Here's what I scribbled on my blog:
So, the ride was yesterday, and the weather couldn't have been better!
A lot of members of my biking club, myself included, met a Cook's Landing to group up and ride down to the starting area. This seemed like a really good idea at 6:15 in the morning. We'd avoid the traffic in downtown North Little Rock and get warmed up while we cruised on in for ~8 miles. I had forgotten my race number at home, and I was a little worried about that. But Patrick let me have his helmet sticker, so I got to ride as his twin.
We got down to the staging area, and got ourselves sorted into the appropriate groups: charter members, 100 milers, 50 milers, etc. I ran into a girl that I kinda knew from college while waiting to start, and we chatted for a bit. Then the starting signal went off! Mass starts are always kind of fun because you typically have one foot clipped into the pedal and you're pushing off the ground with the other foot. Start-stop-start-stop-go.
I started out towards the front of the 100 miler group, and they were moving through town at a pretty good clip, about 24-25 mph. I hung on at a pace that varied between 20-25mph from Little Rock up to Conway. I was in a pace line most of the way, and we blew by the aid station in Mayflower. I kinda wanted to get some Gatoraid, but I didn't really want to stop. So I hung on with the line. Past Mayflower, we started to get into some rolling hills, and even some really steep ones. I got dropped off the line when I swung off the lead. I had been pulling at 21 mph. When I pulled off, the guy behind me kicked the line up to 25, and all I could do was wave.
I was really glad that I'd put on my aero bars. Your steering is a little squirrelly with them on, but they really do help you cheat the wind. I needed that psychological encouragement while I was in no-man's-land before Conway.
I had a few problems with cramps on the ride. My calves started to cramp up between Mayflower and Conway. To deal with it, I tried to keep my heels down and payed attention to not tensing my calves. That really seemed to do the trick. Between Conway and Saltillo, there was a nasty headwind and my quads started to cramp. The right side moreso than the left, but both of them really hurt. It was a rather unique pain. Intense and spread over a large of my body. When I made it to the Cato rest stop, I had to get off my bike a stretch for a good 20 minutes before getting back on.
Between Cato and Maumelle, I got into a pace line that was going 23-28 mph, depending on the hills. I hung with them for as long as I could, but I could feel myself running out of gas. With about 15 miles left to go, I pulled off the pace line and poked at ~17mph. It was about all I could do. Just like last year, there was a ridiculous headwind from Mayflower to the finish.
I didn't hit my goal of a sub 5 hour century. Breaks and all, I took 5 hrs 32 min. Total riding time was just under 5 hours, however. Average pace was 20.6 mph. With the ride in from Cook's landing and then back to my car from the finish, I rode a total of 116.7 miles. If there was a part of my body that didn't hurt, I was unaware of it! My total fuel intake for the ride was as follows: 1.5 bananas, 0.5 oranges, 1.25 PB&J's, 2 cookies, 3 gels packs, 0.5 snicker's marathon bar (ick!), ~5 liters of H2O and Gatoraid. I then went home and ate like a champ and took a good soak in the tub.
This morning, I'm still sore (duh) and I'm rocking a sweet biker tan! I have glove lines, jersey lines, short lines, sock lines, glasses lines, and even helmet strap lines! Frickin' sweet! The pain from distance riding is so totally worth the feeling of doing something that is truely and undescribably awesome!