| The Saga of The 7th Annual Audrey Prouty Century Bicycle Ride
Friday night:
Its really hot and humid as I'm packing, getting ready for the big ride
tomorrow. I don't usually sleep with air conditioning, but I want to be well
rested for tomorrow, so I decide to sleep in the living room on the sofa bed
to enjoy our air conditioning. It begins to thunder and lightning outside...
suddenly the lights go out, lightning flashes, the lights come on again,
dimly, then go out again. And stay out... Its deathly quiet outside, no
wind, no rain, nothing. Its quiet inside too...the air conditioning! Gone!
Oh well, so much for a good night's sleep. So I try to get to sleep, and toss
and turn in the heat.
Early Saturday morning:
I'm awakened by the lights, fan and air conditioning coming back on with the
power. Well, maybe I'll get a little good sleep now. I turn off the lights
and settle in again... I wake up again, its 4:30am! I'd wanted to get up at
4am, but slept thru my watch alarm (didn't trust the electric clocks...I
wonder why?). Why did I wake up...must have been my internal clock!
Hurriedly we pack, stop at the all-night pancake place for breakfast
(they're not good, just open) and then head north. Thank goodness the speed
limit's 65 north of Manchester. We make it with plenty of time to spare. I
check in, and they're impressed with the amount of money I raised (more on
that later). I look around and check out the other riders, and there are a lot
of them. Many nice bikes and fit looking riders. Looks like this will be
an interesting ride.
Due to the heat, and probably their realization that it will take a long
time to ride 100 miles, many riders are starting early, before the official
start time of 8am. The race organizers are asking the riders to wait, since
they have a helicopter video crew coming to shoot the beginning of the ride.
I decide to wait for the official start...I want to ride in the pack this
time. I usually do these rides solo, since its hard to find another person
that rides my pace, which is rather fast. I don't think that's going to be
a problem today.
Just before the start, an announcement is made that one of the riders doing
the 200 mile ride (2 laps of the 100 mile course) has finished his first lap
and will start his second lap with us. He's been riding since 2am, and
therefore has a sub-6 hour century already completed.
And now we're off. We've been asked to ride behind the pace car until we
get out of town, and to ride only two abreast, so as not to disrupt traffic
too much. We don't of course, there's just too many riders. Fortunately, all
the intersections are blocked off by the local police, so there's no problem.
The pace car keeps the pace during the first couple of miles down to a
reasonable 17 mph or so. I'm sure that will change as soon as the car drops
off.
And change it does! There's some guys up front who really want to motor.
The pack of 40-50 riders is cruising along at 24-25 mph on the flats, much
faster on the downhills. I'm riding with a friend in the middle of the pack,
which is not a very good place to be. Most of these riders don't ride in
large packs very often (including me) and don't really know how to do it. And
you get this 'accordian' effect in corners and at the bottom of rolling hills:
its the same thing that happens in traffic jams out on the highway. So unless
you're at the front of the pack, you're always slowing down, then sprinting to
catch up with the leaders. Its a lot of work, but I'm having fun. The pack is
really beginning to string out now...I realize that I'd better get up with the
leaders now or I'll never see them again.
I take off, and I won't see my friend again until almost two hours after I
finish, since he ended up riding alone most of the time. I rather easily catch
up to the leaders, and I'm pleased. But the pace is getting even faster, and
soon I find myself constantly at the back of the pack, struggling to keep up.
I wonder if I won't burn out soon at this pace...
We've been riding north along the Connecticut River valley, and the course
has been reasonably gentle, going over 'rolling' hills, but none too bad. We
turn east, heading away from the river, and I hear someone say, 'now the fun
begins'. And we start to climb. And climb. And climb some more. This hill
seems to have gone on for miles. I'm falling farther and farther behind,
though others are dropping back even faster than I. Finally I give up the
chase, realizing that even if I could catch the leaders, the effort would take
too much out of me, and we had only gone 20 miles so far. 80 left to go! I'd
better take it a little easier (and remember that my knee is injured...funny,
I hadn't even noticed it).
I join in with some other riders who had found the pace of the lead pack a
bit too much. Ah, this is more my speed, but still quick. We doing about 21
mph along the top of the hill we just finished climbing. And now we come to
our reward for climbing that long hill: the ride down the other side! This
hill is really steep... I'm glad I'm not riding up it! I get down in a low
tuck to get as much speed as possible, to rest my legs, and my rear-end. 35
mph... 40... 45... This is getting pretty fast, and I've no idea what's at the
bottom. Fortunately, the road is pretty smooth. I touch the brakes lightly,
trying to control the speed. 46...47...48...49 mph! I've never gone this
fast before!! This new bike is really stable, and am I glad. Now we reach
the bottom and glide as long as possible. I check my computer and verify that
my maximum speed was 49mph. I wish I'd been a little braver and not hit the
brakes. I wonder how fast I could have gone...
We hit the first rest stop at 35 miles, and stop for about 7 minutes,
refilling our water bottles and eating a bit. There were quite a few riders
already there, and when we leave, several join us. We now have a pack of
about 20, and it remains that way until the next rest stop at 60 miles. The
intervening miles are alot of fun: no big hills, but enough long downhills so
that we make good time. The pack is still strong, with many riders taking
their turns at the front, pulling the pack along. We cross into Vermont and
reach the 2nd rest stop. We've done the first 60 miles at an average speed of
22 mph! At this pace we will finish in less than 5 hours!
