jppe

We're hearing about more and more folks doing their first English Century. I'm sure lots of folks hear would like to hear and learn about your experience.

We always hold that first one in our memory bank. Tell us about your first 100 miler (or more).

Where was it-city, state (if a loop start and finish).
When was it-season and year or years ago.
How long had you been riding.
If an event tell us about the event.
What bike did you ride.
Tell us about anything that really stands out on the ride that you remember.

Thanks for sharing!!

Dchiefransom

2003 Tour De Cure in Napa/Yountville, Ca. I'd started riding again the year before for the Tour De Cure 30 miler on the Peninsula. Rode it on my Lemond Zurich. I thought I did fairly well for riding mostly alone all the time. Has some sprinkles toward the end. A guy that did long rides on weekends leapfrogging his wife driving SAG caught me on Silverado trail, but couldn't manage to pass me. We tried swapping off the lead a bit, but I ended up pulling most of the time. He was near the end of a long ride himself. A woman in a big duelie pickup from one of the wineries pulled up next to me and shouted that all the bicycle riders made the road unsafe.
I road 100.88 miles and average riding speed was 15.38.

palookabutt

My first was in Loveland, CO about a year after I switched from MTB to road. I think the route had about 4,000' feet of climbing -- relatively flat by Colorado standards. I did everything by the book: went slowly for the first couple of hours, then rode my usual pace up to about mile 80 when I ran across a friend of mine at a rest stop and we hammered to the end.

The best part for me was the training. I had never done so many 40, 50 and 60 mile rides before. As my sweetie likes to remind me, that was the summer that 30 miles became a "short ride".

cyclezealot

I am always one to rush into things.. Yes. I did put in lots of miles before my first century. But, maybe 2-3 days a week of 60-75 miles. Never an officials century.. So I singed up for two official centuries w/o actually doing one.
My first official century... A group tour across Nevada and a century in Death Valley , both with a couple of climbs exceeding two thousand feet.

stapfam

I started riding on a mountain bike in 1990 but it was a couple of years before I got a respectable form in a Kona Explosif. Rigid forks but Front suspension was in its early days and the affordable versions were not that good. I aquired it in 93 and that was the year I first did the South Downs Way. 100 miles with 10,000ft of hills and all offroad- stretching from Winchester to Eastbourne- but that first ride was over 2 days. Then in 94 one of the lads I work with had his daughter contract Meningitis and although she recovered- she was left Physically and mentally handicapped. So Lots of sponsorship gained and me and my riding partner decided the the SDW was worth doing again- but in one day.

5am and we started the 10 mile trip to Eastbourne to start the ride at 6am. 9.20am and the wind came up as a strong headwind and it rained. Didn't stop till 30 minutes before we finished. Luckily- we had a sag team meeting us along the route from the lads at work and they carried spares and changes of clothing. Mid day and we were 50 miles in at a cafe having lunch. My teeth did not stop chattering through the cold so the 3rd change of clothing and I put all the dry clothing on that was left and a waterproof that worked. I stayed warm for the rest of the ride but felt like the Michelin man. I knew it was wet when the computer registered 75 mph on a downhill. Took the battery cover off and thick gungy brown fluid ran out. Dried it and the computer worked normally after that.

Lost the sag at 5pm but we only had 20 miles to go. Then just before the end of the ride- My ride partner decided that the map was wrong and we took a diversion. 5 miles of downhill--- followed by 5 miles of uphill slog along the wettest- muddiest trails I have ever ridden. The mud clogged up the bike so a lot of carrying was all I remember of that section. But the best was saved till last. Downhill through a forest on a bike that was carrying 10lbs of mud around the wheels and I had to pedal downhill to keep moving.

14 hours it took us- 116 miles thanks to the diversion and the sorest butt I have ever had. Took me a week to recover but over £1,000 went to The Charity that had helped the young girl through the next few years of her disability. I have now attempted the ride a total of 11 times now and only failed twice. Once in 97 and again in 2006 when I had the wettest underfoot- windiest and hardest ride of my life. Haven't summoned up the courage to attempt it since. That is one hard ride.

t4mv

*Davis, California -> Davis-Clear Lake-Davis
*May 12th, 1979, hmm, almost 31 yrs ago.
*I'd been riding for about a year at that point.
*It was the Davis Double, 'goes ~200 miles, to be completed in 24 hrs or less.
*Peugeot PX10 w/ sew ups
* It's the same ride as the one that's currently run, but on a slightly different course than currently routed. Instead of Cobb Mtn(?) it went up Big Canyon to Lower Lake. My most vivid recollections of that ride was that Big Canyon should have been named Huge Canyon , I should have spent way less time at the stops, and I should have pushed the pace a bit more during daylight, as I covered the last quarter of the ride in ~2.5 hrs, in the dark, with someone's private sag providing incredible lighting in addition to the full moon. It was truly magical and is probably the only saving grace for being out there at that hour of the day/night.

