Freedom Ride Century

The Freedom Ride is an organized group ride benefitting a couple of cancer charities. It offers several distances, including a century. Even though my plan had 80 miles on it, I am trying to take advantage of as many organized rides that I can, so I opted for the 100-miler.

The ride was really well done. The route had some decent rollers in the middle of it, but was otherwise, somewhat flattish. There wasn't a ton of traffic, either, which was a plus. The first 75 miles went by relatively quickly. However, once the course split between the 85-mile and 100-mile routes, the nutters doing the century were few. The groups we were able to get free speed in pelotons and pace lines went the shorter route, which left Bea, Julie and I pretty much on our own.

For the first 75 miles, I felt really good. My average was in the upper 16's and the heat wasn't bothering me too much. Julie was getting a bad dehydration headache and decided to SAG back from there. Bea and I soldiered on. Between that SAG and the one at 86 was a long stretch of flat highway that was about 7-8 miles long and was not broken by even a curve one direction or another. The heat radiating from the pavement was such that I could not comfortably ride in aero. By the time I pulled into the SAG, I was so so overheated that I thought I was going to explode. I was nauseous and dizzy and really felt like I wasn't going to be able to make it.


Bea and I at the finish with some
grapes and icy cold Sierra Mist


By the time Bea pulled in after me, I was starting to feel better. There were only 5-6 left on the course and they were dropping like flies. The last 14 miles were brutal. I was having many baby meltdowns in my mind with serious doubts about being able to finish. About 3 miles from the end, a volunteer pulled over to give us cold water bottles and wet paper towels. Even then, I was not feeling very hopeful. The only thing I could do was keep turning the cranks. I was so incredibly happy when we finally turned a corner and saw the entrance to the shopping center that was the finish. The temp was 101 with a 105 heat index.

During those last 20 miles, I had decided that there was NO WAY I could conquer the Louisville heat. The very idea of riding an additional 12 miles, much less running another 26.2 made me want to vomit. Now, that the agony is behind me, I am still very doubtful that I'll be successful at Louisville. Everyone says it isn't nearly this got. Right.

 There's not enough time left! Eight weeks and counting! Agh...!