I made it… well… kinda. What should have been my first century (100 mile) ride in the Mt. Hood Challenge ended with both a sense of accomplishment and mild confusion. An incredible amount of rain forced a change in the course. The race organizers failed to properly announce the course change before the start of the race–or for that matter at the 25 mile rest station–and I ended up taking a wrong turn that lasted nearly 18 miles.
I don’t know why I kept riding along with the guy who I correctly assumed was as lost as I. By the time we got back on track, I had completed 50 plus miles–according to his odometer, mine was on the fritz–but I knew that I would need to add a little mileage or risk not making the full century, so I started up the course detour for at least 5 miles–perhaps more–before turning at the 100 km rest station.
Now the realist in me says that it is unlikely that I completed as long a race as my friends who started the race with me. (I should not have left them behind in search of a port-a-potty.) On the bright side, I finished at least 2 hours before them and had to have completed at least 90 miles total–perhaps it was a little closer to 100, but I won’t know until I map out my modified route. The fact that I did not spend two additional hours in the pouring rain without a rain slick probably saved me from a case of hypothermia and a trip to the hospital.
Now that I’m safely sitting at my desk at work, I can say that it was a grand accomplishment. I can also whole-heartedly proclaim that I never want to experience such a miserable ride again. So when is the next sunny-weather century ride?
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