Today my friend and I did a 100 mile bike ride called the Santa Fe Century. We've been looking forward to it for months. I didn't really know much about it except that it was 100 miles long and there is a miserable hill called Heartbreak Hill that a lot of people can't even ride up. I was dreading that! We left on Saturday after doing a bunch of errands and chores around our respective houses. It took us about about five hours to get here. We went to the hotel first. Let me just say that my friend made the reservations after our other friend who is doing The ride said to make one quick because rooms are going fast. She did no research. Checked out no online reviews. Just booked it. On the recommendation of a GUY! W got into the room and there was this yucky smell. The carpets are stained and gross. The internet doesn't work. And there was no coffee pot. I could live without coffee ( although I can certainly live with it!), but that was the last straw for Friend. We called the front desk and got put on hold while the guy went to look for one. He came back and said No Go. Really?, I said. Followed by long displeased pause. Then I had an idea. Are all the rooms booked, I asked. No, he said. Well, can you go look in one of those rooms and see if there is a coffe pot we can have? He said he had just thought of that himself! I complemented him on his brilliance and waited to hear from him. Eventually, there was a knock at the door and there he was with a beautiful coffee pot and extra coffee packets. Which is a good thing, because they were single serve. And we had now had a regular coffee pot. So we threw three or four of them in the pot this morning to see what would happen. And wouldn't you know it...some fairly respectable coffee came out!
Turns out, that was the least of our problems. We live in Alamogordo at 4200 ft. It has been HOT the last week. The wind kicks up in the afternoon, but it's HOT. S drive five hours north. Turns out, it's 7200 ft here. And COLD!! And guess who forgot to check a weather report before we left town? You guessed it. The Wonder Twins left home for a 7-8 hour OUTDOOR event without check the weather. Sooooo.....we are both REI members and we knew Santa Fe must have one, being as how they are really outdoorsy here. Yes!!! Smart phone to the rescue! We hoofed it up there spit spot to see if we could find some warm clothes. Now, I know what you are thinking (Jack). Yes, I DO have warm clothes at home. But there are a few things I have been wanting and this was the perfect occasion. And they were having a 20-30% off sale! Woohoooo!! I found the arm sleeves I wanted that keep the sun off ( and are warm when it's chilly), the leg warmers I wanted (perfect for those rides that start early when it's cold and go until its warm), some medium weight gloves (I have fingerless and heavy weight, but no medium weight), some wool socks, and a cute T-shirt. Ok, I didn't NEED that, per se, but it was on sale. And did I mention it was super cute? Friend found some stuff she "needed" and so we were set.
Then we went to dinner. We wanted Italian. You simply must have a pasta dinner before a long endurance event. We went to one place on a recommendation and it was not what we were were looking for. So we did a quick phone search ( how did people live before smart phones? I have no idea. Phone books??) so off we went, walking in search of the other restaurant. It was exactly what we were looking for. We had an amazing bottle of Malbec, some delicious bread dipped in different olive oils, and a lovely pile of linguine with some kind of sausage sauce. Delish!
We came home to the crappy hotel and went to bed. I was supposed to set the alarm for 0545. Not sure what happened, but it went off at 0445. Friend went back to sleep. Of course, I couldn't. We got our stuff together and off to the race we went.... Wait, it's not a race. It's a ride. I did have to keep telling myself that over and over when Friend was a bit behind and I needed to wait. We were in this together and had said over and over that its a ride, not a race! Well, try telling that to my legs when they see people passing us! They don't like it!
We arrived a little later than we wanted to, at about 0645. Ate a Delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes with pine nuts in them, sausage and oj. Plus more coffee. Then we set out. Overall, the first 63 miles were pretty dang good. There two rest stops. We actually did a custom route. We knew that the wind was going to be bad and we wanted the option of only doing 80. So we started with the century route, then turned off at the point where the 50 mile circuit would turn. At the rest stop, We went clockwise backwards on the century route. At that last food stop, we decided things were looking good and we had plenty of energy and wanted to do the full 100. That involved a turn to the west. That's where the wind was coming from. Oh my goodness. We did 7 miles straight into the wind at about 8mph. Very difficult. But we knew the return trip would be worth it..and it was! I flew at about 30mph for a good part of it, passing people like crazy. Friend is not quite as fast and fell back some. I waited at the end of the 7 miles. That was the best part of the ride for me. We ate at a pit stop and then headed for home. 22 miles to go. We felt great. No problem, right? Wrong!! Holy crap. They were the 22 hardest miles of the day. Many of them uphill, most of them either into the wind or into a very strong crosswind that threatened to blow us off our bikes a few times. One time, I was down in my aerobars going about 24 mph down a hill and a crosswind got me and sent me sideways. Freaked me out a bit. It was mostly a long hard slog. 14 miles in, there was a rest stop and that helped a lot. We had enough in us to power through. With about two miles left to go, we missed a turn and ended up coming back a slightly different route and finished with 100.56 on the odometer. My hooha is killing me, my legs are pooped, and my back is a bit achy, but it was a great accomplishment. We finished in about 7.5 hours. Not bad for all the wind.
After the ride, we had spaghetti with chili on top ( we thought it was meat sauce!), salad, Cornbread and a yummy brownie. And beer. Yum. But I was full I couldn't drink my whole beer. Bummer. It's not too often I throw a beer away ( actually, I cant remember the last time), but I did ditch about half of that one. What a shame.
We came home and crashed. Friend was able to take a nice nap. I tried, but I don't nap well. We got ready and wore our cute new matching shirts to dinner. We looked like 14 year olds, but we didn't care. Had a delicious steak for dinner...mine was buffalo rib eye- yum! A nice glass of Malbec and now we are home and getting for lights out. I have to be at work for a meeting at 1030, so we'll be up at 0400 to get on the road.
This was one of those events that we're glad we did, but we won't be signing up next year. CRoss that one off the bucket list!
