My goal this year was to do the 100 mile ride in 5 hours or less. When checking on registration I found there was a new group that was dedicated to doing just that.
This group of up to 100 participants provided coaching, support, and a special jersey. Finally decided that is was financially attractive and signed up. The pace group got to line up just ahead of the start and just behind the race groups. We got to start 8 minutes earlier than the mass start. The group even had it's own photographer. I hope to post links to some of those pictures when they are available.
Traveled to HH100 with Chris, David, and John. Again this year 4 of us went in my small truck. It works well for me. I'm not sure how these taller guys stand it. And luckily we haven't had any rain because our luggage is in the back.
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| Sean, David, Chris, and John |
Woke up at 3:45. Left Lawton at 4:30AM. Left the staging area at 6:00AM. Ride start time 7:01AM
We were told in the briefing the night before that we were going to ride in one lane 4 across like a peloton. Luckily, when it came ride time they didn't organizes us this tight. I think that would have been certain death as none of us had ever ridden that close to others. We settled into mostly a 3 wide group. Not sure if that is still considered a peloton or a 3 line pace line. Either way it is a fast way to ride where you have to pay attention constantly.
Time passed quickly. One guy lost his chain, another had a flat. Turns out the guy who lost his chain was my friend Kevin. He was able to catch up from that quickly. He announced that he was back and I asked "were you gone?".
Pre-ride information led us to believe there was going to be one stop. The night before we learned we were NOT going to stop at all. That was a concern for hydration. However, the group did provide bottle refills. After I swapped bottles a few times I realized that they must be refilling bottles so I was drinking out of somebody else's used bottle. At most I shared with 3 other riders; unless they had been swapped before. I'll just try not to think about that too much. Overall I drank about 4 bottles and my 70oz camelbak. The last 10 miles I was very thirsty. I've been drinking tons for the last 24 hours. I think I'm almost caught up.
A number of folks couldn't take it and stopped for their own bathroom break. Most of these seemed to be around mile 40-50. Kevin stopped and it took him 6 miles at peak effort to catch up to the group. Again he announced that he was back when I hadn't realized he was gone.
I only saw one rider go down. He got up immediately and was saying he was okay. The only surprise of the day was when the pace group seemed to take off about mile 92. I wasn't far back and there wasn't any real gap. They just accelerated away. Not sure why because we had plenty of time to make the 5 hour mark. Kevin, Edwin (a guy I met at the end), and myself paced to the finish line coming across at in 4 hours and 54 minutes.
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| Kevin and Sean at the finish |
We decided to eat in OKC. We were starving by the time we arrived. Looking around Bricktown Bourbon Street Cafe seems like a good reward for the day. Followed by some self-serve frozen yogurt. :-)
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| Reward! Blackened KBobs at Bourbon Street |
Garmin Data:
Miles: 101.23
Time: 4:54:02
Avg Speed: 20.7mph
Max Speed: 32.4mph
Calories: 7606
Avg Heart Rate: 153
Max Heart Rate:182
Avg Cadence: 77
Total Ascent: 1763
Weather Underground Data:
Temp at 7AM - 65.9
Temp at 10AM - 83
Temp at 11AM - 88.4
Temp at 12PM - 90.8
Wind at 10AM - 7 gust to 11 SSE
Wind at 11AM - 6 gust to 11 SSE
Wind at 12PM - 5 gust to 5 SSE
- sure seemed like more wind.
Weight change -4 lbs. (maybe 5)
