First Ever Century - 100 Miles of Nowhere
 

EDIT: Thought I better note what this event was. Fatty (aka Elden) at Fatcyclist.com thought up this event after winning a bet last year to ride his rollers for 100 miles. This year he opened it up to everyone to register for with help from Twin Six. Over 400 people rode it, raising over $20,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Here's my "race" report from the ride. You can find out more info on the ride here http://www.fatcyclist.com/2009/03/30...es-of-nowhere/ . Read other race reports at Fatcyclist. You can donate to my fundraising page for the Philly Livestrong Challenge here.


Well, this was my first century attempt of my life. I've only been riding since November and only consistently since February. My wife and I live in Qatar where we teach elementary school. When I heard of this event, I had no choice but to sign up. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of months ago and it's been tough being half way around the world.

I decided to do my ride outside as I don't have a trainer or rollers here. I picked a stretch of road that we ride often at the Losail International Circuit where they hold Moto GP races. The track has some access roads around it that are well lit and very low traffic so a lot of area cyclists frequent it there and have group rides to do laps after dark. I took one stretch of it and rode it roundabout to roundabout, 50 times.

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Satellite image of the route.


Alarm went off at 1:45 AM and I popped up and made some oatmeal. Grabbed the breakfast burrito my wife had whipped up the night before (what a great domestique!), filled the cooler with ice and headed out the door. Got to the course at about 2:45 and wanted to be on the bike by 3:00.

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There was the normal jitters before an event. Am I ready for this? Will I embarrass myself? Will I get smoked by a guy on a knobby tired singlespeed? Will someone be wearing the same jersey as me? As luck would have it, I was the fittest, best looking rider with the best bike at the race, but not too nice a bike that I seemed silly to be on it and be so fat. It was all right in the sweetspot.


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The view at the starting line.


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I put the iPod on, fired up my favorite podcasts and hit the road. First pedal stroke at 2:58 AM, right on schedule. I rode as long as my first bottle held out and stopped at the car to refill. Checked the computer, 42 km (26 miles) in and feeling really good. Light was starting to crack over the horizon and my pace was higher than I expected.

Got back on the bike and rode another 20 km when my wife and a couple of friends on the way to the airport in Doha stopped by to say hi at 5:30. My wife, LIndsay, stayed around for the rest of the ride handling all the domestique duties. She was awesome and I couldn't have done so well without her. Got a few rolling bottle exchanges, cleaning the sunglasses, keeping the food coming.

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Rolled on to the 100 km mark and took a break for some food and hydration. The quads were definitely getting a little sluggish at this point. If I stood too long I'd get some cramping. Tried to drink more water and calm them down, but what are you going to do?

The sun was still coming up and making the day quite a bit hotter. It was getting into the 38 C (100 F) area and I was trying to get done as fast as I could. Another cyclist showed up, a triathlete and he got in and rode a few laps after we offered him some water from the cooler and explained what the hell we were doing out there. 135 km down.


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25 km to go and I was feeling good that I was going to finish and quicker than I had originally thought. I was counting down the laps and my rear was getting more and more sore (longest time I've been in the saddle and my DZ Nuts didn't get to me obviously before the race). The last few laps I definitely was thinking about the people this event would help, my mother-in-law, my uncle, my grandfather I never met, my wife and her sisters who have a genetic condition predisposing them to colon cancer, Susan. The thought of everyone else riding this ridiculous and pointless event for such purpose pushed me on and I raised my fist as my odometer rolled over 100 miles. I limped in to where my wife and two friends were waiting, cheering me in.

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We headed home as the mercury climbed to 42 C (108 F) and fired up the grill for some celebratory burgers and dogs.

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Finishing time: 9:30 AM

Final Distance: 161.97 km (100.64 miles)

Saddle time: 5:39:51

Average Speed: 28.5 kmh (17.7 mph)

Max Speed: 41.7 kmh (25.9 mph)

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Wow. Is that a 50 mile straight shot? Any other riders out there?

