First Century Ride

Mariah and I at the beginning of the race.

For some reason I let my sister, Mariah, talk me into riding the Salt Lake Century bike ride with her on Saturday, May 21st. Actually now that I've had a few days to think about it, I want to do it again next year. It was hard, but cool to accomplish something like that. Here is a little about my experience.
The race started at the Salt Lake Country Fair grounds and the start time was 7:30am, we started just a little late around 7:45am. Our group for the race was Nick's parent's Bill and Colleen, Norma, Colleen's sister, Nick and Mariah and me. Nick and his parents started the race fast and strong and I never really did catch up to them.
Mariah and I rode together for the first hour, about 8 miles. We were going at a good rate and having a good time talking and enjoying the ride. However, after that I started to slow down and Mariah rode in front of me. A couple of miles later I was going really slow and I looked down and my tire was flat. Oh great, I thought, Mariah isn't with me and I don't have a pump or a spare tire. I called Mariah and she said to keep riding and she would wait for me. So I kept on going. After riding for a while I still hadn't met up with her, so I called her again and she said she would turn around and start riding towards me. A little while later, I still hadn't met up with her and was starting to worry, what would I do? In desperation as a couple passed me I shouted out, "Do you know how to change a flat?" They didn't, but they did have a pump, so they helped me pump up my tire and said they would ride with me until the next rest stop, which was about 10 miles away. (It was seriously so nice of them.) I called Mariah, who I still hadn't seen, and told her to turn around and just ride and I would meet her at the next stop. We ended up stopping about 3 times to pump up my tire. When we reached the rest stop I ran into Nick and his parents who were just about to leave and he told me Mariah was behind me. Huh!?! Somehow along the way I had passed her, we are still not sure how that happened, but I stayed there and waited for her.
Up until this time, I had felt really good. The rest stop was at mile 36 and they were serving lunch and had someone there who changed my tire for me. We ate lunch together and then were on our way. For the rest of the race Mariah was usually about 10-15 minutes ahead of me. After the lunch break, it seems like the rest of the race I was struggling. But on I rode. The turn around point was Antelope Island, so we rode and rode and rode. From about mile 47 to mile 68 I really struggled. At the beginning of the race I was averaging about 17-18 miles an hour, during that time I averaged about 9-10. It was brutal. Antelope Island was cool. I met up with Mariah, who had stopped to call Nick and was just on the side of the rode. I also saw some buffalo. We stopped at the same stop we had for lunch to take a short break, which was much needed. By this time, everything on my body was starting to hurt. My butt, my neck and especially my wrists. I just kept thinking to myself as the miles passed, you only have 25 miles left... you only have 20 miles left... you only have 15 miles left... and finally I didn't have any miles left. I had made it.

Making my final victory lap.

The whole ride with stops took me 9 hours and 50 minutes. Total riding time on my bike 8:15. I rode 106.52 miles. (Funny story about that. It is called a Century, so you think it would only be a 100 miles, but this course was 106 miles. I didn't know that until about mile 80 and by then, like I said, I was dying, so Nick calls me to see where I'm at and I tell him mile 80, I only have 20 miles left and he tells me, well actually, you have 26 miles left, because this course is 106 miles long. I could have died. Another 6 miles doesn't seem like a lot, but after you've just ridden 100 miles you want to get off your bike as fast at you can. I was tempted to tell him to pick me up at mile 100, but I finished it all on the bike.) 
Some other fun stats from the race: Start Time 7:45, End Time 5:49, I averaged 12.8 miles per hour and I burned 4829 calories.