My FIRST Century Ride... Woo-hoo

For those of you non-bikers out there, a century ride is a 100 mile bike ride.  Today we rode 120 miles (YES, 120 miles) from Riverton, WY to Casper, WY.  Yesterday's 96 miles was my previous personal best and today I rode 120 miles.  I am so excited to have joined the century club.  I will tell you that the real motivation for getting up this morning to ride 120 miles, was that our Rest Day was waiting for us at the end of the day.  The ride overall was pleasant with rolling hills and flats most of the day but not a lot of scenery.  I was excited in the morning (see pic below) and pulled out at 5:30 AM.  Mentally, I broke the day up into smaller periods corresponding to our SAG stops, so I was never really thinking about the full 120 miles.  I moved along steadily throughout the day and felt good, but I will be honest, at mile 105.87, I was ready to get off the bike.  But I kept thinking - only 14 miles stands between me and my Rest Day.  While we didn't have a strong tailwind today (Thanks to everyone who prayed for it), we only had a few brief periods of any other wind - so we are very lucky.  120 miles is our longest ride, but we still have 4 century days left with two coming up this segment.

Believe it or not, I have actually run out of songs that I know the words to (I did a long Billy Joel medley) so I just started making up words - I know, shocking!

Our rest day is in Casper, WY.  The town looks a little run down, but I have found a place for a massage - so I will be very happy.  Looking forward to sleeping past 4:30 AM but I am sure we will all be re- energized and ready to ride 106 miles on Saturday. 

Me at 5:30 AM, ready to pull out.  I know the sleeves look like Wonder Woman - it is the reflectors on my wind jacket.