eighty sixed [10/29/2006 12:51:06]

The directions I had to yesterday's group ride were wrong. Apparently, they'd been corrected and I just didn't get the memo. I finally found the place, but I was half an hour too late. So I didn't ride with the group.

Instead, I stocked up on power bars and gatorade, drove up to the Silver Comet, and jumped on the bike. My goal was to ride 49 miles out and back, for a total of 98 miles. (The TNT folks ask you to save your first 100 mile ride for the big event.) I would have done it, too, except (despite what wikipedia says) the trail ends just after the 43 mile marker, and I wasn't sure which way to go on the road. So I turned back. An 86-mile ride.

I stopped every ten miles to eat something, whether I was hungry or not. I should have brought something besides power bars. There was a little kid's football game going on in the town of Rockmart, and the families all had their chairs set up right on the path so I had to walk the bike through that. I could smell hamburgers from the other side of the field, and I was sorely tempted to go get one, but I figured I'd probably feel nauseous trying to ride on that.

Rockmart is actually a nice little town. The trail goes right by a little stream, and they have their own river walk with lots of bridges and park benches.

Once you get past Rockmart, though, there's all kinds of hills. The old Silver Comet was a train, and the path was laid down over the old tracks. So the hills all have huge chunks cut out of them: you either see steep rock cliffs on either side of you, or there's a tunnel. The biggest tunnel is right before the 31st milestone. There's a bench made out of natural rock that you can sit on (obscured behind the trash can in the photo I took with my phone), and someone has put a bunch of little pink potted flowers around it.

Anyway, past Rockmart, all that nice flat trail goes away, and it's hill after hill for a good ten miles before the trail ends. (Then you get to ride the same 10 miles back.)

The ride took 10 hours. I started around 10:30 in the morning, and by the time I got back to my car, it was 8:30 at night. I deliberately rode kind of slow to conserve energy. Early on this was because I thought it was a good idea. Later, it was because I had to.

At mile 66, I was tired, but doing okay. My last stop was at mile 76 (or milestone 10). By then it was dark. And cold. I had sweatpants and a hoodie on over my shorts and t-shirt. So, I wasn't entirely freezing, and I have a pretty decent headlight, so I wasn't entirely in the dark, but I was exhausted, and the last 10 miles were miserable. I could barely walk by the time I got to my car.

It was bad enough that I briefly considered checking into a hotel for the night, just so I wouldn't have to drive home. I made it home fine though, staggered into the shower, and collapsed into bed.

I was having serious doubts about this 100 mile ride yesterday. But I still have three weeks, and I'm in a whole lot better shape than I was when I started. I just need to practice. Which means I'll be out there doing that ride again one day this week. Fun. :)