two-thirds of 100

 

Sometime during the summer of every year, Laura OLPH does a pick-your-own-distance ride to Belmar. If you start with her at her house, it's a 100-mile round-trip; or you can meet the group at Mercer Park for 85 miles, or at Etra Lake Park for 67 miles. The wiser-than-I-realized Tom H told me he doesn't do "centuries", 100-mile rides, anymore, because he can't remember the last time he was 80 miles into a ride and said to himself, "Y'know what I could really use right now, is another twenty miles." I was so struck by his wisdom that I repeat that statement every time anyone invites me on a century ride, and I duly signed up for the 67-mile distance when I signed up for Laura's ride for today.

The only other taker for that distance today was Peter G, who's been off the bike and didn't want to risk taking on more than he could manage. We were told to expect the hundred-milers about 9am, but they arrived at Etra Lake Park to pick us up ten or fifteen minutes early.

 Laura plans stops about every 25 miles for this route, and Tom H agreed to met us at the first one, so less than ten miles after I started, we were at a stop to meet Tom, and so that some of the riders could attend to drinks and other needs (ahem).

We pass the Manasquan Reservoir on this route, and Laura invariably stops for pictures. The rest of us headed for some shade. That's Laura in the distance, on the traffic side of the road fence. Look to her blog for pictures when she gets her post up.

The ride into Belmar was uneventful, if faster than I expected; there was less traffic than on past rides, and a tailwind and a downhill to the shore.

Yes, we really got there.

And back. Tom H was on the ride, so there was a traffic backup for a bridge that was under construction and only had one lane open.

Tom looked at the state of the construction, and opined that we could have gotten past the traffic faster if we'd gone across the unfinished part of the bridge. I'm not at all sure our feet and tires would have remained dry if we had.

The last stop was at a Dunkin' Donuts in West Freehold.

And back to Etra Park for me. After four-plus hours, the new GPS was giving me warnings about running out of battery, so I was crankin' (insofar as my tired legs could have been said to crank) for the last little bit... and then, after I saved the ride, I got the message that I had several hours of battery left. I think there's going to be a session with the manual soon.

I'm rockin' bar-end friction shifters and flat, mountain-bike-style pegged pedals these days, and I think my average of 15.4mph for the two-thirds of 100 miles was pretty good. It suggests that the bonk from a few weeks ago was a one-time occurrence (oh, I hope so).

I've got a just-under-40 scheduled for tomorrow morning, and I've got some spots left. Come on out, if you're not doin' anything.