My first Century

[tykeboy2003]

Tomorrow (friday) I'm going to ride 100 miles, basically Sustrans Route 63 from Swadlincote to March and if I'm still feeling good, I'll carry on to my partner's sister's house in Norfolk which will make the ride about 120 miles.

I'm 62 and the furthest I've done before is about 70 miles, wish me luck.

[Cyril Haearn]

Plus One, it will not be the last

[honesty]

Good luck. I did my first century last Saturday. It was hard hard hard but I got it done. Before than I’d only done an 80. You can do it.

[mmcnay]

I did my first one a couple of months ago. From home to Hunstanton and back. 105 miles. Took me 12 hours. I was really done in for the last twenty miles. I came to a long slow hill and had to stop. (This is Norfolk btw, so not a hill as most of you will know it.) As I was having a drink of water a tractor approached. The guy gave me a grateful wave for pulling over to let him past. I nodded back as if that was my intention all along.

[foxyrider]

Guess you'll have done it or not by the time you read this

I was down that way earlier in the week the wind was quite horrible across the fen lands. I wasn't going for any particular distance, it was a pair of metric centuries back to back (well plus a bit, 280km over the two days). I find it much easier to not think about the distance but about destinations.

Hope it works out okay

[PH]

Good luck with that, it's warm out there, keep drinking and don't overdo it.

[Cyril Haearn]

Got me thinking, I know many fora members cycle much more than me, and some cycle less
Did my first 100 miles in 1973, my latest in 1991
Last 100 km in 2013, next one this year

[foxyrider]

Got me thinking, I know many fora members cycle much more than me, and some cycle less
Did my first 100 miles in 1973, my latest in 1991
Last 100 km in 2013, next one this year

Not sure when I did my first Imperial century, maybe '77 or '78, as teens we used to do some silly rides, I know I did the ride from home to my grand parents a couple of times about then which was certainly @ 100miles by bike. My last Imperial century was a fortnight ago, the fifth this year.

Metric centuries are much more populous for me, latest Tuesday, 33 this year, they sound impressive and it's always tempting when the GP'S says ninety something to do that extra loop to tip over the magic 100.

Double centuries are another matter - i've done 9 or 10 double metrics over the years but have never reached a double imperial.

I think for a lot of people the magic 100 acts as much as a barrier as a target and once you've done it the mystery disappears. It's probably the same as a marathon is to running, for some it's the pinnacle of achievement, for others it's just a stepping stone towards loftier goals.

I think the big thing is that once you've done it mentally the barrier is broken, I certainly don't give riding so far a lot of thought these days (maybe that will change in the future but for now...) and mention riding 100km/miles makes even the more cynical family/friends do a double taken, yeah great bragging rights!

[Cyril Haearn]

A question set many years ago, probably in the Gazette
What sort of cyclist are you? You get home from a ride, about to put the bike away when you notice the cyclometer shows 99 [miles back then of course]
Do you hop back on and do another mile, or do you put the bike away with 99 on the clock?
What sort of cyclist are you?
A binary question

[Grandad]

M y club runs an audax day with a choice of 5 distances from 50k to 300k. The 150k is slightly over distance and quite a few riders do the extra to make it an imperial 100.

We are thinking about upping it to 160k so everyone can claim 100 miles.

[cycleruk]

Did my one and only 100 miler by accident.
Good luck with yours.

[iandriver]

And there was I thinking we had a one hundred year old on the forums. I was hoping you still had your pre war path racer, bought from new.

[robing]

I've done 3 in the last month!

[thirdcrank]

... as teens we used to do some silly rides, ...

Not just me, then.

Re the miles-v-kms thing, I always recommend thinking of planned rides in miles and completed rides in kms.

[Vorpal]

I did some silly rides as a teen. What I think was probably my first century (and then some) was spontaneous. My brother and I decided one day to ride our bikes to the Mississippi river just because we wanted to see it. We set out with our bikes, sandwiches, and pocket change. We rode for hours and hours, and it was evening when we got there. We spent our money on a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and phone call to Mom to tell her where we were.

We set off for home and after some time, a gent who apparently owned a bike shop stopped us and said we shouldn't ride without lights. When he found out how far from home we were, he said we should wait for him, and he came back with food, water, tools and bike lights. He checked our bikes over, mounted the lights, saw that we ate, and gave us a quarter and his phone number in case we had any trouble on the way

When we got home at 4:00 am, my mother was waiting up for us, too worried to sleep. I don't remember how old I was; perhaps 14 or 15. My brother is almost two years younger than me.

When I later checked a map, I reckoned it was between 70 or 75 miles from our house to the Mississippi. We'd thought it was half that distance (ok, maybe 50 miles).

I don't think I've done a century in at least 18 years, though I've come close a couple of times.