2013 Civil War Century

The Civil War Century is a must ride just because of its name.  I rode last year but this year was easier, perhaps I trained a little?  It starts out in Thurmont VA and rolls up, down and all-around through Maryland and into Pennsylvania.  It is kinda cool to ride through Antietam National Park and the Gettysburg battlefields.  Although by the time I got to Gettysburg I wasn't so interested in sight-seeing.

A 5:00am wake-up alarm got me moving and 30 minutes later I was in the car and heading north.  Surprising how many people are on the beltway at 5:30am on a Saturday?  Where are they all going?  It was an easy drive up and the weather was a chilly 58 degrees.  I'm wondering why I didn't bring a jacket.  No worries, because the start of the ride goes straight up for 5 miles.  You're sweating inside of 10 minutes.

Total elevation for this ride is ~6,100'.  Total ride length was 102.7. See that big hill at mile 60, ugh.  That's a decent climb that tears you down.  Good stuff knowing that if you can make it to mile 62 you've pretty much got the ride made.  Although all that rolling stuff later does take little nibbles out of you.  

We were still in pretty energetic moods arriving at the first rest stop about 26 miles in.  Best food on this ride was the peaches.  OMG, those were sooooo good and I'm not really a peach lover.  I ate my share and then some.  Reminds me of the Presidents of the USA - peaches for me, peaches for free.

Here's a quick clip at mile 73.  All cylinders still firing well.  Not sure what little town we're in as we've gone through so many at this point.

I had to get a quick shot of some cannons in Gettysburg.  It's good times to tour around here and see the area.  Been there a couple times with the Cub Scouts.  There was a fleet of people-movers that we blew by.  Who sight-see's on people-movers?

This is how a lot of rides end. I am worn out.  The last 10 miles was really hard because my stomach starting hurting and that throw up feeling wouldn't go away.  I don't think it was from the ride, as I had that feeling at the first rest stop.  I blame Jordan because she had a really bad stomach ache Friday morning.   I did get a great ham/turkey sandwich at the end of the ride and started feeling a heckuva lot better.

Riding time was ~6 hrs 40 mins.  So add 1 hour for total time.

Garmin statistics

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2013 Mountains of Misery Double Metric

MOUNTAINS OF MISERY 2013 The Mountains of Misery are named accurately, filled with misery stacked upon climb after climb.  I had quite a bit of trepidation leading into this event due to the memories from two years ago.  I rode the century route in 2011 and that was exceedingly difficult.  So what do I sign up for this year?  Something even harder, the double-metric ride!

126.2 miles with an elevation climb of ~11,390 feet across what felt like 5 mountain ranges.  That's almost half-way up Mount Everest or ~8 times taller than the Empire State Building.  Spider-man can't fight the Hulk because they aren't in the same power class, well this ride is outside of my rider class.

If this image doesn't scare you as a biker than nothing will.

The weekend started really well with an easy drive down to the camp site at the start of the race.  Beautiful weather was forecast, so why did my insides feel like a butterfly parade?  At the registration booth I made the questionable decision to "man up" for the double metric instead of the century.  Has anyone ever told you to "man up" where it did not result in your personal demise?

I slept really well in the tent Saturday night, got ready and rode 1/4 mile up to the starting line to receive my first and only good news of the day ... the double-metric folk get to start first!  There were about 100 of us and around 525 with more common sense opting for the century.  5 waves in all of riders started 5 minutes apart.  I think the only reason all the riders didn't pass me was because the double-metric and century routes diverged early on.


The first 25 miles are a steady incline that isn't too tough.  It's just the 7am hour that's early and it takes me a bit to stop wishing I was still in bed.  Then the first climb of the day up Pottstown Mountain, 2100 feet over 11 miles and it was steep.  You get a real feel for how high you're climbing when you overlook the sides and  and your brain asks you why on earth you're riding 2 feet from edge.  Next time I'm riding in the middle of the road.


The next climb is 1,200 feet over 4 miles.  That is really steep and I had to walk a short bit of it.  My bike gearing just isn't set for these tough mountain climbs and no one was around to tell me to "man up".  Misery was starting to take a toll.


After 3 hours I had gone about 40 miles.  The realization that I was only 1/3 of the way done hit like a ton of bricks and I was thinking the ride would be 10-11 hours.  Wow, I've never been on my road bike that long.  The couple mountain bike centuries have taken 12 and 13 hours.  This ride turned out to be every bit as hard as those single-track nightmares like the Wilderness 101.

