I wish I started this thread before the morning of my ride, but I’m attempting my first century (miles, not km) on my ungeared coker today. It’s with a group of mostly United Methodist ministers called the Holy Rollers that ride bicycles to the Virginia United Methodist Annual Conference each year to raise awareness of the organization that is to receive the yearly Conference offering. This year it happens to be the non-profit I work for, Pathways.
The whole ride is from Lynchburg to Norfolk, about 220 miles, but I’m just doing the last two days: from Blackstone to Suffolk today (100 miles) and from Suffolk to Norfolk tomorrow (20 miles)
Anyway, wish me luck. I of course haven’t trained as much as I probably ought to have, but I feel pretty strong and know all the proper things to eat and drink along the ride, so we’ll see how it goes.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you to consider donating to Pathways. It’s a great org.
Don’t know if I’ll have a chance to tweet, but here’s my page.
Good luck Frank. The Silver Bullet rides again!
I did not complete the century.
I managed 72 miles on Saturday, and the 20 miles on Sunday went fine.
On Saturday, the first 20 miles I averaged 14 mph; the next 20 miles I did 13 mph. We stopped for lunch and I felt pretty beat, but I didn’t want to fall too behind, so I was the first one back on the road. I went about 15 miles and got to the point where I couldn’t go more than 12 mph, and was feeling kinda dizzy (it was really sunny and humid), so I decided to quit.
I rode the next 28 miles in a SAG vehicle, and started to feel better and wish I hadn’t quit so soon. My vehicle was following the last rider, who was averaging about 8 mph but not giving up. So I decided to get back on for while just to keep him company. The rest of the ride was super easy at this pace, and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of just slowing down instead of giving up.
We got in just before sunset, and of course everyone was amazed that I had even done 72 miles since none of them had heard of long-distance unicycling, but I’m kicking myself for worrying so much about keeping up with bicyclists (not the fastest ones of course, but the novice riders) that I ended up not finishing at all.
Still, there’s heaps to feel good about. This was a charity ride, and so the purpose of using my unicycle to bring attention to a worthy cause was still fulfilled. I could tell people that I managed a metric century. The folks at the conference were plenty impressed with 72 miles, and the offering for Pathways ended up being about $200,000!
I’d like to try again soon, like in the next month, while I’m still in shape. Maybe Richmond to Virginia Beach?