Kenny Lucas
The 2011 Seagull Century will forever be known to me as the ride of Danimal's life. Let's back up to October 2010 for a moment to explain why Danimal rode this ride. We're both 40-something and trying to hold on to younger days by pushing ourselves to crazy extremes. Danny with the marathon's, myself with the centuries. So we made a deal, I run a half-marathon and Danny rides a century.
I ran the Suntrust half-marathon earlier this year and followed a 10 week training program to make sure I had a good experience. Danimal did an admirable job in training for the century by going on 3 bike rides around Burke Lake and getting in a few hours on the recumbent while watching football games.
Perhaps the best part of rides is the camping the night before. We stayed at Woodlawn Campground in Salisbury. Beautiful, clear and crisp night that we spent a good portion of shopping on Craiglist for a pop-up camper. Here's a few videos of the evening.
Our Campsite
Danimal was legitimately worried the night before the race about the effort he was about to put forth. He may have been feeling better when we arrived at the start because how could he be the only one out of almost 9,000 riders to not make the finish. Here's a shot of the starting line:
And we're off with a strong 17mph pace! Danimal couldn't keep a 17mph for 2 minutes down at the beach last year in August. I'm thinking;
- Danny is insane.
- How is Danny going to finish?
- Who's going to drive him to the finish line?
- Confucious say, "Man who climb mountain too fast, not reach top".
Mile 1
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Mile 6
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Mile 11
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Mile 20 - Aid Station #1
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Miles 20 through 40 were not overly difficult, but there was a windy difficult stretch of a few miles before Aid Station #2 around mile 40. This was just a taste of the 40mph wind gusts that we would feel later in the race, along with the constant head wind that would soon take a miserable toll on me.
Mile 50 and Danimal is still setting a blistering pace. I'm thinking that it was a really good idea he got slick high-pressure tires on his bike. I was riding my huge 29x2.2" knobby's at around 45psi. This turned out to make the ride much more difficult than it needed to be.
If you listen to the riding videos closely, you can hear a low humming noise. Those are my tires on the pavement. Listen to the mile 6 video above for a great example.
Danny's previous max distance was 26 miles that we rode twice at the beach this past August. Amazing how strong he looked at mile 50 and beyond. Danny, how do you do it? And in his own words, "I'm quite a specimen."
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Mile 40
Mile 50
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We cruised into mile 60 at the Assateague Island Aid Station #3 with a little fatigue setting in. The wind was just ridiculous as you can hear from the videos. It was a cross-wind at this point and it makes we wonder why no one was sent flying into the water. There were a few horses out feeding and I'm always amazed at how much attention a few ponies can get. Did I mention the wind?
| At Mile 60 I was thinking that Danimal was going to start getting tired and that interesting times were ahead of us. I had no idea that he was going to be the one chugging along strongly and I was going to be feeling the pain in the quads. As a matter of fact, my quads were about to start screaming at me for taking my mountain bike on this ride. My road bike would have been significantly easier and then perhaps I could have laughed at Danimal more. As it turns out, too much effort went into the riding and not enough heckling Danimal. | |
Riding to mile 80 and the apple pie was a challenge for the both of us. Coming out of Assateague we had a little scare with Danimal's hamstring as it tightened a bit. He rode through it and I bet he rode through a lot more that he didn't bother to mention. At least he didn't ride into a mailbox like some bone-headed guy, or get tossed to the pavement like a few other riders. I was surprised by the number of riders getting flat tires. That would be the ONLY benefit to riding 29x2.2" tires on this ride.
Danimal appeared to simply cruise to the finish line. We were able to draft a little bit during the final few miles and at least I benefited from it. Danimal kept looking like he was just riding around Burke Lake for another 5 mile practice ride.
| I could not have been happier reaching the finish line at this point. You can hear the fatigue in my voice in the video. Danimal continues to chug along with no recognition of the physical toll that he just put out. All kudos to Danimal for making this ride. In the two days after the ride, he has felt no knee pain whatsoever. Even indicating that it feels better than it did before the ride! I hope that he remembers the therapeutic benefits of riding a bike and decides to go on future rides. The simulated 40 mile hill with the wind from Assateague is a good indication that he's ready for more difficult events. Great job, Danimal !!!! Ride time: 7 hrs 9 min's. |