I don't even know what to say after this point as all I did was keep pedaling.  Up the mountain, down the mountain.  It's interesting what goes on in your head during these times of isolation and stress.  Keep turning the cranks, check out scenery, pray those dogs don't jump the fence or break a leash.  Why does everyone in the country own a socially disturbed dog looking for a new chew toy?

Approaching the final hill I had a lot of thoughts going through my head.  None of them was that I would actually ride it.  I failed a couple years ago, so why would I be able to do it today with the increased mileage?  To my surprise and excitement I did ride that final hill from bottom to top.  It was very difficult.  I'm actually pretty tickled about making that climb.

At the top I had some good moments with the two riders finishing just ahead of me.  Ron and Hans were in pretty happy spirits.  Especially Ron because he finally beat someone, me.  I took the prestigious position of "last in class" when I crossed the finish line.

Hold up the number of people you beat.  

And what better way to spend the rest of the day with a 4+ hour ride home by oneself from Blacksburg, VA in the dark?  I was contemplating setting up my tent at a rest area but opted for slugging it out and arrived around 12:30am.  A quick shower and I joined the family in the pop-up camper in the driveway.  I felt pretty good on Sunday, just a little fatigued.  Will I ever return for more misery?  Only time will tell.

Official Lucky Last Place Results:  (Don't laugh unless you've tried to ride this course.)
http://www.mountainsofmisery.com/2013/data/2013-all-v3.pdf

Garmin Statistics

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2012 Gran Fondo Garrett County

The Garrett County Savage Century is truly a no-joke, no-frills, bad ass ride through the mountain sides of western Maryland.  This was by far my hardest road ride I've tackled at 8hours 32mins.  102 miles with exhilarating downhills of up to 51 miles per hour, miles and miles up very difficult climbing, and a little bit of rolling countryside along Savage Creek and Deep Creek Lake.  If the elevation profile below doesn't scare you, then layoff the liquid courage.

Mom has become a frequent participant, camper, sherpa, cook and volunteer on these weekend extravaganza's.  We set off Friday afternoon and had camp set by early evening.  Crab cakes were the meal of choice for my pre-ride meal from Springfield Butcher.  This was the first trip where we really did the camping right.  

 

Wake up call was at 5:30am.  A cream cheese muffin, banana, and OJ served as the "Breakfast of Champions".  A 10 minute drive over to Adventure Sports for packet pickup, then a drive up Wisp Mountain to reach the starting point.  We saw two crazies riding up Wisp mountain, and I can only guess their car must have broken down.

There were around 1300 riders combined for all riding options.  The craziest is the Diabolical Double (125 miles) of pure pain.  We'll have to wait until next year before tackling that.  At the starting line, I ran into Dan Wolfe, my frequent riding buddy on centuries.

The beginning of the ride is a few miles of downhill.  Couldn't go all out due to volume of riders, but after the first few climbs the pack thinned out and then the training wheels came off.  I'm not sure which downhill I reached 51 miles/hour, but I'm guessing I was pretty close to that speed on plenty of them ... pure exhilaration.  

Where's Dan Wolfe?  Lost him at the first decent climb.  Turns out he just needed a jump start to get the blood flowing.  He did fine for the remainder of the ride.

Mile 25 up to Morgan Town Road was long and what exactly were those girls implying by passing me on the way up?

Mile 36 and still climbing.  The combined totals of one hill after another makes one cry for one's Mommy.  Unfortunately, mine was resting at the campsite about now.

I stopped for a panoramic shot of the country side and a good view of an upcoming hill.  I did zoom down that hill, went through the woods, and slogged it up what you can see in the video.  Perhaps I was overcome with delirium, but I could swear a 70 year old lady passed me on the climb.  For the record, I did pass her at the top and never saw her again.  Perhaps she was just a big fan of tanning booths, remember this lady?

Bowman Hill is more sinister than Silent Hill in many ways, minus the demons.  This road doesn't seem to  have been built by educated engineers.  Someone far more sadistic created this ridiculous climb.

Nice of this farmer to let us ride through his property ... NOT!  That climb is longer and steeper than it appears.

Mile 55 is called "Killer Miller" and guess what, "It's hard, really really hard."  There's another little bump to get to the Eastern Continental Divide.  The bonus side is there is a really long descent to Savage Creek after the divide.  

This rolling terrain is the first part of the ride you could truly relax and enjoy the ride.  100 miles of this kind of riding would really be a popular event.  

