Mikey:
Living in Albany, 3 weeks to a half-century ride on June 14, must be the Strawberry over in Lebanon.
I rode most of the 72 mile route last year, about half of it in a monsoon. We got lost in the rain and cut a few miles off. We decided against the 100 mile route as it was sprinlking when we started. This year we hope to do the full route.
If I remember correctly, the 53 mile route is pretty flat. They had really good lunch at the park out at the end of Foster Lake.
The 72 mile route has a couple of moderate hills just south-west of Sweet Home before Holley. After that it was fairly flat.
The route maps are here:
http://www.santiamspokes.org/STRAWBE...routesmap.html
with additional maps of each route. The 52 and 72 share quite a bit, the 100 mile one heads off to the north of Lebanon before re-joining the 72 mile one.
If I were you, I'd take your bike over to the high school in Lebanon and do some pre-riding. I think you will find it to be fairly easy.
On June 22 there's a big ride put on by the Salem club that starts over in Rickreall. They have a 50 mile route ( and 100, 125 and 200 mile ones). Info here:
http://www.salembicycleclub.org/cont...?page=majrides
Keep getting in shape and you can do the Covered Bridge Tour in early August, starts out at the fairgrounds on the other side of the freeway from Albany. Great ride last year.
Then there's our club's ride over here in Newport on August 17th, see link in my signature.
FYI, when I took up 'serious' cycling (had a hybrid for years, put maybe 300 miles a year on it), I bought a Trek 1000 in early July 2006, put about 425 miles on it and then did our Century (full 100 miles) over here in Newport in mid August. Wasn't the fastest, but I made it. Then did it again 2 weeks later with some other club members, then did one out of Salem in late September.
I was 57 at the time, 5'-7" about 160#. Now I'm 59, bounce between 143 and 150#, and will have well over 10,000 miles on 3 bikes by the time my 2 year aniversary rolls around.
Let us know how the rest of your training goes.