn't do the ride (this was back in the 80s, when I was 30ish) I stayed at a friends house in Tenino, one of the towns about 80 miles into the ride, and he had a group that was crashing at his house overnight that he picked up in Centralia. They were all very sore, and it was painful to watch them get ready to leave the next day.

And another year it was raining when I did the ride, but I decided to bail at his house as it just wasn't worth it. So I showered, relaxed for a bit and then the sun came out. I hopped back on the bike and everybody was looking at me as I was the only one that didn't look like a drowned rat. I finished the ride in about 14 hours, including the break, which isn't too bad. I also finished another year in 10 hours, after doing the first 100 in 4.25 hours, that's a 23mph average, and there were no stops. They had to peel me off the street to get going again.

But bottom line, at age 58, I would only do it in one day, I'd never get myself ready to do a second day of 100 miles. That's the thing that worries me about Ragbrai, after the first few days would I be willing to do more.