Ring of Fire and Back to Writing!

Well I haven't been writing too much recently, but I have had a lot of things that I have wanted to write about, just haven't had the time or felt that they were relevant. So I am going to widen the topics that I write about. Because I have a wide range of interests and I don't want to only write about a select few! So now something cycling related!

A little over a week ago I did my first century and it was a blast! I did the Ring of Fire in Luckenbach, TX. It was a brutal course, but lots of fun with lots of challenging hills, fast descents, and a couple mean long hill climbs. They changed the course a couple days before the ride. Originally it was going to be 110 miles, but the new course was 114 miles. Just a couple more I thought, not big deal. ;-)

One thing that I overlooked was that there were a LOT of hills, which really slowed things down for people and broke up the packs. Map My Ride said that the original ride had a total elevation gain of 3255 ft. Which is quite a bit for a ride of that distance. Yet the modified ride, according to my GPS, had an elevation gain of 4700+ ft. And then you add to that strong headwinds and highs (without the heat index) of over 100 in the afternoon and you end up with a lot of people dropping out...

I got to the 70 mile mark and felt good and decided to keep going and looked around and found myself quite alone. Guess most people threw in the towels then or were a lot faster than me! Apparently they shut off the 100+ mile course, but they didn't tell me. I figured I would keep going, I had water, ride support and time, why not keep going! Unfortunately at 105 miles I started to overheat and decided it would be smarter to stop before things got bad. It was a pretty funny experience looking back at it actually. I was the last person stupid enough to still be out in the heat, and the sag wagon was driving behind me. It felt like I was a dying animal with vultures behind me waiting for me to give up and die!

Looking back I had 1 more mile of climbing and then 8 miles of downhill and I would have been done!!! But overall a wonderful experience and had lots of fun.

So now aside from my experience of the ride, my opinion on the ride.

Cons:

• Poor signage and direction at crossings of routes
• Very bad planning of routes. Had cyclists on BOTH sides of roads that had speed limits of 60 MPH, single lanes, and no shoulder. This meant that it wasn't uncommon to have a car headed straight for you when passing someone from the opposite direction.
• Poor snacks and food at the end. Though this may have been because I was the last one to come in! :-)

Pros:

• Great support from various bike shops
• Wonderful scenery, beautiful views over the hill country
• People manning the rest stops were wonderful and supportive
• Great hills to challenge yourself on
• Rest stops fairly frequent to keep people hydrated on hot days like this year

So now I know that any other century in the area will be easier than that one :-) Was happy that I was able to keep a decent pace given the hills and that I was riding by myself for most of the ride. Check out my route if you like.

Fun facts:

• 15 bottles of liquid consumed
• 360 oz of liquid consumed
• 2.8 gallons consumed
• 23 lbs of liquid consumed
• 6136 (est) calories burned
• 400 (est) calories provided in meal at finish
• 105.21 miles traveled

Now on to something a little flatter and faster, Hotter'N Hell!