My First Century Ride!

Today I rode my first century ride!  The glitz and glamour that surrounds this initiation into Ironman training was definitely all that I imagined!  All week I had been daydreaming; imagining how amazing, comfortable, tiring, painful, etc., etc., my first 100 mile ride was going to be.  Allen had picked up my birthday present in Houston last Saturday, so this would be my first inaugural ride with Zion, my new P3 Cervelo!  I spent the week getting her ready; bike fit, CatEye odometer, bottle cages.  I brought my QR bike just incase I needed to get use to my new bike slowly.  Yeah right, I knew from the start, if she felt right... she was in for the long haul :-)

Our day started early, meet at Coachie's house 7am.  Dawn, Kris, Orissa, Brian, Alphonso, Nick, Mitch, Dale, Jeff, & Enrique... Team Tri-Belief training :-)  And of course, Devon, Dawn's son, who was nice enough to be our sag support for "a few" hours.  It was a first time century ride for Alphonso & I, so Coachie wanted to make it extra special!  As we left Coachie's house and headed up Blanco Rd., I got a quick flashback to our New Year's day ride (reminder- I tapped out that ride!) except this time a few things were different.  Slightly warmer, definitely less wind, it wasn't wet or rainy (yet!), and oh yes... a new carbon fiber bike with a few more gears to play with! {Thank you Brian Loftin :-) }  As I settled into my new big girl bike, I knew this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship & a great inaugural ride!

Being new to San Antonio, I still don't know the roads very well, so it's always nice to be able to follow a group.  I like to think that works both for and against me.  I had somewhat of an idea that we were heading north, and to the north there are HILLS!  But that was only an idea, I truly didn't expect what we were about to ride!  As I said, Coachie wanted to make it special :-)  Climb, climb, climb.... Whhheeeeeee, downhill!!!  Rewind and Repeat... for the next 6 hours!!!  A few hours after the ride Coachie informed us we had climbed 5000+... EXTRA special!!!  Again, ignorance is bliss.

About 1 hour in the temperature started to drop and the drizzle started :-{  Oh well, we were no strangers to these conditions.  It seems the past few rides have all included some sort of rain & cold temps.  Ride ON!  Each stop for food & restroom break made it harder & harder to start back up.  It was getting colder, and I was getting more tired!  Ride ON!  A few times I couldn't tell the difference between larger rain droplets or mud being slung at my face... OUCH!  Especially on the downhill, which I always enjoy so much to go fast... it would just hurt worse!  Ride ON!

I was hoping the rain would stop and the sun would start to peek through like it had on our last ride.  Nope, rain until 100.0 miles!  But that didn't stop me from smiling the whole ride :-)  As we approached Dawn's house the odometer was nearing 100 miles.  My OCD had Dawn take me around the block as to not stop short... 99.6, no way!  99.9...100.00!!!  WooHoo!!!  There were no bells & whistles or champagne popping as I had dreamed of earlier in the week, just a huge smile & high five from my Coachie!  D.O.N.E.!!! :-)

It's a privilege to be a part of a new group of awesomeness, I thank everyone that was along on that crazy ride!  The best feeling I am walking away with after that ride is that my next 100+ rides will never be that hard... or will they?!  Anyway, time for bed... 16 mile run in the morning!!!