And here we are at the finishing line, 8 hours and 53 minutes later.  The last hill up Wisp Mountain is cruel.  I was gearing up for a tougher climb, but in the end it was just another bump along the way.  Riding up the hill after 101 miles is an accomplishment that should be shared by all .. who's with me for 2013?

And here comes Dan Wolfe slugging it up the finish line in 9hrs 51mins 36secs.  I agree Dan, this ride really was ridiculously hard.

Back at the campground, here's a post-meal recap.  Rib-eye steak's from the "Springfield Butcher" were incredible over the open fire.  Good thing for GroupOn's, we got a two-for-one for purchasing the steaks and crab cakes.

The best part of this adventure was easily the camping, as usual.  The weather was beautiful, very few bugs, nice facilities, almost makes me think about tackling this ride again next year.  I asked once already, but who's with me for 2013?


Garmin statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192635790

2012 Garrett County Savage Century - Check!

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2012 Mohican MTB 100

The Mohican mountain bike race is a 100 mile loop consisting of 11,000+ feet of climbing along mostly singletrack, doubletrack or dirt roads, spanning 4 counties through some of the most remote and scenic areas in the rolling hills of Mohican Country, Ohio. Climbs of nearly a mile, with elevation gains of 300+ feet, rock gardens, streams, and more!

That's the description of the race from the official website's perspective.  My description of this ride is a brutal, technically challenging, bruising, difficult and crazy hard 100 miles through Bigfoot country.  My hopes in entering this race was to improve upon my finish time from the Wilderness 101 last year.  And I barely did, with a time of 12 hours 44 minutes.  Hey, that's an improvement of 19 minutes!

It's a long day in the saddle.  This ride I felt was much more of a mental challenge than a physical one.  I've been riding a lot leading into this race so physically I wasn't ever hurting.  However, after the first 42 miles of this course I was not sure I wanted to sign up for another 60 miles.  Fortunately, the real demanding riding was behind me, mostly road, gravel and little single-track was ahead.

As is customary on these rides, my mom came along for shotgun.  We had an easy 7+ hour drive out to the Mohican Adventures campground.  We had a good Friday night dinner at the local Sojourner Cafe on Main Street. Here's a couple shots of our campsite.

Race day started with a wake up call around 5;45am.  We had a "Breakfast of Champions" at McDonald's that provided all the calories one needs for a 100 mile bike ride.  Bikes were streaming in from all over the place toward the starting line in Loudonville.  Here's a few shots of the starting line.

 

The riders in front are the ones trying to win the race.  I'm more of a "completer" than a "competitor".  So I took my spot near the tail-end.

Here's the good news as heard in this video.  There will always be someone behind me.  

Around 600 riders started this race, not all of them finished.  One guy had a dislocated shoulder, others just couldn't make it.  I saw numerous people stopping with cramps and this was within the first 32 miles.  

Watch the video and to the left you can see where we had dinner the night before.  The last building on the right is Kim's Bike Store.  I talked with these guys about the ride, and met up with them at the aid station at mile 80.  

Just like the morning commute in DC, here we were all standing around to merge.  The initial road segment is not very long before going into single-track.  As every second passed, it was getting harder and harder to catch the leaders.  I'm sure this is where I lost the bulk of my time :-)

At Aid Station 1 (mile 20) I was feeling pretty good.  Not a lot to report here, just smooth sailing.

Here's a shot of a particularly nasty part of the trail.  I walked less of this course than the Wilderness ride and pretty much only walked where everyone else was walking too.  

One of the nice portions of the trail.  Unfortunately it didn't last too long.   I did like riding in small packs through the first ~40 miles of this ride.  It was later in the ride that I was out there in the woods on my own.  Which is very peaceful.

Aid Station 2 is 32 miles in, and took 4 hours and change to reach.  It was at this point that I was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  Any one read "Fablehaven"?  If so, check out this video.  I'll never look at a butterfly the same again.

This was a crazy ominous sight of a hill around the bend.  For the record, I did ride up the hill that many weren't.  And check out the video below for what I found at the top!

This was the sight of my biggest wipe-out.  When one gets tired, everything gets more difficult.  I was coming down this little hill negotiating the rocks when all of a sudden this log jumped out of the woods at me.  I hit it dead-on and flipped right over the handlebars.  Fortunately it was a soft landing.

Debate time.  I stayed at Aid Station 3 for almost 25 minutes. All the smart people were going left, very few of us nuts were going right.  Check out the video to see what the big debate was about.

Bigfoot Country if there ever was one.  This is 78 miles in, extremely remote, and I hope there's no one out here but me and fellow riders.

