the one hundred kilometres ride
100km ride
mediofondo metric century
one hundred freaking kilometres in 4 hours 24 minutes and 42 seconds.
every year for the past 4 years, i have set a goal to push myself out of my comfort zone, physically and mentally.
2016 - sprint triathlon | 2017 - olympic triathlon | 2018 - duathlon | 2019 - gran fondo
every year i promise and say to myself that this is the year i will properly train and every year without fail, i have not and if anything become less and less prepared.
i could not have been any more under prepared for this one hundred kilometre ride and it was all my fault, with no one to blame but me.
luck was truly on my side for this one.
training
my training was pretty much non-existent and if you know me you are probably assuming i was at least working out everyday but nope, i fell off that train a while ago. i considered myself LUCKY if i get 2 workouts in a week these days.
leading up to the race, i did a handful of thirty kilometre rides and a hike.
race week
race week, wednesday to be exact, i am calling around to multiple bike shops to see if they could tune up my bike for saturday. not realizing that some shops are booked a few days to two weeks in advance. LUCKILY, i stumbled across one that could do it in a few hours and it happened to be the same one where you pick up your race package.
friday night, packing up to spend the night at Ashley’s, i picked up my race swag bag with my bike number in it, looked at it and put it down because i didn’t need anything.
on my way to ashley’s i realized i didn’t pack any socks and if you know anything about me, i am the pickiest when it comes to socks. LUCKILY i had only turned off my street.
ten minutes away from meeting Ashley for dinner, i am not only late but realize that i had forgotten one of the most important things, my bike number that also had the timing chip on it.
the dinner debate, do i drive 35-40 minutes home and come back, do i just go home and drive back out in the morning, do i ask my mom if she could meet me half way? LUCKILY, my mom was kind enough to drive it all the way out to cloverdale for me at 930pm.
race strategizing; how long is it going to actually take us? which corral should we start at? what time do we leave? how many stops are we going to take? do we take turns taking lead? do we try to draft someone? who knew there were so many things to think about? i thought we would just get on our bikes and ride one hundred kilometres. LUCKILY, i am not doing this alone.
race day
the morning of, it is chillier than we expected, and of course i did not pack a light layer that could be packed in my little seat pouch. LUCKILY, ashley was able to lend me a light layer.
pre race bike check; LUCKILY, matt who woke up at 5am was there to make sure that our tires were pumped and that my front bike tire was on properly. and of course when he checked my front bike tire was not tighten…
pre race tinkle; LUCKILY we had enough time to wait in line for the porta potties however while waiting we got the privilege to witness an entitled elite athlete cut the line with absolutely no shame. the lesson here is that if he was to politely ask and explain his situation, everyone would have understood and let him go ahead so he could make his seed time but he decided to be an entitled jerk.
the first twenty five kilometres was by far the hardest part of the ride for me, my body was not liking it one bit, my groin was feeling all the pressure and slowly i realize that the bike tech did not put my seat back to where it was like he said he did. i rode the first quarter of the ride with my seat way too low which messed me up for the rest of the ride, my knee was already done.
we hadn’t planned to stop at the first aid station at the 25km mark but i had to fix my bike seat. the volunteers there did not have an allen key for me to adjust my seat. i was going to leave it but LUCKILY i was able to find someone who had one and was able to teach me a thing or two about my bike. let’s say these men rolled their eyes at me for being such a clueless rider.
the next twenty five kilometres felt so much better but it was clear the damage to my knee had already been done.
we took a quick stop at the fifty kilometre mark and decided to just push through until the end.
in between all of that we ran into the men that helped me with my seat and they told me it was still too low, we powered and sprinted up hills that other people were walking up, i almost caused an accident because of my PTSD, we had to stop once to fix ashley’s gears, and we flew down a massive hill as elite riders screamed “on the left” as they sped past us at who knows how fast.
the last 5km felt the fastest, we saw the finish line but didn’t believe it was the finish line because it didn’t really look like a finish line. a nice couple told us that we actually had another three kilometres to go after we crossed the finish timed line to get back to where the other finish was. i told her i am sorry but we did not sign up for one hundred and three kilometres.
we LUCKILY survived the race with no flat tires, and actually kind of had fun.
post race
i feel nothing but grateful and lucky.
grateful and lucky for my mom who drove out to drop off my bike number.
grateful and lucky for having such an amazing friend who will keep me company, lend me things, buy me gear for my bike, treat me to post race lunch because i didn’t think to pack my credit card and to have someone who will accomplish all these crazy yearly things with me.
grateful and lucky for my supportive boyfriend who prefers to not drive who isn’t a fan of crowds for still showing up at 6:15am to see us off. who is also slowly turning me into the biggest princess in the world by always making sure my bike tires are pumped, fixing all my bike things, taking multiple angle pictures to make sure we get a good one, making me dinner and massaging my sore knee while i screamed.
grateful and lucky for my body and health, that i am able to just get up one day and ride one hundred kilometres and not feel too terrible afterwards.