How is life in Qatar? Where are you originally from?

50 laps of a 2 mile stretch that's nice and flat. My kind of Century! The 108 degrees reminds me too much of July and August around here though~Well done, indeed.

Yeah, everywhere is flat here. Not a whole lot of choice. To be fair, the west end of the loop has about a 26ft bump, so multiply that be 50, 1300 feet, yeah it's still really flat. The heat wasn't too bad, but that's why I started at 3AM. It was 108 by 9:30 in the morning. That afternoon it was up to 115 degrees and since then we had a day hit 118. Oh, and it's humid, but they don't do a heat index, so you usually don't hear about how hot it feels. I was really lucky though that the wind was about as low as it gets here after a couple of weeks of brutal winds and sandstorms.

As txvintage noted, it was one mile between the roundabouts, by chance, so I did 50 laps of the whole loop. There weren't any riders out there that day. My buddy who was manning the grill usually rides with me but is out for a bit after a surgery. There are some others in Qatar that meet up on the weekends, but they're still a bit too fast for me. I'll occasionally meet others at this circuit at night and have some impromptu small group rides (3-6 people). This time of year, later at night is the only time that the temperature falls down below 95 degrees.

Life here is pretty good. Some things are a pain, hard to find some things and there is a maze of bureaucracy involved in a lot of life that is almost indecipherable. But, we have a lot of free time, are saving money and have good friends that we work with. Lots of time to ride and the weather from late October through to about now is great for getting on the bike. Having the bike has gotten me down from 290 when I started in February to 252 this morning. The heat and landscape takes some getting used to, being originally from Wisconsin and having lived the last 4 years in Toronto. Will be nice to spend the summer in Canada where there are some hills, trees and decent roads.

Redbird74!!! woo hooo.:champ2:

about 18 mph avg - outstandiing!! I have ridden a coupole of centuries this year - and they are hard!! I soo admire you - and never did I ride at that pac, alone ...no drafting! Where you from originally.... ?
When you get to ride in a SAG supported century ride with friends...drafting you will most likely think it's a walk in the park!!


Outstanding job!!

That was great reading

I've told a couple people about your planned century, and I was happy to see such a detailed report. Congrats on finishing! Did you lose any weight due to water loss?

I've also been following the other 100 miles of nowhere reports at Fat Cyclist, some of the videos people have done are really quite good.

Missbumble - Thanks a lot! I grew up in Wisconsin, went to school in Illinois, but lived the last four years before moving here just outside of Toronto. Looking forward to a big group century in Philadelphia at the Livestrong Challenge in August. I'll also be getting into some group rides when we're home in Canada for the summer.

Brando - I think I lost about 8 pounds over the course of the ride from sweat. That being said, I've lost far more on other rides here. Two weeks ago on my longest training ride, I was out for 112 km with less support and lost 12 pounds over the 4 hour ride.

I definitely encourage others to check out the reports at fatcyclist.com, especially the videos.

I did it this weekend also.

Detailed ride report:
Started at about 2pm, finished at 6 or so. On my trainer and watched DVD's the whole time, a friend of mine dubbed the Rifftrax into the first Harry Potter and the latest Indiana Jones, so it was a good time to watch those.

100.0 miles. Went upstairs and showered and ate.

Hey! I'm signed up for that...look for me there! I'll be the one walking up the biggest hills :lol:

Seriously, I just did a 45 mile ride, the SCU Quad County in the same general part of Pennsylvania. You can ride all day long on a flat course and not be nearly prepared for the climbing on a hilly course. And August in PA can be 90's and v-e-r-y humid.

I definitely know what August in PA can be like; worked in PA for a couple of summers and spent my college days in central Illinois. I will be in Canada for the summer so hope to be able to do a lot more training in the hills before the Livestrong event. I'll have more free time and more varied terrain over July and August, so I hope to be in okay shape for Philly.

Mr. Bird - I think losing 12 pounds on a ride can not be good! Drink, drink and then drink!!!