Natchez Trace Century (100 miles) Bike Ride 5-5-2018

Natchez Trace Century (100 miles) Bike Ride 5-5-2018

Lately we have more weekends that are full of rain than sunshine for 2018.  I think there is a saying that a rainy spring breaks a very hot summer.  I hope NOT.  :>)  For weeks I had been building up on my bike miles to get ready for the 100 miler.  I was determined to do it, especially since I am training for this full Ironman.  It would be good practice.  All week the forecast was calling for 80-100% chance of rain.  I kept praying all week that it would blow over.  IT DIDN”T. 

Morning of ride … wake up 3:45 am … check weather… still calling for 70-80% chance of rain and looks like heavy stuff between 9-11 am when I’ll be in the heart of my 100 miles.   Decide to drive to Jackson anyway and meet up with friends.  Two of them planning to do the 62 (metric century) and two of them doing the 25 miles.  I needed the long bike as part of my training and I know come race day for ironman if it is raining ….. .I will still have to ride unless it is lightening and they cancel.  No rain on the drive there so I keep hoping it is a good sign.

Arrive at ride sight start unloading and it starts raining.  We grabbed a quick picture in between rain showers while I was eating my oatmeal and waiting on 7am for the start.  I am still hoping the rain will go away at this point.  Then I notice people loading their bikes back up.  I heard the guy parked next to me tell his wife that according to the radar the rain was headed our way and he was not going out in it.  They soon called for us to line up to start.  I heard a worker of the ride say that they had went from 700 riders to 300 due to the weather.  They also announced there was going to be no timing of the event.  I guess they didn’t want to put out all that equipment in the rain.  I was bummed about that because I wanted to know how many actually finished the 100 miles. 

 

Oatmeal still in hand.

And just like that they blew the whistle and we were off.  As we pulled out of the park, the rain started up again.  Mel, Sonya, and I rode beside each other for a while until the crowd thinned out.  None of us could believe we were going on with the ride in the rain.  I was so glad I had grabbed my lightweight rain jacket.  Which it is not fully waterproof.  It is more water repellent so after hours in the rain… trust me I was DRENCHED.    Take a look at how wet Mel and Sonya look when they finished their 62 miler.

Proud of them for doing it! 

As for me and the ride…. Well it was WET.  I felt pretty good the first 42 miles.  Even though I was scared to death of wrecking due to the water, I was maintaining a 17 mph pace.  I was in a group of guys and two girls that were all hanging together.  They helped keep my pace up.  However, right before mile 50 we hit the sign that said for the 50 & 62 milers to turn and the 100 to keep going straight.  Well they all turned!  I wanted to cry. LOL  Now I was alone for several miles.  I keep wondering if I had missed a turn due to the rain. When it would rain hard, I would keep my head down.   Finally, I came up on a rest stop and there were like 20 guys stopped.  They were all checking their bikes and eating.  I was so ready to get the ride over that I kept going.  I actually didn’t stop but 2 times the whole ride.  I would have only stopped once if the bathroom had not hit me real bad around mile 25.   It was not my plan to only stop those 2 times, but due to the rain, I didn’t want to stop at all.  My plan had been to stop every 30 miles or so and only stop 3 times if possible.  The last time I had done the 100 with Mel, we stopped at every rest stop but one and they were every 15 miles apart.  Our ride time was 6 hours 40 minutes but our total time to get back to finish was like 8 hours due to all the stopping.  I did not want to do that again.  :>)  I did a ton of praying while riding.  The course has several hills.  Some hills you come down to a hard turn.  I prayed each time for my bike not to slip.  I had let out some of the air in my tire as suggested on the tips I had watched on the video.  It said lower your tires 10-15 psi to have better grip on wet roads.  I really don’t know how tires that are so little could have any grip at all, but I did what the video had said.   I sure didn’t go coasting down those hills enjoying the speed.  I held on for dear life and prayed.  I didn’t want to wreck and end up with a broken bone and all this training go to waste. 

Therefore, I passed the rest stop where all the guys were at and continued.  Soon I could see a biker way up ahead of me…. However, I never caught him. LOL  But a young guy caught up with me around mile 80.  He got right up beside me and asked me if I knew how many more miles we had to go.  I told him 19.  He said his Garmin watched had died and he was so aggravated.  It must have been his first 100-mile bike… or he’s just crazy like most of us and we want all our data recorded. :>) 

He stayed right on my tail.  The rain had finally slacked off and I tried to get some nutrition out and eat.  Every time I had done that earlier the rain would literally wash it out of my hand or I would drop it because everything was so WET and SLIPPERY.  So as I slowed down to try to eat, he got in front and then I pulled on his tail but soon I was back in front.  We FINALLY crossed the finish line!  He thanked me for pulling him in those last 19 miles.  He was real sweet.  I was so happy to see my two friends waiting on me at the finish line.  They could have left and went on back home since we ended up not riding together.  It really made my day that they waited on me and of course Mel said let’s get picture. 

I ended up riding the 100 miles in 6 hours and 12 minutes which is a 16.1 mph pace.  That isn’t fast, but it was better than my 15 mph pace 2 years ago on the 100.  :>)   I was just so glad it was over.  The rain did feel good in the fact that I was never hot, but it was nasty to ride in.  So 100 miler done!  Which I’m sure I’ll do another 100 probably in my training before ironman, but at least that one is over with.  And my coach sent me a message and said, “BRAVA … great ride.”.    That made me smile. :>)

If you want to do a challenging ride, try the Natchez Trace Century ride.  Trust me there is one hill that everyone wants to cry on!  I can’t wait till my friend Krista does it one year.  Oh BTW, her and Frank were supposed to do the 25 miler.  Their ride started at 7:30am after us.  They said it was raining hard so they decided not to ride.  WE all gave them a hard time on how we were out in the rain and they decided not to ride. :>)  Friends love to torture each other. Hee hee

Oh and I rode in new shoes with no socks.  I wouldn’t have done that if the event had been a RACE.  Remember don’t do anything new on a RACE day.  But since it was just a ride, I wanted to try them out.  I love them and no socks were great.  My black ones have a broken strap from my wreck two years ago.  I’ve just been riding with them anyway because these shoes are not cheap!  I wanted to get my money out of them. :>)   Out with the black in with the pink & white. 

 Thank you Frank, Krista, Mel, & Sonya for supporting me in the ride!  You guys rock! Love y'all!