Story for My first century Ride

Great weather ahead for a large group ride witht he Jordan YMCA Multi Fit.  Looking forward to the mostly flat terrain and getting my first century in.  But, as soon as we start, on my first pedal going across the bridge out of the parking lot, I break a spoke.  We tell the others to go on, while I contemplate hanging around by myself for the next 8 hours.  But Brad Wetnight and Mark Ewing to the rescue.  Brad immediately ties the broken spoke off, and produces a spoke tool and quickly aligns the wheel so I can ride.  And we're off.

Sort of, about 3 miles in and trying to catch up to the others, Mark gets a call from Kelly asking if he could go back to the car and get something she needed.  So back we go, it takes Mark about 10 minutes to find it, and we off again.  We have a lot of ground to make up.  No problem.

It's early Sunday morning and very few people are on the roads, and even less on the trail.  We're on a fast pace to go.  We quickly come across Kunda going the other way.  She couldn't stay too long and turned back early.

We continue to cruise on.  I'm on the watch for water supplies at rest stops or for some retail as I only have one water bottle on the bike today.  No problem, I thought as we catch up to the first group of ladies going at the 14-16 mph pace about half-way to Richmond.  They are in good spirits and looking forward to their turn-around which was coming up soon.  No water, and they hadn't seen any either.

Cruising on, the sun starts to show itself more, but it's not a problem, because it's not too hot...not like the heat we had in July and August.  I start to count the Amish buggies - I'm up to three by the 3/4 point.  We come across the next group of ladies going at the 16-18 mph pace...still no water.  I'm rationing what I drink, but doing OK.  I hear a funny noise on my bike and worry it has something to do with the wheel.  I summon Mark and Brad to stop.  Ha Ha, a leaf got stuck in my front brake was making the sound.  Off to Richmond.

Just as we pull in to the trail head, Brad pops his tire.  A flat!  He is so prepared and will have it fixed quickly.  Still no water, so I use this time to find a place I can buy a bottle.  I scour the streets of Richmond and don't find anything open until I get into downtown.  But I get a bottle of water and gatorade.  I down the gatorade and fill my bike bottle.  Back to the trailhead.

The second group of ladies had caught up to us and were heading back onto the trail when I got back.  Brad was finish up his repairs, re-tweaked my spoke tension, and we soon followed.  We spot more Amish buggies, and a couple groups of Amish kids playing on the trail.  Very cool.  We catch up with the ladies again about a quarter of the way back to Muncie, and they mentioned they saw a gas station just off the trail about 5 miles ahead.  We agreed to meet there.

Time to eat and refuel.  Diane Ranft sweet talked the lady inside to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I buy another gatorade and drink that whole.  Then we talk about how we're going to get the 100 miles in since the Muncie-Richmond path is short at 84 miles.  Kelly and the girls decided to go back 8 miles towards Richmond, and then turn-around.  I wanted to go back to Muncie and go past our parking, but I stuck with the group.

OK - going back someone miscalculated and we went back 10 or 12 miles and I start getting grumpy, threating to turn around at mile 8, 9, and 10, until we finally headed back to Muncie.  Well, we're all getting a bit tired and tensed up.  Especially Brad, who just did 100 miles the day before!  We decided to stay together with the boys pulling the girls and go in a two line group most of the way.  But Diane wasn't having any of that and lead on line a big part of the time.

But in the last 20 miles or so, Mark took charge and stayed out front to pull us all.  Very cool.  And he picked up the pace.  Kelly was concerned to see that we were going 24 mph at one point.  No one complained - we all want to get this over with fast.  We didn't stay that fast, but definitely kept it at the 20+ mph range until we got to the city limits.

Well, the finish was a welcome end.  I ended up with 109 miles - which was a few more than everyone else due to my search for water in downtown Richmond.  The slower pace group was already done and were gone.  The rest of us went to a Mexican restaurant much needed drinks and food.  I think Mark should order a pint of salsa next time he goes - he practically drinks this stuff.

We survived and are doing well.  Very cool to ride with a group, the support is tremendous and gets you through.  Thanks to Brad for having the tools and the knowledge on how to use them.  Thanks to Mark for having the strength and willingness to pull us through at the end.

Type: 
Ride
Workout_type: 
default
Date: 
2016-09-11T11:56:16Z
Avg Pace: 
2:43/km
Elevation: 
618.3
Distance: 
176761
Moving time: 
28827
Activity id: 
708986086
Strava title: 
My first century Ride
Total photo count: 
0
Title: 
Story for My first century Ride
Summary Polyline: 
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Average speed: 
6.132
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