Phew! After a couple of "near centuries" in the last few weeks (98 and 95 miles), it was good to actually (and for the first time) exceed 100 miles today. Great ride, Ted, Della, Pattie and Welling!
Weather was darn close to perfect, maybe a little chilly this morning but as we rode along, the temperature climbed to a comfortable level. Our little group did a good job of reeling in the lead riders and we rode in that pack for quite a ways. Up, up, up we went into New Hampshire, every time we rounded a bend, it seems another climb awaited us. Ted left us somewhere along the way as he has a big race next weekend.
I'm a little fuzzy on the section just before the first water stop, but we arrived with only a handful of others already there. At this point, it was warm enough for me to take off all the cold-weather gear I wore up to that point. After some drink and snack off we went again to immediately crank up the second-to-last big climb of the ride. At some points, we hit 12% grade. Average grade was about 8%. Funny how you don't remember the descents as much as the climbs...
I'll have to rely on one of the others to fill in the section from that big climb to the next rest stop: all a blur in my mind right now.
When we got to the next rest stop, we'd spread out a bit and trickled in a few minutes apart. Della missed the last turn before the stop which gave us a little extra rest time while we waited for her find her way back.
We set out from there as a group with the intention of sticking together and we did pretty well at that task until about we got to Chelmsford, where we fell victim to (Mark, prepare to chuckle) missing a route marker or two... this effectively split our group in half. Welling and I pressed on, knowing that we were in familiar territory for Della and Pattie and that they would find their way. Doubling back to find another missed turn, who do we see going right by the same turn in the other direction? Della and Pattie (and a third rider).
The rest of the ride pretty much consisted of what on any other day would be easy rollers but today seemed like unkind and sadistic additions to our route. Welling and I traded complaints, groans and gripes but kept up a decent pace despite the cries of protest rising in our legs.
Carlisle announced itself by jarring our fillings with its terrible road surfaces, making us wonder if we'd get this far only to suffer some mechanical breakdown. Carlisle gave way to Acton and after a few more rollers, we were back at ABHS.
My computer shows that we did 106.7 miles in 5 hours 35 minutes with an average speed of just over 19 mph. Total climb of 6,099 ft with highest point of 1,025 ft (take those altitude numbers with a grain of salt). The temperature ranged from 45 to 78 degrees, not any wind worth mentioning.
Here's the profile (according to MapMyRide):
They had a generous spread laid out for us: sandwich makings (including Nutella!), chips, cookies, lots of lemonade, M&M's, nuts... even gherkins (someone was being creative). I had two sandwiches, handfuls of the finger food and 4 cups of lemonade and still got home 3 lbs lighter than when I left!
Now, I'm happily on my couch, feet up, bike and gear still in the car. Waiter, bring me another smoothie, would ya?
