Sunrise Century

August 31, 2013:

Crystal and I have been training together for this ride for the entire summer, and now it is time to put the training to use! This started out about four months ago when, on an early ride this Spring, she mentioned that she wanted to do a Century ride this year. Last Fall, she struggled some on her first Metric in Ada, OK, but finished. She had not ridden any during the winter. She thought maybe the HHH ride in Wichita Falls, TX, however, I really didn't think that would be a good first Century ride due to the sheer number of riders involved. So, I thought about the Sunrise Century in Clarksville, TN, as I had been thinking about that one for myself anyway. I suggested it, she looked it up and agreed readily. And, so, we made reservations, paid our dues, and were locked in. Slowly, I started to get her ready for a long ride, building up the miles on every ride we took. She just kept getting stronger and stronger. A little background might help here too ..... Crystal is primarily a runner, a distance runner, does three or four full Marathons a year, does training runs of 15 to 20 miles at a time on trails, up and down hills, she's still in her late 30's and very, very capable, and strong as an ox. She wanted to train with me, because I was one of the few in our club who would go on long distance rides with her. So, we trained, and trained, and trained. She proved to be an avid student and her strength carried her through very well. In fact, somewhere along the line, she became the trainer, and I, the trainee. I think it was a great balance for both of us. Before we knew it, Labor Day weekend was upon us, and we were leaving for Clarksville. Clarksville Tennessee is in the north-central part of Tennessee, up near the Kentucky line. Why this Century you might ask? For one, it was one of Bicycling Magazines top ten Century rides in the nation, two ..... it is fairly flat, and fast ..... and three, the roads were said to be smooth and lightly travelled, and last, it was supposed to be one of the best supported rides in the country. All of these proved to be true and I will report more on this later on in this post. They have an elite peloton that leaves ahead of us, they get all their needs on the run, they never stop in that 100 miles and try to beat last years time. The record is 3 hours 44 minutes. Not THIS old man! I did have aspirations of getting in a 6 hour Century on this one however.  We did arrive a day early, and took a couple of training rides that were described in my last blog post. I did start the day with sore leg muscles today!

Saturday August 31, 2013;

The day didn't dawn any earlier, but we were up at 4:30am so we could get ready, and leave the hotel at 5am for a real breakfast, not the sorry excuse for one that we had yesterday. I-HoP is open that early, and we had a terrific breakfast there, along with about 20 other riders with the same idea. We already had made a few new friends. And so, we drove off to the starting place at the High School, unloaded and got ourselves ready. The weather forecast was for HOT, HOT, and more HOT .... along with extremely humid, all day. The dew point was at 79 in the morning, and only dropped to 75 by 3pm in the afternoon. Stand in one place and sweat out! But, at least one of us looked cheerful and bright eyed this morning.......

The line at the start ..... 1100 riders registered, I think a little less showed. Still a far cry from the 14,000 at the HHH ... This is a manageable start, even for new riders.

A lot of these pictures were taken on the fly, but I did the best I could. Farming country, all through here, with a sprinkling of woods. The roads all were absolutely the best. Smooth, well maintained, and quiet.

I managed to get both of us in this photo, however, I'm just a shadow of my former self....

I know it shouldn't surprise me, but Kentucky and northern Tennessee is still a primary tobacco growing region. Shocks (stooks) of tobacco cut and drying in the field, and some still growing beyond.

And drying on transport trailers before picking up and moved to the drying sheds .

We went by a number of these drying barns like this, doors open on both sides, and the light breeze coming through carrying with it the sweet, strong odor of drying tobacco. I can see why this is so addictive. While I absolutely hate the smell of tobacco smoke, I loved this smell, really wonderful.

Here are a couple of reasons traffic was so light on the roads.

Another thing I noticed here was that many of these "Plain People" (Mennonites I believe) used their farm tractors as cars, zooming up and down the roads on overdrive equipped tractors capable of 40mph or so. Some pulling little trailers behind to bring back what they had purchased in town. The horse pulling the buggy was one of the finest looking animals I have ever seen. I also told the owner that as I went by, and I believe his grin showed that I had probably made a friend for life!

