Super Century Recap

Officially, the Team Virtus Super Century was supposed to start at 6 AM last Sunday, and even though I knew I probably wouldn't be starting mine quite that early, I set my alarm for 5:20 anyway.  About 5:30, I was still groggy, but I got out of bed anyway and headed over to the computer to see if there had been any updates on the festivities (there hadn't) and check the weather.  The forecast had been saying a 30% chance of rain until about 10 AM, and sure enough, there was rain in the area.  Luckily, it was just a few bands moving through.  I hoped it would clear out soon. 

Finally, a little after 6 I started to get dressed, and about 6:30 I was ready to go.  However, when I went to kiss my wife goodbye, she gently reminded me that I had baby duty until 7.  DOH!  My son, who was probably a year old before he ever slept 8 continuous hours, had been waking up about 6 like clockwork the last few weeks and my job was to wake up with him and keep him entertained or get him to fall back to sleep until 7.  However, the last few days he was starting to sleep a little past 6, and I had not heard a peep out of him at 6:30.  Ten more minutes went by and just as I was starting to think I might be able to sneak out a few minutes before 7, he woke up.  Fortunately, my wife woke up with him, and after she got herself some coffee, I was able to make my exit at a minute before 7.

As you can see, the rain was still coming down, but it was probably best characterized as a steady drizzle at this point.  I've ridden in rain a lot heavier than this before, although it's also been 15-40 degrees warmer.  At this point I was just hoping I had enough layers with me.  I had not gone to get my bike the night before, so I decided that in the spirit of the event (i.e. monotonous), I would do my ride on the levee trail in Chesterfield Valley.  At least I would never be more than about 5 miles from my office if I needed anything or had a mechanical.

After arriving at the office and grabbing a Clif Bar from the stash in my desk (they are my breakfast most days during the week), I was finally on the road a few minutes after 7:30.  I think most people probably had 20 miles in already.  Oh well, I knew I wouldn't be setting any speed records anyway.

Unfortunately for me, the ride almost ended before it got started.  I think I might have bumped the rear derailleur with the door as I was walking outside and as soon as I got on the bike and started pedaling, I head a noise coming from the back wheel that almost sounded like the chain was trying to shift.  I tried shifting through gears hoping that would fix the noise, but it would not go away, then I made a U-turn back to the office to see if I could figure out what the noise was.  Since I'm not mechanically inclined, I could not figure it out, and if I just rode fast enough, I couldn't hear the noise anyway.  Not wanting to bail out 0.3 miles in to the ride, I just went back out. 

Rather than riding the whole length of the trail, I decided to just do repeats on the east end at the beginning as there's more options available if something were to happen with the bike.  As it turned out, I was not the only nut case on the trail in the iffy conditions either.  I didn't see anyone on the first lap, but when I got to the ice rink to do my turnaround for the second lap, there was a group of five or so women getting ready to go out for a run.  When I got back to the spot where I got on the trail after that lap, I took my first rest stop, a little over an hour and 16.6 miles into the ride.

After getting some water and checking my pockets to see how dry my phone was staying (good shape so far), I headed back towards the ice rink for the third time.  At this point, there wasn't much rain falling, but the trail was still wet, so my shoes were getting damp.  The windbreaker I used as my outer layer was doing a fine job of keeping me warm up top (I've cursed the thing for making me sweat in 50 and 60 degree weather a couple times, but that's exactly why I picked it for this ride), and my legs were in good shape as well.  However, after I made the turn to come back the last band of showers started moving through the area, and by the time I got back to the ball fields, my right foot was getting pretty cold.  At this point, 25 miles in and about 9:30 AM, I decided to head over to the office to warm up for a few minutes.

After using the restroom and letting my feet thaw out for a while, I headed back out a little before 10:00.   I went to the east end of the trail for the fourth time and now I was really starting to see the joggers out - probably 2 or 3 on each leg.  I have to say, seeing them made me feel a little less weird for doing this ride under these conditions.  When I made it back to the ball fields, I decided to head towards the west end of the trail for the first time.  While I was still getting the noise from the back wheel, nothing had gone horribly wrong yet, so I felt safe heading that way.  On this leg, I passed about 7 or 8 more joggers in 3 different waves, although by now, the rain had stopped, and some areas were starting to dry up a bit.  I even thought I saw my shadow a few times.  However, my feet were getting cold again, and this time, it was both of them and not just my right foot.

As I turned around at the ice rink for the fifth time, I snapped this shot.  Blue sky!  This day was getting better!  Unfortunately, I was getting low on water.  When I got back to the ball fields (mile 50ish), I checked the water fountains there, but as should be expected for the first week in February, they were turned off.  To add insult to injury, the soda machine next to them was sold out of everything.  Grr...

At this point, I decided to swing back by the office one more time, just so I could refill my water.  I thought about resting for a bit, but it was getting really close to noon, and I wanted to get this over with.  I'm pretty sure everyone else was already finished.  The one exception might have been Jim, who decided to do an English century rather than a metric one on his trainer!  But he's so fast, he may have had that done by noon too!  After I got my water, I really didn't want to head back over to the trail, so I completed the last 10 miles by doing two laps of the street that runs along the side of my building.  It's a little over 2 miles from one end to the other, so I did two laps of it plus a couple of the side streets to finish my century.  Finally, at 12:40, I completed the job and went home to warm my feet up in the shower.  My reward for completing the century - sausage and mushroom pizza and a couple bottles of Blue Moon.  Yummy!