I completed my first century yesterday while participating in the Shiner BASH ride. For those of you not familiar with this ride, riders from Austin, San Antonio, and Houston all ride to Shiner,Texas home of the Speitzel Brewery(where Shiner Bock is made). Austin and Houston are both around a 90 mile ride and the San Antonio ride was right at 99.8 miles.

I was leaving from San Antonio with about 250 other riders and a 30% chance of rain. We hit that 30% about 30 minutes into the ride. I only saw a few people with rain gear on, the rest of us braved the rain and had a blast. I never knew that riding in the rain with 250 other people could be so much fun! I was actually very thankful for the rain, because I was prepaired for 90+ degree temperature and the rain really cooled us off. I found a pack of about 6 riders and we averaged at least 27 mph for about an hour, around the 60 mile mark I had a flat and the group left me, from this point I was on my own. I first had to change my flat tire which was an adventure in itself, this was the first time that I had ever changed a flat, so it took me a little longer than it should of. After I fixed the flat I was off to conquer the remaining 40 miles on my own. The sun finally came out around the 80 mile mark and dried/burned me, but I was thankful for that, riding in the rain does get old after a while. The last 10 miles were a killer, there was rolling hills with a few large climbs thrown in there to make you earn the century.

I crossed the finish line right at 104.52 with a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes and an average speed of 18.4 mph. I am very pleased with my performance in my first century, it has gvined me a real sense of pride about riding! Now I need to find anoter organized century to complete, the rest stops are awesome!