Our First 100-Mile Ride

It didn't start out as a Century attempt when Susan, Naomi, and I left the house at 5 AM for the half-hour drive to the starting point of the Hospitality Hwy GA 400 Century.

What greeted us at registration was confusion. It was still dark and hundreds of bikes and riders were milling around the old Home Depot parking lot in Roswell. We hadn't pre-registered but finally found the correct line, filled out our forms to ride the 61-miler in the dim light, plunked down our cash, and waited for the start. This ride was a fundraiser for the Georgia Transplant Foundation and what made it unique was the 3+ mile start on GA-400, an infamously traffic-packed freeway (except on Sunday mornings). The Foundation happily was inundated with riders, easily meeting their projected attendance. At last report over 1500 riders participated in the 9, 35, 61 or 100 mile rides.

At daybreak we queued up on the Holcomb Road Bridge over GA-400 and watched the police cars and motorcycles shut down the highway. We were off - down the entrance ramp and a long descending grade where we crossed the Chattahoochee River before climbing a mile or so to the next exit. It was pretty exciting to ride on the freeway with no traffic.

We soon discovered that the ride was a lot hillier than projected, but after 10 miles it flattened out a bit. At about the 30-mile mark we saw the sign splitting the 61-mile ride off from the 100-mile ride, so we turned onto the shorter (and planned) route. We hadn't ridden 200 yards before we all looked at each other. "Heck, we've got all day, lets go for the Century!" This was to be the first Century for Susan and me. Naomi was an old pro at riding this distance.

Initially we had gentling rolling hills but they soon gave way to steeper and longer climbs. We were now at the point of no return and had no choice but to press on. One thing that helped was the beautiful country scenery and a mostly cloudy day in the mid-to-high 80's. For the first 70 miles or so we kept up a 14.7 mph average but at the 80-mile mark I hit the "wall". From there on it was a stop at the top of every hill as Naomi waited for Susan and both of them waited on the "Lagging Newt".

From the 90-mile mark until the finish is was a bit easier riding. A few miles of flat riding along the Hooch and then a steep climb to the finish brought us to victory over tired, worn-out human parts. We were in the "saddle" for 7-hours and 15-minutes, with a total ride time of 9+ hours which included for a few long rest stops. Even with the slow down at the end we averaged 13.6 mph over a hilly terrain.

(It seems that Susan's bike computer needs adjusting, but she really rode every single mile.)