Wait a minute, weren't we stopping at 60 miles??

My dad and I finished AND survived our long bike ride! Wahoo! What a fun accomplishment.

Now, a Metric Century is supposed to be 60-miles. The event organizers had noted vaguely that it was going to be 64-miles. By the time we were done with the ride, we had ridden about 68-miles according to our GPS and bike-o-meters (odometers). And if we included biking to and from our parking spot twice before the event and our final after the event, I'd be say we were allowed to round it up to 70-miles total.

The start times were not official, which would have been nice to know as we could have headed out around 8am instead of 9am. We actually got out at 8:45am because we rolled over to the start and they were saying, "go!" to anyone who rode up on a bike. What a funny, small-town event. We will know for next year I suppose.

Our first stop was about 20-miles into the ride. We rode from Palmerton Park in Rogue River out toward Gold Hill and heading toward Jacksonville. It was like a breakfast stop complete with plenty of fruit, mini-bagels and fitness treats. My house (by the Central Point Temple), was only about 3-miles from here.

The second stop was a good time later, following our biggest hill ever right outside of Jacksonville toward Applegate. Wow! What a long hill! It really wasn't that bad. I stuck to 5-mph up the hill, but did something stupid after I passed Dad to keep my momentum. I turned my head to the right to hear what he was saying, then turned back and a guy had come up on my left (w/out courtiously saying, "left") so I was surprised by his presence, over-corrected and turned into the guardrail... hit the guardrail on right and toppled onto my left side. I have clip-ins and my fast thinking didn't kick in so I went straight into the pavement. It was pretty stupid as I was only going 5mph up a hill. I knocked my elbow knee and both ankles. Dad saved me, the guy that was passing felt bad and tried to stop but I hopped right up and started back up the hill... embarrassed. sheesh!

Anyhow, the next stop was great. Everyone was lounging around pick-nick style in a nice little setup with tables, mile-long subway sandwiches and other goodies. A lot of people probably spent a good 30 minutes here. The event did a great job at feeding the riders, I must admit. I think we were around 40-miles here.

Continuing on our journey, despite the delicious eats, we were a little tired of the road we had been on for some miles. It seemed a little slow going. Eventually we met up with Williams Hwy. in Grants Pass, turned off that onto a back road to the old All Sports Park close behind Laidlaw (dad's work).... to our third stop.

Our third stop was about 55-miles into our ride. I think we were a little burnt out by now. My neck and upper shoulders were killing me. Dad rubbed them for a moment and they actually felt much better for our remaining ride. We walked across a lawn to the picnic area of the rest stop and EWW! I we were in the middle of water-logged grass! My shoes are built with vents. Meaning, I have a 1/4" round hole in the bottom toe area and a screen in the front toe area for wind circulation ... they worked just as well for muddy water entrances! Oh my! We had a good laugh over it and tried to divert others from doing the same; they dried out as soon as we launched into our final stretch back to Palmerton Park.

All we wanted to do was get back at this point, but the miles kept creeping by over and over. I knew well before we hit the already extra 4-miles to the Metric Century, that this was NOT going to be what they said and my foggy brain couldn't figure out how many miles it was to Rogue River. I knew it was close though. Four of the longest miles later, we rolled into the Park with happy smiles and the excitement of it being over! My mom was there to greet us. She had been hanging out for the past hour or so enjoying the live band and watching the other bikers roll in.

Over the course of our ride, dad had gotten quite a few comments on his chosen bike. Things from our passerby's (because we were passed a lot) were,"Wow! Knobbies! I can't believe you man!" ("knobbies" are in reference to the road bike tires), "You're an Animal!" (some guy that passed us twice and re-referenced this again the second time)... and..."You know you're on a mountain bike bro?" (in a Jamaican accent)... "Dude! I'm VERY impressed with the knobbies! That's hard work!" - from a vehicle in Jacksonville. The others were pretty general, lots of oo-ing and ah-ing and expressions of how hard that would be. I was like, "yeah, my dad's tough!" All I did was coast, draft and hit my breaks a lot following him the whole time. He also blocked the headwind as it was strong in some areas.

So we topped off our day hanging out with mom and eating at the BBQ. Riding back to the cars was the worst. Our rumps were so shot (saddle-sore) after and resting a bit did not help!

There is actually one last "chapter" to this story, but I had to dedicate it to it's own post. Believe me, it's worth reading....