casual ultimate » 100 miles is far

so yesterday was the 34th annual apple cider century in three oaks michigan. i was attempting to ride 100 miles on my bike for the first time and it proved tougher than i thought. barreling around chicago for miles and miles is one thing. climbing hills with fierce wind and a bike with only one gear was total insanity. next year i will be sure to do this sucker with a real road bike. i painted my nails the fastest color scheme i could think of and i still only did 75 miles in the end.

the night before we went to the town house in michigan to carbo load. no one does pre-ride dinners like mama town. we skipped rocks and played trivial pursuit on the deck until we crashed out early. getting up at 6 was just the beginning though. we drank some coffee and got on the road to three oaks. thankfully a huge posse of our friends were already there when we registered and ate our first apple of the day. so we rolled out maybe 20 strong on the first leg. maggie and i were riding with one gear each although she was doing the ride fixed which is just plain nuts. the first 26 mile bit was nice. beautiful weather and lots of chitchat with the two amys of chicks and drinks fame.

heres the first stop. thats a lot of spandex. each stop had apples and cookies and gatorade. even pb&j. yummm. after mile 43 i was hurtin. the course was much hillier than i was told and my knees were killing. maggie and i had to walk one or two of them. but the course was lovely and the company was great so we kept it up for another 30 miles. 6 hours start to finish including stops. about 15 miles an hour. not too bad. culvers never tasted so sweet as on the ride home. and the booth was so big and squishy i couldve stayed all day.

ill certainly do some more distance but not without a road bike. although i slept like 10 hours and feel great today. good times. cheers to all the friendly faces at the checkpoints and to ms. ultimate whose encouraging text messages made me fly down the road like a dolphin. im gonna go to chipotes and house a burrito.