Last Saturday, I completed my first century! I have been wanting to do a century for a while now and I decided that I was just going to do it and not put it off any longer. I looked around and the next century was the Heber Valley Century (http://web.bike2bike.biz/), so I signed up for it. My goals for the ride were: to finish, to finish in 10 hours or less (giving myself a generous time frame), to not finish last, and to not walk at all on the course. Saturday morning comes and I have to be up in Heber by 7:30 am. The atmosphere in the beginning as we were all getting ready was a lot of fun. Most of us had to move our cars a few times as they told us to park in the wrong place and there was going to be a softball tournament there while we were gone.
We started by heading out to Soldier Hollow, and then Midway, over Jordanelle Pass, Francis, Oakley, Rockport and out to Coalville. After Coalville, we turned around and headed back to Oakley, Francis, back over Jordanelle Pass, and ended in Heber. This is a map of the route:
It does not look like it would be that hard but almost all of it was made up of hills after hills after hills.... Because of how many hills (not too mention Jordanelle Pass:4 miles at an 8% grade!) there were, it took me a while to complete the century but complete it I did. I met all of my goals that I had set and I biked it all! The only walking I did was at the rest stops, and at the beginning and end. It was kind of cool at the lunch break hearing all of our cleats making noise on the cement while we walked around.
I was so filthy when I was done! I had dirt, grease, tire marks, chain marks, dried sweat, etc... all over me, especially on my legs. I took a picture of my legs at the end but the picture doesn't do enough justice as to how filthy my legs were. I also had a random burn spot on my right upper thigh even though I know I sprayed that spot with sunscreen. I was a little burned around the edges on my back too. Evidently, I didn't get the sunscreen all the way to the edges when I was spraying my back.
Overall, I am really glad that I did it and met all my goals. In a few more years, I might do the Heber Valley Century again. I was talking to some of the other riders and they were telling me about some of the other centuries that are out there that are pretty fun too.
A view of the mountains and a tidbit of some of the fall colors.
Me after the century. I was so filthy and my face was slightly burned too.
This is about 1/3 or so of the way done when we were way out in the boonies and were about to hit the dirt road that we all had to ride along for awhile.
