Yes we can!

I was in New York this past weekend for the NY Century ride. Had done 40, 84 and 80 miles on my previous years on this ride.
Had not planned to do the full century. Wanted to ride 2/3 of the 75 mile route, then take a detour to do some site seeing and take pictures. But the 75 was actually 86 miles this year and I had a riding buddy to keep me honest. Did the full 75/86 route. When I reached the finish and had rested a bit, I saw I had 88 miles on the computer and was going to end with 90 anyway. My legs still felt good, so I decided to go for it. Did two laps of Central Park to end with just over 100 miles.

"Conventional wisdom" would say I couldn't have done it. I hadn't been training on long rides (had only done a few rides over a half century this season), I was on a 20 year old heavy hybrid, with a gel-pad seat, flat bars, a stretched chain, worn cassette, and I was getting over a leg injury from a fall on the previous week's ride. But everything came together. The injury affected the muscles for squatting and going up stairs and not my cycling (actually felt better when I was cycling). I was on the bike I was used to, on the set up I'm used to. The ride was relatively flat. The standard route was longer than anticipated. I took lots of breaks and stretched while riding. The rest stops were well stocked. Most important was having a ride partner to push me.

Drank two 2.2 liter camelbacks of water, 28 oz of Powerade, and ate lots of food. After the ride I even went out to a Chinese food buffet, then slept real well that night. I was a little stiff the next morning (and stiff after the 260 mile drive home), but I feel good.

Now that I've done my first century, I don't feel any pressure to do another one. I'll do one again if I feel like it, and won't if I don't. There's a club century this upcoming weekend but I'm not sure I'll try that one (several 1000 feet of climbing in the Shennendoah Mountains). I might be up for the 75 miler.

I'm curious, who else had done a century on a hybrid.


added - I was on the bike for about 8:40 minutes with an average speed of 11.7 mph.
(forgot to turn off the computer during the walk across the Tri-boro bridge )