I’ve mentioned here before that there was a time I hadn’t ridden very far. The occasional Facebook memory will pop up to tell me that “9 years ago today” I did what I thought was a pretty cool ride — all of 38 miles if I was lucky.
Then I got it into my mind back in late 2017 to challenge myself a little. “I know 100 miles would be impossible, but wouldn’t it be cool to do a 100 kilometer ride?” Just a hair over 62 miles. Up until that November day, I’d done a couple of 50-mile rides, and maybe a half-dozen over 40. But nothing over 62 for sure.
It turns out all I had to do was crack that barrier that was telling me I couldn’t possibly do it, and the rest is history. In the six years since, I’ve done 103 more such rides (yesterday was my 104th). Funny enough, part of my ride yesterday covered some of the same territory as that first metric century.
As for the ride itself, it was a very nice day. The highlight of the whole thing was discovering that the tide was out when we’d reached the coast, leaving a “road” to some islands that were over a mile offshore (the ride to our turnaround was actually over a mile and a half). It was rough going, but it’s just one of those things that you have to do…so we did it.
In the end, it was a great day, and great way to start the year’s longer rides. Next weekend is supposed to be warmer, and although I won’t make the typical Saturday morning ride, I’ll see what I can squeeze in if it isn’t too windy.
You’ll see plenty of blue in the ride’s pictures. It was a good thing for sure…
