Sweet Corn Ride!

Saturday I decided to hit the bike shop in preparation for Sunday's century ride. I picked up a new pair of bicycle gloves which are way better suited than the dirt bike gloves I have been wearing because a) they have more padding in the right places and b) they are cooler as they are fingerless versus my full fingered dirt bike gloves. Also thanks to my blogger friend recommendations, I also purchased a ProDesign waterbottle and mounting kit for my bike...which I now highly recommend!!

Saturday evening I got everything rounded up, filled my bike tires, mounted the bike on the car rack and was all set to go. Woke up Sunday morning, had some oatmeal and was on the road by 5:45 AM. Upon arrival around, I got all my gear on and headed down to registration and waited for the CTC gang to arrive. There was a fairly large pack of us that started off the day together which seemed to spread out fairly early on. I felt fine and was enjoying my company throughout the ride. We hit the first waterstop and I downed a gatorade, had a half a banana, and hit the restroom and was back off. Miles seemed to fly by and before long we were at the next rest stop. There was a group of 8 of us that remained together for the majority of the ride. We stopped at all the stops and at each I drank at least a bottle of gatorade and filled up the three bottles on my bike.

Oh and FYI, one of my bike bottles was fruit punch gatorade which I had froze the night before. It was leaking all over the place first thing that morning, so perhaps I should have drank some before I froze it. Thank goodness I had put the bottles in a Walmart bag to carry out to my car or my car would have been a mess!

At lunch at mile 62, we took a longer break and sat down in the shade to have our sack lunch and I had a sandwich and chips.

Back out on the road for another 30 hilly miles. It was now quite hot out and we are in the hilliest portion of the course. Our group started to spread out and I just remained focused on getting to the next stop. I found it much easier to try to keep as much momentum going as possible to make getting up the hills a little easier. I felt fine physically the entire way through except my feet were extremely sore from pushing my petals and I could not wait to give them a break. Oh and my neck and back were also causing me some discomfort.

I heard along the way that many were suffering from dehydration but with my 3 bottles on the bike that I continued to fill, I always had something to drink, even if it was extremely warm. I saw another CTC member which had crashed out in the ditch and I felt bad for him having to deal with that on this long hot ride.

At the 92 mile rest stop relaxed for a bit over some water and gatorade and started to look forward to the end. There was another rider that had taken a serious spill and his leg was swollen and road rashed. I thought about this older man as he was bound and determined to finish the course despite his injury and in the back of my head I kept thinking if he is going to make it dealing with that injury, I should have no room for complaints. This final section of the century went by pretty fast. I spent some time trying to catch up as I was a little behind leaving the rest area since I was trying to take care of my water bottles. The end finally came, however my mileage was at 102 so not sure where that extra came from but I kept thinking the end would be sooner than it was, which is never good!

I grabbed some horribly sweet lemonade and had a chance to see some other riders come in. We finished in approximately 7.5 hours including all of our leaisurely stops. Unfortunately I had to leave right after the event as I was late for a birthday party, so I missed out on the buffet dinner. Darn, because I am sure that would have been fun too.

All in all, I felt that it was a fairly consistent effort which went pretty well with no real issues to speak of which I was thankful for. It was a great day with great people and I really enjoyed the experience.

Order of my discomfort immediately after the race:
#1 feet (which hurt to push the car pedals on the way home, thank god for cruise control)
#2 back and neck
#3 front seat area (perhaps I need an adjustment or new seat)
#4 legs a bit tired

However upon returning home, in my shower my butt bolted to the front of that list...guess all the time in the saddle had resulted in some chaffing. Guess that is why so many other use that lubricant stuff and baby powder...perhaps something to consider in the future!