I definitely don't recommend that one's first century be part of a double century. I don't know what I was thinking...proof positive that young people are idiots.

tsl

Columbus Day, 2007. 102¾ miles, door-to-door from my apartment.

Four things came together.

1. The library is a government department, and we get Federal holidays off.
2. I had some 50+ ride partners who also get Federal holidays off
3. I'd just purchased the Portland and wanted to get a decent ride in on it before winter.
4. I wanted to go leaf-peeping in Letchworth State Park, about 50 miles away.

I organized the ride, mapped out a route and we all met up and rode. I even wore my 50+ jersey. With stops for flats, lunch and leaf-peeping, it was just about ten hours, although I recorded 7:15:02 of actual ride time. Pics here.

We did it again in 2008 and were joined by several others. We changed the route, making it a century from the meet-up place. That made it a double-metric from my apartment.

Last year I was sick and didn't make it, but the the rest rode, and it was an official ride for my club. Two new riders made it their first century last year too. This year it's on the official club ride calendar as the Letchworth Leaf-Peeping Century.

burns

My first long ride is 47 years ago. I rode with my steelframed Campagnolo equipped bike from Vienna to Salzburg (300 kms).
It took me 14 hours with two stops, to fill the water bottle and to pee. The wind came from the front.
Two weeks later, I rode back to Vienna, the (very heavy) wind came from the back and it took me eight hours non stop.
It was not quite "non stop", because 10 kms before I reached Vienna, I fell asleep on the saddle, my frontwheel turned,
and I found myself on the road. Thank heavens the car behind me could stop in time. I wasn`t hurt seriously, but I had
to change my front tire, `cause the valve was demolished. My father was rather surprised to see me, it was two pm and
he thought, I`d arrive at five or six pm.

Louis

Sometime around 1986 or '87, late June - the Portage River Tour - loop ride out of Elmore, Ohio. This ride is part of the Portage River Festival in Elmore, so there was plenty of food and cold beer at the finish. The ride follows the river south to the town of Bowling Green where it then turns back north to the city of Oak Harbor near Lake Erie. I was riding my 1983 Fuji del Rey sport tourer road bike - 24 lbs. of smooth riding steel (still have it).

I'd begun riding seriously in 1982, so I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing and how to train. The ride was flat but the brutal wind made up for the lack of hills. At about 25 miles I fell in with a guy who had done a double century the week before. He and I took turns pulling each other through the seemingly endless headwinds for the next 75 miles. After the ride, the thing I remember most, is eating a HUGE bratwurst sandwich and sucking down three beers.

In retrospect, I don't remember suffering much during the ride. It was fun. I wish I was that fit now. Damn.

cyclinfool

I have been an avid rider since pre-school. I never rode anything over 40 miles though. When I made my first attempt to train for an official century and do one in 1996 I developed knee problems and had to cut it to a metric. Over the years this kept me unable to go more than 45 miles until about 4 years ago when I found/solved the problem and did my first Century that Sept in Saratoga, NY. I have been doing that ride ever since along with any other Century that fits in my schedule. What I remember most about that ride was how exciting it was to be able to do it, how I continually had to hold myself back - particularly when faster riders passed me by - I wanted to latch on, if I did I would have ended up limping home. After the ride was the big feed - pasta, burgers, cookies, etc. A great time.

big john

I did my first century in 1988 on Thanksgiving weekend. The ride was called the "Tour de Turkey" and it was fairly flat for Southern California. I had some chest cold crap and I was hacking and coughing and some clown told me to "quit smoking." I rode my Schwinn Tempo bike and I whined and suffered and didn't think I could finish, but I did.

Terex

About 1975 I did the Circle Akron Ride (CAR) in Ohio. It was on my Motobecane Grand Jubilee. I wish I had the the body I had then and the training base I have now. Even with these old legs, I could destroy my young self if I did the ride today. I just wish I could go back (on one of my current bikes!) and ride with the racer boys who went off in the first group that day. At the time, I was just in awe of their ability.

