Way to go with the century! You rode that thing in regular shorts? GOOD GOD! I'm reminded of a theme song from a 1970s Mel Brooks film: "He rode a blazing saddle...." 
Seriously, anytime that I ride over an hour or so, I ride with standard road shorts. You get over the "look like a dork" factor really quickly after you wear them ONCE on a long ride. The brand and type of short is personal preference. I like almost any non-gel short with a little bit of extra padding. The cushy-part of the padding is not as important to me. The most important aspects of the padding are the enhanced skin dryness (poly-fibers don't absorb moisture and whick it away from you), and how the pad makes it so that nothing rubs between you and the saddle (your seat stays in one place with no rubbing shorts). Brands of shorts that I like include any middle or upper-end shorts (I buy the low-middle shorts, but get upper-level ones as gifts sometimes) that are non-gel from Performance (Century shorts or better), Pearl Izumi (Attack or better), Cannondale (have more big-sizes and sometimes less revealing), and Castelli. I've had some horrible off-brand short experiences...well...maybe not as bad as you just experienced on your century. 
As for pedals, there are lots of choices. I ride SPD clipless these days, but have thought about trying the speedplay x-series pedals. In any event, lots of road riders around here like lighter mountain bike SPDs, road speedplays, and road Crank Brothers egg-beater clones because they are double-sided, and you can clip into them without looking down at all. You can only clip into one side of all other types of road pedals (look, road-SPD, cage-clips), which makes using them problematic for many to get used to at first. I used to ride Looks, and lots of people that like a large platform perfer them, as do many triathletes because they make look-traithlete shoes that stay clipped into the bike all the time where you slip your bare feet into the shoes and go.
Try on lots of pairs of shoes, and get some that fit your feet the best. There is nothing worse than a bad-fitting set of road shoes on a long ride. They should not be too loose, or pinch or bind anywhere right out of the box.
Congradulations again, and have fun out there!
Last edited by Pinyon; 08-21-07 at 12:58 PM.