Century #3: Flat Tires Get You Wet

I apologize for not getting on here more often. I am dealing with an anti-virus program issue AND a virus. Boo.

Today's century had a group of four that headed out for the 100-mile challenge. Diana Holland, Mark Oliver and Dale McCuiston were the competitors today. This was Dale's first century ever so this was a pretty big deal for him.

We took off around 7:50 am. The wind was coming out of the northwest and that was the first 30 miles of our ride. By the time we got to Cynthiana, I was only averaging a little over 14 mph. That changed once we hit Hwy 68 with a LONG stretch going east.

We took our first official rest top at the 40 mile mark in Haubstadt. It's been awhile since I have been at that gas station, but a 15 minute breather was good chance to stretch and refill my water bottles.

We hopped back on Hwy 68 and went about another 15 miles until another gas station. It was about 12:00 noon when we arrived. My average had jumped up to over 15.5 mph just through this 15-mile stretch. We stopped because a bathroom break was needed, but opted to have lunch in Boonville where there were some better options (ie: Subway). That would end up giving us another 20 miles of saddle time, but we ate some snacks and headed back out.

I was feeling pretty good at this point. I'm not ever going to say that I am a speed demon, but I definitely was not tired. Even while pushing through the second half of the ride, my legs were still feeling decent. Of course, a tailwind always helps with that.

The wind was still pushing us as we turned to the south towards a small town called Folsomville. Once through there, we made the turn west towards Boonville and the wind started playing with our sped again. We were either going south or west. Our speed was determined by which way we were riding. We hit Boonville at mile 76 and had lunch...finally.

The rest of the ride was pretty easy, except for the weather. We saw rain in the distance but we thought we might beat it out. Unfortunately, the wind suddently shifted and hit us from the south which slowed us down, but didn't knock us out. What ended up being the "nail in the coffin" was the flat tire that Diana got about five miles out.

Dale and Mark went back to grab their cars to give us a ride back in case Di couldn't get here tire working (long story there), but we eventually got it back together. I opted to take a cut across to where Leandra works so I could pick up the car and drive home. That is where the sky opened up.

It actually wasn't too bad. I've ridden in much worse weather. The bad part was missing the stop light at a busy intersection and the suddenly getting dumped on. Nowhere to go...just had to take it.

I may have gotten a little wet, but defintely the downpour I got at the intesection. Regardless, century #3 is done.