Challenge - that it was!

Okay - the natives are getting restless...sorry it's taken a bit to update my blog. Work has been nuts since I returned, and I've been trying to train, recover, sleep when I'm not at work. A vicious cycle, eh?

Well, I got up early Saturday morning and flew into Baltimore. Why Baltimore? I was meeting up with a teammate, Rick, who works from his home in Baltimore. Rick picked me up and we drove to their home, where we loaded everyone (his lovely wife, Karen, and their three children - Lindsay, Will and Grant) and all our gear into the truck and headed to Philly. The ride to Philly wasn't bad, minus a little traffic. The kids were playing video games and chattering, but they were troopers for the 2+ hour drive.
To be more specific, we would be staying in a suburb of Philly, with Rick's cousin, Seth. We arrived at Seth's house around 3, and just unloaded gear and tried to stay cool. This is a good opportunity to mention the HEAT ADVISORY that followed me to Philly. :-) We're talking similar conditions to what we've experienced here in MO/KS this month. So, that was fun.
But, I digress. So, Karen and the kids left us about an hour later. They had some fun plans of their own, which included staying downtown Philly, and visiting the King Tut exhibit Sunday morning. Rick, Seth and I headed over to LIVESTRONG Village to pick up our race packets. Again with the heat - those poor vendors working their booths were roasting. The pick up was in a gym that was not air conditioned. Ugh - it was toasty! As a result of certain fundraising levels, Rick and I both walked out of there with a nice Nike/LIVESTRONG gym bag, LIVESTRONG jersey, water bottle, hat...I think that's it. Good stuff.
Since we made it through the packet pick up so quickly, we decided to hit the grocery store before making our way to the restaurant where we would dine with our American Century team. We bought bagels, gatorade, bananas, Tylenol, and I believe that was all. We were ready to roll.
We arrived early to Trianacria Ristorante Italiano, so we drank lots of water while we waited for the others to arrive. Most of our team works out of our NY offices, so they made the drive just before dinner.
It was fun meeting all these new folks, swapping stories, agonizing about the next day's ride, etc. Dinner was delicious, though some folks were eating things I certainly wouldn't choose to eat the night before a 100-miler. :-) Pictured here is our group at dinner. I was having trouble with the lighting in this room, so this photo was really the best one I got.

Back to Seth's house we went. A huge thanks to Seth for letting us stay - and for being such a gracious host! We filled up all our water/gatorade bottles and stuck them in the freezer. Off to bed we went. I was put up in the guest room - with my own bathroom, and felt pretty spoiled with the set up. It was very comfortable. I set out all my gear and tried to leave as little for the morning as possible. I set two alarms on my cell phone, jumped in bed and tried to go to sleep in the very quiet room. As it turned out, I fell asleep pretty quickly. Zzzzzzzzz

Race morning!!! I jumped up as soon as that alarm went off, downed a bottle of water, and quickly realized that I had a headache. It felt like a sinus headache...well, that might not be much fun. I shuffled downstairs and turned on the coffee, then back up to shower and get dressed. I drank some coffee, ate breakfast - I was ready to go. It took a little searching, but we were able to meet up with our group from ACI. The jerseys really helped the group to standout. We all lined up in the "fast 100" line and prepared to start the race. Was Lance there? Yes, Lance was there. Did I touch him? No, I did not get that close to him.
Lance said a few words of thanks to the city of Philly, and to all those who participated in the fundraising efforts. Then, he geared up and led out the ride. There were close to 2,000 riders, so you can imagine that the starting line was rather congested.
I was a little nervous rolling out, 'cause there were so many people. My worry wasn't necessary as people were very cautious and we started the ride without incident.
The group split up pretty quickly. I stayed with Lance...I mean, Rick and Seth (pictured here) for a while. Then, it was just me and Rick...after about 20-some miles, I told Rick I'd see him at the top of the hill...well, I didn't realize that it would be climb after climb after climb. I kept Rick in my sight for a bit, but after a while, it seemed like there was no one around. So, I settled in as best I could and rode. We were so fortunate to have cloud cover for the first few hours of the ride, as that really helped protect us from the high temps!

