I completed my first century yesterday while participating in the Shiner BASH ride. For those of you not familiar with this ride, riders from Austin, San Antonio, and Houston all ride to Shiner,Texas home of the Speitzel Brewery(where Shiner Bock is made). Austin and Houston are both around a 90 mile ride and the San Antonio ride was right at 99.8 miles.

I was leaving from San Antonio with about 250 other riders and a 30% chance of rain. We hit that 30% about 30 minutes into the ride. I only saw a few people with rain gear on, the rest of us braved the rain and had a blast. I never knew that riding in the rain with 250 other people could be so much fun! I was actually very thankful for the rain, because I was prepaired for 90+ degree temperature and the rain really cooled us off. I found a pack of about 6 riders and we averaged at least 27 mph for about an hour, around the 60 mile mark I had a flat and the group left me, from this point I was on my own. I first had to change my flat tire which was an adventure in itself, this was the first time that I had ever changed a flat, so it took me a little longer than it should of. After I fixed the flat I was off to conquer the remaining 40 miles on my own. The sun finally came out around the 80 mile mark and dried/burned me, but I was thankful for that, riding in the rain does get old after a while. The last 10 miles were a killer, there was rolling hills with a few large climbs thrown in there to make you earn the century.

I crossed the finish line right at 104.52 with a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes and an average speed of 18.4 mph. I am very pleased with my performance in my first century, it has gvined me a real sense of pride about riding! Now I need to find anoter organized century to complete, the rest stops are awesome!

Congrats. I would like to try that ride. Any ride that includes free beer at the end can't be all bad. I did the MS-150 instead, which if you haven't done is also a BLAST.

I heard the Austin folks rode 60 of the 90 miles in the rain! Ugh!

Not me. I stayed home. At the start of the ride it was pouring, with lightning and the possibility of hail. The weather map showed it was going to be that way for most of the trip. I ride for fun. That didn't look very fun. Did anyone make the trip from Austin? I would like to find out what I missed.

I didn't sign up for the ride but would have stayed home also. I'm signed up for the Armadillo Hill Country Classic this week and just hope the weather improves. My weather station shows a temp of 77 today (not bad) and humidity of 98%!!! Yuck.

I was going to ride but I got drafted to do an office move for work. I heard it rained for the first part of the ride but the sun came out eventually and ended up being kind of nice weather to ride in.

I wish I could have made this ride. I didn't register soon enough, and the bus back to Houston was booked. My g/f and I were thinking about dropping a car in Shiner, which would have meant a 4-hour round trip on Friday night from Houston, and then getting up at 5am on Saturday to ride. Friday night the weather was looking iffy at best, and the last thing I wanted to do was run the risk of it raining out, which would have meant another 4-hour trip to pick up our car! Sounds like you had a great time!

I talked to a few people that made the trip from Austin and they said that it did rain for the first 60 miles or so but then it cleard up and was very nice riding weather, the same as the San Antonio riders. I think that the peopl from Houston got it the worse, I believe it rained the entire time for them. One of the many things that I learned from this ride was that it is really helpful to have a pair of glasses for these long trips. It was really hard to stay in the paceline when the person in front of you is spraying water right in your eyes!
I think that I also must have drank about a gallon of raod water, guess that is why I did not feel dehydrated at all.

I did it from Austin, and yes, 60 miles in the rain. The first 30-40 it poured. I wasn't having much fun, but after about mile 55 it got better and I'm glad I rode/finished.

I was one of the few who rode from Houston. Our ride was ~98 miles or so. I heard about 1,500 riders signed up in Houston and only about 300 rode. It rained on us from miles 35 through 60 then quickly cleared up. We were supposed to push off at 7:00 but didn't start leaving until 8:30 or so.

This was my fourth century.

Overall it was a great ride. Great rest stops. Nice riders and volunteers. The Shiner concert was a bit too commercialized for me.

We rode the bus back to Houston and had 12 people on a full-size coach luxury liner! Best part is the driver stopped at a local quickie mart so we could get some cold hop-flavored beverages for the long ride home!

Steve

I am probably going to do the Armadillo as well. I haven't decided if I'm going to do 62 or 100. It depends on how much time I have.