Fredericksburg library roll 100K ride

A month ago, R. asked me if I could ride with him and a wounded veteran for 100K (62 miles). They had a "tri-cycle" specially made for this purpose and it would be nice to have someone accompanying them on the road. I said if they were not going too fast, I would be able to ride with them. The farthest I'd done was 31 miles so 62 would double the distance. He then signed me up to ride with them.

The day before the ride (Friday) I went to a yoga class in the evening and hurt my back during the "ab workout" during the class. I was worried if it would go away in the morning. Took some pills and went to bed. My back was a bit in pain when I woke up but I thought a bit of exercise might help. I got dressed and drove to Fredericksburg, OH (1 hour away from my house). The ride started at 8am. R. already checked me in. It turned out that another friend could not join us. So, there were only 3 of us riding. The weather at the start was about 45-50 degrees (a bit chilly) and my feet and hands got numb.

The 100K course was described as "involves challenging hills" (someone found out that the elevation change was 4200 ft). We took off at 8ish. The first 5 miles were supposed to be on a bike&hike trail then we had to turn on road for the longer ride. Shorter rides stay on the trail. We did not see the 100K route sign so we stayed on the trail (flat and fast) until we reached the turn around point for 32 mile ride. We figured something was wrong so we looked at the map and found out that we missed the first half of the 100K route. By the time we came back to the aid station (10 miles from the start), we already got 22 miles in. We stopped at the aid station for food and drink before taking off for the 2nd half of the route. The 2nd half was HILLY! with a lot of climbs. I was fine because I rode my bike, which was kinda light (still a hard climb). R. and J.'s tri-bike was REALLY heavy and they had to spend a lot of effort climbing each hill. 

I had to push them up one steep hill as they were tired. I biked up the hill first and left my bike on top of the hill, ran down and pushed their bike up. What a great upper body workout! lol I was glad that I was there to help them as the tri-bike was really heavy and it would be hard for R. to turn around to pick up things that he dropped on the ground while biking. So, my job was to go back and get those things that he dropped. By the time we were done with the 2nd half, my watch said we had about 52 miles in (because we did not stay on the course during the first loop). So, we went to check out with the organizer, had ice cream, and fried pie. Then, we went back out to get the mileages in (62 miles/100K). This time we went back on the bike&hike trail so it was flat and easy. 

Fredericksburg was in the Amish country so there were a lot of buggies on the road and on the trail. It was the first time that I had to shout "Buggy up" or "Buggy back" while riding instead of "Car up/Car back" like when we ride on road. Of course, horse poops were everywhere. However, the scenery was picturesque and I could not explain how beautiful the ride was in words. It also got warmer in the afternoon so it was PERFECT. I was glad I was part of this group ride. 

We finished the ride around 3pm (cutoff time for the ride). Overall, it was a fun ride. Since I always ride by myself, it's nice to have friends riding with you especially on a long course like this.

This was also my longest ride to date. Legs were tired after the ride but nothing hurt :) Wish I could do more touring rides next year.

Sydney