The finish line never looked so sweet!  Catered BBQ ribs, chicken and all the extras were waiting for me.  I was glad the other riders left me some.  And of course Mom was waiting right there for me (she must be very patient).

Mohican ride - Check!!!

Official Results: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-mohican-100-2012/results

Garmin results: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185549213

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CASA River Century

Saturday May 20 was a perfect day with perfect weather to ride a perfectly wooded and rolling route through the hills of Shepardstown West Virginia and beyond.  From the results of this ride, I'm thinking I have a shot at riding the Mohican 100 in 2 weeks time in under 12 hours!  But this day myself and my buddy Dan Wolfe got up early and drove to Shepardstown University to join 400 other riders on the tour.

This had pretty consistent rolling hills on roads that weren't too frequently traveled.  The rest stops were stocked well (except missing gatorade) and we took full advantage of each and every one.  So Dan, you haven't been riding much but how's your pre-ride feel?  Check the video below.

I'm thinking that all this commuting on the bike and once/week 70 mile trips out to Purcellville are really paying off.  This was my strongest century thus far.  At the 85 mile mark came the biggest hills of the ride.  Attack - Attack - Attack these hills by standing and sprinting up them. This repeated for about a 5 mile stretch.  I felt pretty darn good on these hills and was ready for more.  Check another video!

Here's a few other videos if you're interested in different parts of the ride.

First video - a few miles in.

First Rest Stop

Typical riding scene .. very beautiful.

Infamous Butler Chapel

50 Down, 50 to go

72 Miles

Mile 93 - Home Stretch

Garmin statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180099387

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C&O Canal Century

I'm not sure what got into me this year with all this biking.  Over 1,300 miles logged while sitting on the saddle for more than 116 hours.  Some of the riding was incredibly hard, like the Wilderness 101 and Mountains of Misery, while other rides weren't as difficult.  This C&O Canal ride was my 6th century ride of the year.  I had a target of 6 centuries this year so I'm happy with the effort.

The C&O Canal Towpath runs from DC to Cumberland Gap, ~183 miles.  The full length of the trail from Cumberland Gap is on my 2012 Spring list, but for now myself and Derrick limited the ride to a round-trip from Great Falls to Harper's Ferry.  Derrick is a fellow dad from Cub Scouts and I was lucky to have bridged the conversation with him about this ride.  He's wanted to do it for some time as well.  His longest previous ride was ~60 miles, so he was definitely about to be tested.

We got on the trail around 7am and it was darn cold, 34 degrees to be exact.  The first few miles were a chilly and foggy affair.  We had crystals forming on us for the first several miles.  Let's see how we were doing after 6.5 miles.

The trail itself was in fine shape.  It had rained a lot the previous few days so we did have to deal with a lot of mud.  Later in the ride it was getting somewhat demoralizing to get your speed up and then get slogged in a mud bath and lose all your momentum.  There was an over-abundance of sticks on the trail as well.  I got a flat around 20 miles in and changing the tube was a little difficult as I was frozen in the riding position.

Here are two videos of landmarks on the way up.  White's Ferry and Point of Rocks.  

Brunswick is 5.5 miles from Harper's Ferry.  At this point we were feeling good and much warmer.  The day warmed up nicely to the upper 60's, maybe 70.  We stopped for a quick bite, er, longer bite as both of us didn't mind the rest.

The trail itself is not the most scenic adventure.  The water keeps it interesting with the Potomac on one side and the canal on the other.  Not many people out on the canal at this time, but it started to get more populated with the warmer weather.  Neither of us wanted to feel the cold again and we had a long ways to go before nightfall.

We rolled into Harper's Ferry in about 4.5 hours (I think).  I've read on different blogs that although the canal is uphill going North, it's not real noticeable.  I'm here to tell you that's a bunch of garbage.  It's definitely uphill and much more effort than riding South.  The town hasn't changed much since I was canoeing there as a kid.  I still remember "Big Rock" where you could body surf down the river.  The first video has a shot of the rock cliffs that I highly recommend you hike up on the trail when visiting.  A great look at the town can be seen from up there.

Here's a scene that's getting to be more common.  Filming a clip laid out on my back.  At this point in the ride we were both pretty spent.  I think it was about 75 miles in with 20 miles to go.  I'm laying on the same bridge where I changed my flat tire on the way up.

