First Century Today
 

I rode my first century today. My club's weekly ride consisted on several rides, one of which was 102 miles.

Until today, my longest ride was 78 miles, so I was a little nervous going in. Today's ride had a few hundred feet less climbing, but I was a little leery of those extra miles.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I would guess that the temps were in the low to mid seventies with an occasional breeze.

Like an idiot, I decided to ride with the lead group. I knew going in that most of the riders were going to stop at about 50 miles to refill bottles, so I figured I'd try to hang with them until the halfway point, at which point I thought things would split up a bit and I could get with a group more my speed.

We covered the first 50 miles in about 2.25 hours. After what seemed like a 5 minute stop, the hammer fest continued; the split I was hoping for did not materialize. I was able to hang on for the next 15 miles or so before I found myself riding solo, summarily dropped like a sack of potatoes. Keeping in my idiot ways, I chased for what seemed like 20 to 30 minutes before finally realizing there was no hope.

I rode by myself for the next 10 miles or so...cursing myself for being such an idiot. The thought of riding the next 25 miles solo was crushing my feeble mind. Shortly thereafter, I got stopped at an intersection for a motorcycle run. There were 700 to 800 motorcycles in the ride, according to the big, burly biker who was blocking the intersection. While waiting for them to pass, several other club members arrived...thank god.

I jumped on with four other guys and we held a good pace to the finish.

Total mileage on my computer was 101.49. Riding time was 4 hours 56 minutes. Total time was probably in the area of 5 hours 20 minutes.

Needless to say, I am very pleased with how things worked out...I never would have guessed those times.

That's pretty fast for a first century

Here's the thing. You may think yourself an idiot but you did it. I hope to do it next year.

Congrats! Nice job for sure - especially with your first stop being ~50mi deep into the ride. Most charity centuries have stops every 10-20mi.

So, when is your next crack at another century?!

Right...I was hoping for 18 mph; that was my goal going in. The pace for the first half was blistering, and helped prop up my overall average. I was about 3 MPH slower on the second half.

My next one is September 8th. This is an organized ride with checkpoints, sag wagons, etc. I had registered for this back in April and wanted to get in a century before to see how I'd fare. Today's ride was just a group ride...not organized in the sense of the one in September.

Good time for a century
Stellar time for a first century.
Have you been bitten by the distance bug?
Do you see any Rando events in your future?

Nice job.. You will do even better at TFCE. Once you figure out the eating and drinking enough centuries aren't too bad. I find the last 15mi always suck.

when are we going to ride? I do stuff in our area all the time. You'd also fit in at the bikeworks B ride on sat. mornings in swansea.

My goal has always been to complete a century. I can't see myself doing any serious randonneuring, but maybe I'll shoot for a double metric next.

Jake - I'll shoot you a PM next week. This week is going to be nuts, and I'll be out of town this weekend.

The Flatest Century of The East is a great century. It's gone on for decades and is well managed and run. I first did it in the 80's on a mtn bike...whew, not easy for awesome.
I rode with the East Prov club on my second run.
It is not a flat century but lots of rollers. In it's heyday you had to sign up early as it sold out quickly. Not sure now but I hope it is as popular.
Good for you...I miss that event.
I still have my patches

Great job, Chief. I dropped back from the hammerfest after getting some space after the start. I could have hung longer, but I hadn't ridden for 3 weeks in late June/early July, and my longest ride since was 43 miles, so I decided to take it easy going out. I picked up a couple of guys who dropped off that lead paceline, and we did almost the first half of the ride switching off the lead. One guy bailed for the 54 mile route, and the other guy and I rode together until he stopped at about 40 miles for water and food. I was OK with water. I refilled at the DD in Plymouth---probably the same place you stopped.

In addition to the rollers over the second half, there was also a bit of a headwind, so it's no shame to have lost 3 mph over your time going out.

How'd you like the abysmal pavement on that downhill on Walnut St. in Middleboro, at about 70-75 miles? :lol:

I wasn't delayed at all by the motorcycle procession.

Did you have to ride over all of that broken glass from that bad accident, about a mile from the finish? It was all over the road, from shoulder to center line. I'm shocked that I didn't flat.

They have early registration for NBW members-only now. Once it opens to the general public, it fills up in a day or two. I know people who join just to be able to take advantage of that.

Yesterday's ride had almost 3000' of climbing according to my Garmin. TFCE is about the same.

yes. Great job on your first century and very quick. :thumb:

I ache to be able to ride a 5 hour century. Bravo!

That about sums it up. I was yo-yoing off the back the whole way out. Those guys were dropping the hammer at every turn and change in grade.

I don't recall that particular stretch of road, but there were several sections during the ride which I though were particularly heinous.

In terms of accidents, I saw one probably at about mile 85 or so. A jeep got clipped by a car pulling out of a four way intersection. The car that clipped the Jeep was a few feet into the intersection. The Jeep was maybe 100 feet down the road on its side facing back the way it came. We must have just missed it.

Nice work!

I do a lot of riding in SE Mass, especially at this time of the year when the Cape is flooded with clueless tourists. Middleboro has the worst roads in the area, by far. And NBW has a few rides over them.