DnvrFox

1998 - I had been riding less than 4 months, was 58 years old - Granby to Steamboat Springs over Rabbit Ears Pass on the Ride the Rockies. Was supposed to be about 90 miles, but I stretched it out to 100 miles - on a Specialized Hardrock.

Lightingguy

Early/Mid 90's, I had been road riding 3-4 years, had joined a local club (Long island Bicycle Club - a fine group) that would go out of Westbury, LI (NY) at 10AM. I was a USCF Cat 5 at this point and had started racing, was friends with a couple of the guys at my level in the club, as well as a bunch of Triathletes I would swim and ride with. This particular late spring morning I had met the Tri folks for an 8AM weekend 35 miler on the north shore/gold coast area of Nassau County, NY and was about back at the cars when I saw the bike club just heading out. I did a quick goodbye to the Tri folks, and headed out for a 50 with the roadies.

At some point near the end of the "Roadie" ride, my buddie Ray also a Cat 5, now aware that I was shortly to have 85 miles, suggested we keep going and stretch it to a century. "It's not really that much further" was the line he used. I was pretty fit at this stage in my cycling career and in my mid-30's, so agreed. Ray proceeded to pull me around the somewhat hilly Gold Coast for another 15 and I ended up with just slightly over 100 on a totally un-planned century, done with little fuel and few stops.

I did 4 other centuries that year, have done 12 total, including 2 as solo's as training for other multi-day rides. It's addicting.

Sadly, Ray Wiezak, my buddy and riding companion, died a few years later of sudden heart failure, in his sleep at a young age. He was a great cyclist and good person and will always be remembered.

Steve B.

cyclinfool

Wow! Either your backside was sore or your one tough fox. That is not that forgiving a bike for that long a ride.

DnvrFox

I'm not called "old iron butt" for nothing. Backside was fine.

Neil_B

September 29, 2007. MS City to Shore, Cherry Hill to Ocean City, NJ. The first ride I'd ever taken on a bike was nine months previous.

There's a full, indeed VERY full account at the link below:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ntury+timeline

Connell

Mid 1980's, living in the north of England. I would quite regularly ride my cast-iron Falcon Carthorse tourer out 30-40 miles, eat lunch, sink a beer or two, sometimes more (I was much younger then and a half gallon of beer didn't sit nearly as heavily as it does today) then ride home.

One day I was cruising along, about twenty miles out and with no specific destination in mind when I heard a toot-toot from a passing car. I looked up to see a co-worker going by with a friend, both waving cheerfully. Now the co-worker had mentioned she was going shopping to a town about 45 miles away, but I hadn't realized she was going with her friend. Oh, that friend. The one with the long red hair, wasp waist and beautiful blue eyes. She kept me awake at nights, that one. And I happened to know she was going through a rough patch with her current boyfriend. And in those days, I looked pretty darn good in my butt hugging bike shorts so what else was I to do?

I was there by lunchtime and spent a good couple of hours wheeling my bike around the town center. But of course, I didn't run into them.

Now if I'd turned and gone back the way I came, it would have been about ninety miles for the day, which was further than I'd ridden before. But where's the glamour in ninety miles? If you're that close, then ya gotta do a hundred, right?

So, I picked a different route home, adding sixteen miles. Sixteen very long, very uphill miles. Into a headwind. Even so, I didn't really struggle until the last mile or so to my house, which was up a steep hill. OK, not a steep hill, a very gradual slope. The kind of slope that in a car, you wouldn't even realize was a slope. But it might as well have been the north face of the Eiger that day. Thighs of jello by the time I finally made it to the door, I'm telling you, and the cold one from the fridge never tasted so good.

But despite my heroic feat of endurance, I never did hook up with the redhead. Didn't even get an invite when she married the boyfriend three months later.

Ho hum

zonatandem

1973 . . .
TOLSC (Tour of Lake St. Clair) sponsored by the Cycling Saddlemen of Dearborn, Michigan. 200 miles in 2 days.
Started downtown Detroit, MI, went across the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, ONT (Canada) and continued on to Sarnia (Canada) where we overnighted in a school gym.
Then across the Blue Water Bridge into Port Huron, MI and back to Detroit on the US side of Lake St. Clair.
Both international bridges were closed for a half hour to all traffic except for about 50 of us bicyclists pedaling furiously across. Nice!
The first day, and my first century, was 120 miles. Second day was a breeze, only 80 miles.
Rode a Peugeot (real '10'-speed) UO-8.
Finished second in the event and was the oldest guy riding . . . then.
Have ridden well over a hundred centuries since + half-a-dozen doubles centuries.

cyclist2000

I don't remember my first century. In "84" I seemed to be riding one every weekend, I did my first that year and I don't even remember it being painful but I am sure it was. I do remember one particular century that summer since I pulled a hamstring two nights before the century and still rode it since I paid $25 for the event. That was painful, but I rode the entire route.