Finishing is always sweet but it's always hard.  We rode about 30 minutes in the dark and it got cold again when the sun went down.  Slugging out those final miles was a chore and I kept focused on the leftover Thanksgiving hot meal that was waiting for me at home.  Funny how at the end of these big rides I'm always thinking about food. 

Ride stats: 8hrs 15 min's riding.  10.5 hours duration.  95 miles. 7,432 calories burned.

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Seagull Century 2011

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;

1. Danny is insane.
2. How is Danny going to finish?
3. Who's going to drive him to the finish line?
4. Confucious say, "Man who climb mountain too fast, not reach top".

Mile 1	Mile 6
Mile 11	Mile 20 - Aid Station #1

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."

Mile 40 Mile 50

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.

Let's just say that I was pretty spent at this point in the ride.  My quads were absolutely screaming at me and there wasn't much I could say to them, outside of "sorry".  Perhaps what kept me going was preventing the irony of Danimal finishing the ride without me.  Again, here's the mental toughness that comes into play on these rides.  They are all hard and have different challenges .. some you can predict and some you can't.

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.

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Annapolis Bay Country Century

The Annapolis Bay Country Century on Saturday Sept 3 takes one on a scenic tour of southern Maryland.  The ride starts at Northern Middle School in Owings, MD.  I've never been to this area before, and the one observation is that as soon as you get away from the urban lifestyle we're all familiar with, everyone owns at least one truck and half of them own an RV.  Yes, I'm jealous as I too would like to own both a truck and RV.

I pulled up to the school around 6:30am and started to gear up.  Bagels and bananas were laid out for a little breakfast.  Weather was very nice, just a little cool, and lots of sunshine.

I was one of the first riders out the gate near 7am and quickly came up to two other riders who were about the same pace.  The three of us set off on a blistering pace (for me) for the first 50+ miles.  We averaged over 20mph and had the outright lead going into Aid Station 1 about 21 miles into the course.  That was certainly a first, me in first place on a bike.

Aid  Station 1 - In First Place!

That lead lasted another 13 miles when the Coppi Team came screaming by us.  These six dudes obviously ride their bikes frequently.  They got up ahead and out of sight quickly, and I was surprised as anyone when we caught up to them at Aid Station 2 at 50 miles in.  

Aid Station 2 - Firehouse

At Aid Station 2, Dave (seen in the video below) mentioned to me that he might need to slow it down a bit as he was feeling the burn.  I agreed with him, but for the next 50 miles I was trying to figure out what he meant by slow down.  By my calculations, we were going as hard as we previously had.  Dave was a former racer of 12 years and was still really fit.  He no longer races, but still enjoys the long bike rides.  Here's a video of the crazy happenings at Aid Station 2.

The next Aid Station wasn't for 30 miles.  This was a long haul as there were lots of rolling hills with the occasional steeper hill.  No mountains or crazy climbing, just steady up and down.  The weather got a bit warmer and we took turns at the point.  There was considerable hurricane damage along the ride.  I couldn't count the number of trees that were down.  Most of the country side was in their yards with chainsaws and fire pits.

At mile 81 I was ready to be done with the ride.  Not only because I was getting tired, but there was this really cool beach called North Beach on Bay Ave.  There is a neat "kiddie" type pool setup with part of the Chesapeake Bay walled off.  Looks like a great place to bring little kids.  There's even a boat on the sand with a slide.

Aid Station 3 - North Beach, MD

Of course I had to take some video of the location.  I would have liked to stay longer, but I was getting the eye from Dave indicating he was ready to move on.

The road out of North Beach was about a 5 mile ascent.  Not steep, but very long. I was struggling a bit to keep up with Dave who looked to be just cruising along.  It doesn't take too many road rides to realize that two people are faster than one.  It's often difficult to keep up with a person in front of you to draft, but you realize that it's a lot more work and slower work if you don't.  Guess that's the mental toughness Coach Carvajal told me prior to the Wilderness 101.

The next 10 miles were arduous but I was able to keep the pace.  At mile 90, I started to whimper.  That crazy pace we had kept for the first 50+ miles had taken its toll on me.  The rolling country side was ok to navigate, but any time there was a more than mild ascent it was like the brakes came on.  Dave noticeably slowed for me a few times as I huffed, puffed, moaned and groaned.  This last 10 miles is the part of the ride that I need to forget in the coming days if I ever want to ride another century.

All these centuries are hard.  They're long, have different difficulties, and take a lot of preparation and toughness to get through.  Don't believe me?  Go try one.

Dave and I at the finish.

Here's the final ride recap.  Riding time was 5 hours 44 minutes.

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