Its really getting hot now (its almost 11am). The water at the stop is a
little warm, but its better than what's left in my bottle. We head out, but
the pace is slower. Everyone's beginning to get a little tired and hot, I
guess. 15-16 mph is too slow, so I hurry up to the front to push the pace a
bit. That's where I find out a big reason we're going so slow. We've got
quite a headwind, which means we probably had a good tailwind on the way out.
Since we're heading south along the river valley back to the start, it looks
like its going to be a long, hard, slow, 40 miles. But at least the road
along the river valley should be rather flat.
Wrong again! I see bumper stickers that say, "Vermont Ain't Flat", and
they're not kidding. The hills are definitely bigger on this side of the
river. And the wind doesn't help. The race organizers wisely put most of the
rest stops over here; every 10 miles or so. And we stop at them all. I can't
believe how hot it feels the moment I stop riding. Its feels like my head is
boiling. There's a garden hose that's being used as a shower. Sure looks
good. I stand in line, waiting my turn, getting hotter all the time.
Finally, its my turn. I raise the hose to my head and give it a shot.
Yikes!! What a shock! But it feels good and in a couple of minutes I feel
fine again.
The rest stops are taking longer now. I'm impatient to get going again,
but I really don't want to ride into this wind alone, so I stand by my bike,
looking ready to go. Some join me, others say that they're going to take it
easy the rest of the way. Finally, we're riding again, but the pack is
smaller now.
That scene repeats itself at the remaining rest stops. I realize that
we're not going to break 5 hours. Its looking more like 5 1/2. But now, all
I want to do is finish feeling ok. But I'm still not going to back off too
much. I'm one of the stronger riders left, and take a long turn at the front
of the pack. Each time I drop off to rest at the back, this really tall guy
says "good pull". Its nice to hear. I'm happy to be one of the leaders,
doing most of the work. But it is hard.
The last rest stop is just 10 miles from home, and I want to skip it. But
there's hardly any water left in my bottle, and what's there is so hot I can
barely drink it. I doubt that I can finish on what's left, so reluctantly I
stop.
We don't stay too long here. Those that are left (6 or 7 now) are anxious
to finish, so we can stop and rest for as long as we want. I'm leading most
of the time now. I pull off to the left and wave the pack thru. The guy
behind me says, somewhat remorsefully, "I haven't got it". I drop back
anyway, saying "give it what you've got". Its not long before I'm at the
front again. The one other rider who still strong is doing some wierd things.
He'll take his turn at the front, drop back, and instead of waiting for his
turn to come again, he'll sprint up past me, into the lead. I tell him as he
goes by that he's nuts. He's pulling away now, I don't try to stay with him.
I can't. He'll come back anyway, I'm sure. A car comes up from behind us,
and pulls up next to him. He talks to the driver for awhile, then pulls in
behind the car and starts drafting it. That son of a %$#!&. I wish I'd gone
with him...it looks like fun. The racers call it motorpacing. The car, of
course, never gets tired. (I found out later its his girlfriend. Why didn't I
think of that? I couldn't anyway... mine is riding the 50 miler...)
Finally, we cross back over the river into New Hampshire. But there's one
last hill to climb, and is it a beauty. It goes up rather steeply, levels
off, and goes up again, more steeply than before. But its the last one, and
when you're this close to finishing, you always seem to get a burst of energy.
We're on the final straight-away now. There's the finish. Only 3 or 4 of us
are left. The others are strung out in small groups or alone, somewhere
behind us. We're supposed to go thru this little chute that's been roped off,
but I'm not really paying attention and almost ride through one of the ropes.
I see it, and stop in time. Crashing now would have been awfully embarrassing.
Ah, time to rest. I stop my computer and my watch, which says its taken 5
hours and 32 minutes to ride the 100 miles. I'm a little disappointed; I've
ridden faster than that before. I check the computer, which kept track of
actual riding time, and it says I only spent 4 hours and 47 minutes on the
bike and rode at an average speed of 20.7 mph. That's over 30 minutes faster
than I've ever ridden, and I'm pleased. If it had only been cooler...
After the ride there's a big barbecue, with lots to eat and drink. They
kept running out of soda...we drank over 1000 cans! After everyone had eaten,
awards were given to the top fund raisers. As usual, Jack Stebbins raised the
most; $11,400 this year. Next highest amount was over $5000, then a couple of
$2400's, an $1800 and a $1500. The top three received various weekend trips
in New England. I, or should I say you, my friends, raised $1330, including
DEC's matching gift. That probably put us in the top ten. Not bad for a
couple of week's fund raising.
But next year, I plan to get an early start, and hope to raise
significantly more. To accomplish that, I'll have to reach beyond the
immediate circle of friends that I reached this year. I'll be looking for
someone in each facility to lead the fund raising effort. That should enable
us to raise a lot of money. This year 42 people contributed $665, for an
average pledge of $15.83. If we could get 500 people to pledge $10 each, that
would total $10,000, with DEC's matching contribution. That may sound like a
lot of people, but how many work here in Southern New Hampshire? I don't
know, but I bet 500 would be a small percentage of the total. I just have to
find a way to reach all of those people. I'll be thinking about it, and if
anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear about them. This is a really important
cause, and a great event. I'll definitely be planning on riding the 200 mile
event next year.
Thanks again, everyone.
Kevin Klasman
@NHO
dtn 264-9281
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