Solo century-2013

September 2013: I've been out of commission since my car accident the year before. The River Ride approaches and I feel compelled to make it a century. After a year of pain, chiropractor appointments and stress, I want to feel strong on my bike (and in my life) again.

I plan to ride the century but no one else feels the same drive. Katie and Lisa say they'll try, but they don't know.

The morning is overcast and cool. Katie gets a flat tire before we even start. Katie and Lisa look at the route and decide they can't commit to 100 miles, so I'm on my own. We take a quick pic before I leave.

Katie, Lisa, Deidre, Debbie, Me

When I head up the road on my own, I feel really alone. It doesn't help that the sky is gray and the ride is poorly attended. Many of the century riders left earlier, so I am (literally) alone on the road. I tell myself I can do this - just pedal. In fact, I tell myself, I've probably clicked off several miles already! I look down at my odometer: 1.87 miles. OMG. I only have 98.13 miles left to go!

For the first 17 miles (before the first rest stop), I wonder what I'm doing. What's more important, riding with my friends? Or riding 100 miles?

Twenty miles in, I meet up with two women. Lisa and ?? (of course I can't remember the other's name). They are sisters from Reston. They agree to let me tag along with them. We ride together for the next 30 miles. They never mention how loud my bike is. It sounds like it's 100 years old - and I've only had it for 25 years!

In fact, on this ride, I decide it's time to get a new bike. Separated from my friends, I see my bike through the eyes of strangers, and I can see how truly old it is. At the first rest stop, people actually gathered around and marveled at it. Time for a change.

This museum and general store are a regular landmark on this ride.

Anyway, the day stayed gray, and despite my new friends, I stayed lonely. Then Lisa and Katie showed up at my lunch stop to meet me!

I was so excited to see them I could have cried. Except they thought they were farther along than they were. We still had 50 miles left. While they stayed to stretch, my 4 person "field" of riders took off. Now I was separated from the other century riders.

Eventually, Lisa and Katie decide they've had enough. They were troopers, riding 80 miles (or more - not really sure) when they hadn't come out prepared to ride 100.  In the end, I rode the last 20 miles by myself. At this point, I was okay. With only 20 left to go, I knew I'd make it.  As I rode the final stretch to pelican point (or whatever it was called!), the sun came out, the water glistened, birds dove for fish, and eventually, my odometer clicked 100!

That night, we went out for our usual dinner in the Thai restaurant in town then the usual breakfast at the restaurant in Tappahanock on the way home. For a terrible 5 mintues, we thought it had closed but thankfully, discovered it just had a new name! wew!