Here's where it gets ugly - the ride was literally turn after turn, climb after climb - it never ended. I kept thinking (based on the profile I had viewed)- the climbs are mainly miles 30-40 and 60-70...oh no - that was not the case at all, my friends. This puppy was super hilly all the time. I bet we climbed 80 of the hundred miles! (more to come on gradients)

I was doing ok with speed, nutrition, etc. until about the 1/2 way point. And, I will say that the scenery was beautiful. We saw some really neat old stone homes, very cool barns/farmland, horse pastures...it was picturesque. Too bad I couldn't thoroughly enjoy it due to all the climbing we were doing. At mile 56, there was a killer climb (I'm just guessing that this had to have been one that registered at 22%)...I tried to stay seated, and the muscles running up the insides of my legs were soooo tight; so I stood up - not good there either...my quads - just above the knees - were in knots. Ugh...what to do? I'm gonna fall off my bike if I can't turn these pedals over again. I quickly unclip and step off the pedal. I was walking the hill. There were some guys riding by me (at 4-5 mph). I was pretty embarrassed to be walking, but no one seemed to bat an eye at it. Soon, I realized that no one was passing me. That's odd, I thought. I turned around and looked down the hill - there was a whole string of guys - off their bikes - walking. I think I said to one guy, "it's pretty bad when you can barely make it up the hill walking!"

Anyway, this climbing charade continued for the afternoon. The sun was now showing its ugly face, and everything was really heating up! I noticed that I was getting pretty covered with salt, and just couldn't get enough back in me with Gatorade and gels. I stopped at an aid station and asked for salt tablets, but they didn't have any. I ended up drinking some chicken soup and eating a peanut butter sandwich. That helped a little, but I just couldn't catch up with all the work my body was doing. I got to mile 62 or so and hit another one of those climbs where I just couldn't keep my legs moving. I had a near meltdown on the side of the road. I tried to call my friend Terry - left him a message saying I was in desperate need of a pep talk - then I reluctantly got back on my bike and pedaled up the hill. Terry rang me back a bit later. I wasn't doing much better, and actually hadn't made too much progress with the mileage either. It was a good reminder that if I was struggling this much - what must all those folks who were out doing their first century ride feeling like? I could do this. He also reminded me to pedal on the flat/downhills to try to recover the legs. That's a good reminder, 'cause the downhills were so infrequent, you really just wanted to coast!
Speaking of downhills, I did see one fella who crashed on a sketchy downhill with a hard right turn...he went over the guardrail! Eeeks. We did have a couple smokin' descents, which I thoroughly enjoyed. (I may have secretly wished I would crash so I wouldn't have to finish the climbing.) Of course that's only a joke, and I realize it's not a very good one.

I hit 80 miles and just couldn't wait to finish. I wanted a Coke SOOOOO badly and they didn't have Coke at any of the stations. We were out in the country too, so it's not like I was passing any service stations. Oh well, I would suffer till the end. Thankfully, after about 80 miles, the really steep hills were done, and it was more reasonable.
I was never so happy as the moment I spotted the college (where the ride began)! I picked up the pace substantially and hauled it in to the finish. As I crossed under that archway of yellow balloons, some volunteers were trying to hand me a yellow rose. I had absolutely no energy to reach over and take a rose, so I said "no thank you". I later learned that I had ridden down the finish shoot for cancer survivors - oops!
After the race I found Rick and two other guys from our team who finished ahead of me. I was nasty - covered in salt and dirt! I sat down in the grass under some trees and started hydrating/eating again. I was done!!!
We all exchanged horror stories while waiting for the rest of our crew to finish up.
One of the guys who rode with our team had a Garmin on his bike. He told us that the climbing ranged from 15-18%, with a few registering at 22%. For those of you not into the measurements, etc., just know that this is STEEP!!!
After 2.5 - 3 hours or so, the rest of our group started to trickle in. Bless their hearts! I cannot imagine doing that ride as my very first Century, yet, they survived and completed it! Congratulations to everyone on ride well done!

Thanks to each of you who sponsored me in this event. I know it was a huge success!