Century: Check!

100 Miles... DONE!!!

And what a ride it was...

Kris took us and our bikes down to Oneida packing up Big Red to the brim. It has to be said that the less expensive bikes got to ride in the bed of the truck while the fancy Cervelo got to ride in the cabin with us... although I can't really say that I blame him with that decision : )

Anyways we made it up there, had great accommodations and a nice pre race dinner with friends (who also generously donated to each of us to ride, Thank you Gisella & Eric)! We woke up around 5:00 AM to a brisk overcast Sunday morning and sleepily managed to pull ourselves together. We checked the weather  while I chowed down my peanut butter and banana bagel and sipped my tea. A passing shower possible, around midday, other than that clear skies, it sounded pretty good to me... but more on that later. Upon arriving at Verona Beach we promptly picked up our numbers and then proceeded to loose track of time until about a minute before the start, rushed around to throw everything together last minute, and finally lined up just in time. I made the last minute decision to ditch my long sleeve shirt and just rock the short sleeve jerseys and bike shorts. To give you an idea of how poor this decision was, most of the other riders had both arm and leg warmers on, with rain jackets on top. I had goose bumps for a good 10 miles, until finally the adrenaline kicked in and warmed me up.

It was amazing how fast we lost almost the entire pack of cyclists. I was certain we'd be dead last. We made a quick stop at the first aid station and then skipped the second trying to make up time. The peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and pretzels were a big help but upset my stomach a bit so by the next rest stop I decided to switch over to the orange slices and nutritional problem solved. Thank goodness for fig newtons as well, they proved to be a wise and handy choice for biking for the better part of a day. By mile 50 I was surprised at how well we were doing, everyone felt good and we were keeping up over a 16mph pace. Then came the wind, closely followed by the sprinkles, closely followed by the down pour. From mile 50 to 90 there was a steady rain, heavy around 65-90. Then there were rolling hills to deal with, Angela's knees were giving out, my pinkie and ring fingers were uselessly numb, everyone's shoes were soaked, our feet were numb, we were freezing every time we stopped and bike shorts in combination with rain, road grit and chamois cream is about the most uncomfortable mix you can imagine. So needless to say it wasn't a pretty finish. When we had about 10 miles left I flipped my computer over to mileage and then miserably watched as the miles slowly ticked up to 100. It was insanely hard to keep pedaling but when I finally saw the computer click to 100 miles I couldn't help but feel it was worth the pain.

Kris, Angela and I have this ability to rally when one or two of the others is fading and it actually works out that we maintain a respectable pace because we all try to stay together and strong for one another. I'm happy to say that it took us 6 hours and 15 minutes ride time, 7 hours total with stops. We maintained about 16 mph for 100 miles... not a bad day.

It was quite the accomplishment for all of us and since finishing we've been told that now we can consider ourselves "real cyclists."

I'll take that : )