BluesDawg

It hurts even now just thinking about it. I do not recommend this method.

It was the 1992 Bicycle Ride across Georgia, my second year on BRAG after taking up cycling again in 1990 after my divorce. I was 37 y/o, single and out for a good time. Ribby, my Bridgestone RB-1 (which I still ride) was just a couple of months old. I had never thought much about riding a century, but I had taken well to the 60 mile average days on BRAG and had done a few metric centuries and a couple of 75 mile days on the MS150 that year.

I was riding and camping with a hard-partying bunch I had met the year before on BRAG, Team Flamingo. We were a high profile bunch, dedicated to doing everything possible to meet the many attractive ladies on BRAG. We had had a big night in Athens on the night before the century. Sometime around 2am at an all night breakfast place, someone came up with the idea of doing a "team century". Each of the six of us would ride a leg of the century, being relieved by another team member at the next rest stop where the rest of the team would be waiting in the van. I, being the newest team member, took the first leg. The team was to meet me at a rest stop about 20 mile into the ride at Kenny Rogers' farm.

I rode through the cobwebs of my late night shenanigans and arrived at the rest stop feeling pretty good. The van was not there, so I waited. I saw a girl I had met the night before, a body builder with a French accent who we called "bionic Michelle" because of her muscular, but very feminine build. As it became clear my pals were not going to meet me, I set out riding with Michelle. Being a gentleman, I happily pulled her along. Being an idiot, I set a fast pace, trying my best to impress her. I managed to keep that up to the next rest stop, where Michelle hopped onto a paceline motoring along at a faster pace. "So long, sucker".

I recovered and rode at a saner pace through the next couple of segments. At around 40 miles there was a stop, located next to a restaurant serving homestyle Southern food. I knew that aside from a good, sweaty workout, nothing would help me recover from a night of drinking too many beers like a good Southern meal. I loaded up on fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collards, cornbread and iced tea. I was full, but felt good.

This stop was about a mile from where the century option turned off of the main route. I had no intention of riding the whole century myself. I had resigned myself to no longer expecting to meet my friends who had either tricked me or had some confusion or problem that kept them from relieving me as planned. But I was OK. Just as I was about to start riding again, I saw two girls from Marietta I had met on the MS150 ride, Jenny and Deb. I liked Jenny a lot, being intrigued by her Bostonian accent (I had a thing for girls with accents ). I started riding along with them. As we approached the century turnoff, Jenny said "We're dong the century, Benny, how about you?" Quickly abandoning good sense and logic, I said "Yeah, sure".

After a few miles of riding along, chatting with the ladies, I got tired of their slow pace and decided to head out on my own. I was doing pretty good until I got to about 75 miles when I suddenly hit the wall, hard! The nice morning had turned into a blistering hot afternoon and I was suffering. I managed to get into the next rest stop where I sat down in the shade, drank and ate everything in sight and ran cold water over my head and neck. A friend of Jenny and Deb, who I had met at the earlier stop, noticed me and offered to pull me the rest of the way in. It was hard to hang on at times, but he slowed when I was really suffering and pulled me all the way into camp. Without his help, I might still be out there.

After a shower, food and a few beers, I was feeling OK, but hit the tent early that night. The rest of the week was fine. My buddies and more importantly, the ladies, were impressed by my feat and I had a good time the rest of the week. My ordeal had made me a confirmed century rider. I've done a few dozen century rides since then, but none have hurt so bad. I tend to prepare better now.

Dan Burkhart 

My first 100 miler was in September of 1999. If I dug out my journal, I could find the exact date. It was the last day of a 10 day solo self supported camping tour of southwestern Ontario that covered about 500 miles total.
The start and finish points for the day were the provincial park at Grand Bend Ontario to my home in Elmira Ont. The actual distance from the park to my home came up a bit short of 100 miles, so I overshot my home by a few miles and doubled back to bring the total to just shy of 101 miles according to my odometer.
This photo was taken at about the midway point at my uncle's home in Mitchell Ont. I stopped in right about lunch time, and was treated to a wonderful mid ride lunch.
It was well after dark by the time I made it home.

vtc12ip

My first and only so far, was the Harpoon Point to Point Century in August 2008. The route started in Williston, VT and ended in Winsdor, VT at the Harpoon Brewery. Free Beer at end, what's not to like. It was billed as a relatively flat ride. I think that was to entice the flatlanders to come and ride. It had 4000' of climbing, most of it coming in two big chunks at Mile 40 and 80. The one at Mile 80 was particularly nasty because the road wasn't straight and after each turn, there was more up.

