Completion!... And then Laziness (Pt. 2)

Taken right before we headed out on our second leg of the century

Our first 55 miles were marked by unprecedented success, and because of the way the world always tends to balance itself out, the 45 miles following that awesome 55 miles were some of the worst miles I've ever biked. We theorized why the volunteers suggested doing the Berkley loop first... The consensus we came up with was that the Berkley loop must be significantly hillier than the Jefferson loop. Whether or not this was correct, I can't really speak to, because I was too exhausted to notice how bad the hills were.

The final 45 miles (technically 47.9 miles) could be split up into 3 different trips -- There was the difficult start (about 17 miles), the 'worst biking that's ever existed' portion of the trip (the next 17 miles), followed by the 'Dustin & Ben become possessed' portion of the trip, which was the final 14 miles. I'll discuss them all:

Difficult Start -- Immediately following our solid 55 mile start, we were feeling good... Growing tired, but feeling like we were doing great. Over the next 17 miles we (and I say we, but I really mean I... We both struggled at different times, and were strong at others... Overall, though, I'm fairly confident that speaking for both of us in this regard is at least very close to accurate) grew more and more tired. We had biked at least 55 miles in a ride 4 times, and it was nothing new. 72 miles, however, was coming up on our personal bests. That made the 17 mile ride from the 'halfway' point to the first Berkley loop rest stop critical stretch in our ride. It became more and more difficult, and the difficulty was only compounded by the fact that we were biking in a more "urban" (urban is a loose term when talking about Martinsburg), and therefore less interesting, area. We pulled into the rest stop and I noticed for the first time that I was starting to feel exhausted. Not just tired, but that tired feeling way past tired... I had another 30 miles to go.

The Worst Biking That's Ever Existed -- Between the first and second rest stop, I hit the wall. 3 miles past the rest stop I found myself in uncharted territory, and I began to really feel it. We actually had to make a pit stop at Ben's grandparent's house, which just so happened to be on the way... We pulled into the final (!!!) rest stop, and my body was breaking down. I was shaking, couldn't concentrate, and was seriously questioning whether or not I would be able to finish the ride (I was leaning towards not for about 10 minutes). We took a power 20 minutes at the final rest stop... I ate 2 bananas, some oreos, a bunch of that gu stuff, and drank a ton of water. I eventually began feeling ok again, and we finally (reluctantly) got back onto the bikes for the homestretch. If my explanation of this ride ever sounds exaggerated, note that there is nothing about this part that was exaggerated... Ben said he couldn't concentrate and almost ran off the road, I was shaking... This was the point where this went from a long ride to a true endurance race.

Dustin And Ben Become Possessed -- Not a lot to report on this. After I ate and drank, we went into a serious zone and plowed through the last 14 miles. To take a phrase from famous sports writer Bill Simmons, we went into 'F you mode' and just finished it out. We didn't joke, we weren't friendly... We didn't even talk. We put our heads down and just pushed forward. At 3:45, 9 hours after our start, we pulled into the finish line to our adoring fans... Who were just awesome.

Exhausted post-race photo.

Dominos Pizza never tasted so good.

103.5 Miles is more appropriate for a top 40 FM radio station than it is for a bike ride... After doing it, I don't find myself thinking it's any less crazy. I expect that in the future I'll do it again, probably multiple times... But it's still crazy; I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. I'm glad that I did it, and I'll always be glad that I did it... It sounds cliche, but the knowledge that I can do this gives me the confidence that I can actually do a lot of things that I didn't think I could do before. For now, I plan on just going back to throwing my iPod on and riding to and from work, which is really the reason I started riding in the first place. I plan on changing my concept of 'long rides' to being more like 30 or 40 miles. I fully intend on doing a few of those in the near future. But again, I'm super glad I did this century ride.

Thanks to all those who followed me with this blog -- The support has been great, and greatly appreciated. Having people's support along the way has really made this a lot easier to achieve. Until the next century...