We skipped the first rest stop which was only at ten miles out, and opted to go on to the second, which wasn't until about mile 26 ..... water bottle almost empty. On most of these organized rides, I only take one bottle, as there is plenty of opportunity to refill, on this ride however, this proved to be a mistake, and I was glad that Crystal had taken two, as I'll note later on. This rest stop was at Trenton Kentucky, and had a mobile bike shop there.

Downtown Trenton was undergoing restoration as I had noticed in so many other towns in this general area. One of the other things that both of us noticed and commented to each other on was the absolute lack of trash alongside the roads, in towns, or anywhere. A far cry from trashy Oklahoma roads.

Along the way, I had noticed several other farms displaying restored buildings of varying nature, this one being a very nice restoration of a 60's style Texaco station, complete with period pumps. Took me right back.....

Downtown Sheldon, KY, was also old/new. With a restored courthouse square and courthouse, and the surrounding Main street circle around the courthouse mostly restored, it was like stepping back into the 40's, but with modern touches. Very nice.

Sheldon, Kentucky was the furthest north we travelled, and here we turned south into a 10mph headwind that would last pretty much all the way back. Not particularly refreshing, just a hot, muggy bit of heavy air stirring around you. What was refreshing however, was the occasional thunder stormy looking clouds that came over occasionally and offered a little bit of cooler air, and some shade for a couple of minutes. We were actually praying for a bit of rain. Both of us put on sfs50 sunscreen before the ride, and we both burned quite a bit regardless.

As we went south, the countryside changed a bit, more rolling hills, and lush green pastures. More corn and beans, and less tobacco. This was where all the hills were on the ride, on the return leg. Not to say they were actually hills, certainly not like we have around Oklahoma, but long gentle grades up, and long gentle grades down. There were older towns this way as well, and some not so restored.

The heat was about maximum by this time, it got to 95 degrees, and adding the humidity level to that, it was brutal. I saw many riders taking the SAG in on this leg of the ride. At this point though, we were already over 80 miles, the psychological point where the distance, time, and time left starts to really work on you. It was here, at the rest stop near this little town, that I started getting a little crampy .....not really cramps yet, but a bit of tightness in my left quad. So, I asked the lady at the rest stop if she might have any Advil...... she said ...... "I ain't got no Advil, Hon, but I do gots some Midol .... will that do?" ..... "Oh, yeah, I'll take three, thanks..... I have to say, the stuff worked great. Cramping.....GONE! 
From here on, it was an endurance ride...... just keep on pedalling. Crystal, by now the far stronger rider, was even faltering. She even turned her speedometer back to time of day so she wouldn't have to look at the 85 miles for and eternity before it would change to 86, and so on. From this point on, we stopped at every rest stop, and they even added a couple extra for water and ice. It was also here that Crystal gave me her extra water bottle so I could douse myself with water every so often. It would dry off in five minutes or less, but it kept me going for a while. This was by far the toughest part of the ride. It really wasn't fun anymore, just slog on through to the finish. And, we did! We started together, rode the entire way together and finished together. No finisher picture ..... we were both so hot and tired, we just wanted to get inside where it was cool. People were laying all over, even in the hot parking lot looking like death warmed over with towels over them and friends pouring water over them. One of them, a young girl maybe in her 20's, looked like she was on the verge of heat stroke. We asked if we could help, but the offer was refused. After we got inside...... Frozen Yogurt sandwiches..... a mighty lifesaver. One thing I will have to comment on here, and I left it toward the end of my post to make a point was that there was absolutely NO trash anywhere. Cleanest State I've ever ridden through.

So, it was over, all the summer's training came to fruition. We both finished the Century ride, we were both satisfied with our performance, but even Crystal commented that now that she's done one,  the 65 to 75 miles rides actually seemed much nicer by comparison. I agree. You don't have to destroy yourself to finish, you can actually enjoy that distance, and look forward to more. Maybe if the temperature would have been in the 80's and the humidity down a tad, it might have been different, but the way it was, we were glad to be finished. Crystal now will start in on her marathon training, running 30- to 40 miles every weekend in preparation for her first marathon this year in November. She loves her running, and for now the bicycle training is over. Me..... I've got the 73 mile DamJam ride coming up this very next weekend .... riding's what I got, I'm not a runner.