I had done a lot of miles in preparation and felt pretty comfortable with the exception of my knee. I had changed out the saddle a few weeks earlier and didn't have the position quite right. The knee is still a bit tender. It was a good ride.

https://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...ston/634047048

This year I'm a bit more acclimated to the heat, so I plan on doing a few at the end of the summer.

Pat

It was a Biking for Burns ride in Lansing Michigan back in something like 1987. It was my second year of riding. We had a group. It really was not designed as a century (our group found this out later). It was a dual organized ride. One start point was in Schwartz Creek Michigan just outside of Flint Michigan. The other was on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing Michigan. There were something like 3 SAG stops. The two rides shared a SAG stop at the midpoint. So the organizers thought that they would offer a century option, which they did not expect anyone to use.

Well about 18 of us did. We started out early. We got into Schwartz Creek after riding mild headwinds. We were offered hotdogs for lunch. None of us touched the dogs. But a reporter from the Flint paper was there and he was really impressed. All of the volunteers there were impressed too. They could not have been more impressed if we had told them we had just landed or space ship and we were martians. Any way they got us to line up and took a photo of our group. The photo was in the local paper the next day! That is the first and last time I have gotten into the paper for my bike riding.

So we turned back. The winds picked up. After awhile I was alone. I think the other riders camped out at the 1st SAG stop after the turnaround. Black clouds blew up. I put on my rain shell. Rain came down in sheets. I decided that I was not going to stop for anything. Then marble size and larger hail came down. I found an isolated farm house and stopped. So I took shelter on the porch. It was like the twilight zone. The door was open with only the screen door closed. The TV was on. No one seemed to in the house. The rain and hail stopped and I hopped on my bike again.

I hooked up with another rider riding the century. We were approaching the mid point SAG stop. Riders from the other way informed us that the SAG stop was going to pull up stakes but it still had COOKIES. So the two of us sprinted to the SAG stop yelling "cookies, cookies, cookies". We got some and the last ones I think.

After that it was a slog. The headwinds got stronger and stronger and stronger. I finally got to MSU campus. I crossed the Red Cedar River and its flood plain forest. I hit the blast of headwinds coming from across the prairie and almost stopped in my tracks. I did the last mile and a half in my low gear. I got off, put the bike on its rack and drove home. I think they had freebies and stuff in the parking lot for riders but I was past caring.

It was my first century. Since then I have done more than I can recall probably nearly 100. But I still remember that first one very well indeed.

Pat

Dellphinus

From my 2005 log. This was on the modified Expedition SPort- straight bar, clip on aeros, fixed fork.
Started riding in 2004. Near/In St. Louis, Mo.

20051001- First Century- Rode to the south leg of the arch and back. Left at 7:15- kinda chilly, arm warmers were great. Gotta get some knee warmers and tights, and a good jacket. Ride was great. Had a head wind all the way down, and a tailwind most of the way back. Rode all the way down the Riverfront, through the park and up to the south leg of the [St. Louis Gateway] Arch. Laid a hand on it, then headed back to Subway for lunch. Had no trouble at all getting back to Elsah. Had a gel there, and made it up Elsah hill just fine. Did really well up to Otterville, first hill past O’ville told me I should have eaten more at Elsah. Stopped and had a Cliff bar, and made it home, but I was ready to be done. During the ride, I averaged 1 btl of G'ade each hour, and one Cliff bar or apple each hour. Stopped at Elsah, the park in Alton, the Chain of Rocks bridge, and downtown St. Louis. Took a couple salt tabs every other hour or so- basically whenever I drank straight water. Left leg was a little sore on the way to Alton, but eventually loosened up. Left the house at 7:15, returned at 5:00. Mileage: Elsah 15, Alton 30, Bridge 45, bridge 70, Alton, 85, Elsah 100, Home 115.

STATS: 8:10:45, odo 1444, 32.8 max, 14.0 avg, 115.02 mi