So, yesterday my best friend and I rode a century to celebrate my 40th birthday.  We had planned on doing one at the end of August (when I officially turned 40), but schedules, etc., didn’t cooperate.  We set off yesterday am around 7:30 and rode through the streets of our city–to the river–across the river–along the river–took a ferry across the river–rode across and island in the river that forced me to ride 4+miles of hills all going up–took another ferry–rode through farm land and back uphill to our finish line.

It was a great day and I was able to finish 100 miles in under 8 hours (7:58).  This will by no means win me any awards–but I will take it as there were a lot of hills and I am not a fan of hills and I can’t fly up them like others are able to.  I owe much to my amazing best friend–who probably could have finished in about 6 hours–but she is awesome and waits on my slow ass.

I finished with relative ease–except for the wind at miles 90-96 and it was a strong wind and it sucked and it hurt.  I learned that I need to eat more–I really conked at the end.  But when you are riding it’s hard to eat a lot (I burned 6800 calories) when you are working so hard.  But, I’ll remember that for next time.  Yes, next time.  This is not my last century.  Next year my goal is 100 in under 7 hours and 30 minutes.  I know it’s not a huge change from this time–but 30 minutes really matters.

I’m back to eating clean again–I took a break last week, because I was out of town for work and well–really–just lazy.