I did finish the challenge, riding at least one century every calendar month in 2022 but somehow I fell behind posting the ride reports.
This ride on October 22, 2022 completed 122 consecutive months of "Century a Month". I rode 167 km with ~2,200 m of elevation gain in Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Tokyo (
on Strava). It was hard after not doing much cycling for 7 weeks.
Earlier the month I had spent two weeks in Europe and the US on business, traveling east to west around the globe. I only got back a week before BRM1022 200 km Momotaro by AJ Nishi-Tokyo and was still dealing with jet lag. The day before the ride I woke up at 04:00, went back to sleep three hours later and then didn't wake up again until 17:00. Yeah, not very helpful! So I knew it would be something of a rough day, but you can't let that scare you.
I rode to Sagamihara on Friday night and stayed at ToyokoInn Fuchinobe, 1 km from the ride start. I got up at 04:50 after not much sleep (but too much sleep the day before). There were 35 people at the start attending the briefing at 05:30. There was a surprisingly strong show of hands of first-time randonneurs.
I rode in shorts and a long sleeve jersey and that served me well until after sunset but then I changed back into the trousers that I had also worn for the ride out the night before. The late night ride back to Tokyo was quite chilly.
The ride followed the old Koshukaido in the mountains near Uenohara, where the Momotaro legend is supposed to come from. From there it headed over to Kawaguchiko and Saiko (two of the "5 lakes of Mt Fuji"), then returned to Machida via Rt35/Akiyama.
By the time I got to Koshukaido, most of the other participants had passed me. My legs reminded me about my lack of training. I remembered the last time I rode this route,
in April. Then I was training for the 360 km 24h Flèche ride and was in better shape. I finished that brevet 13 minutes under the 13h 30m time limit.
By the time I descended to Otsuki I was running 40m behind the minimum pace and on top of that my legs definitely needed a break. It became clear that if I were to continue, I would finish way behind the time limit.
After some coffee and pizza at the Otsuki michi no eki (road station) near the Chuo Shinkansen (Magnetic levitation) track I decided to skip the middle 60 km of the course and officially abandon the event (DNF).
I headed to Tahara Falls, some 6 km uphill from Tsuru, to take some pictures. Then I continued to PC1, the first timed checkpoint, where Mr D. the event organizer was waiting for participants. I had some coffee and snacks and we chatted for a while. Other participants arrived and departed.
I continued for the last 60 km back to Machida and then another 28 km back to Tokyo. The climb to the tunnel at Akiyama was not so bad. I passed a house with chicken and a goat. The long descent on the other side was very enjoyable.
In Machida I visited the goal reception to meet with my friends.
Later, on the way to Tokyo I got so sleepy, I actually took a nap on the sidewalk. I was really glad when I finally got home.