{"id":5447,"date":"2014-05-27T10:14:53","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T15:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=5447"},"modified":"2014-05-27T07:00:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T12:00:48","slug":"first-century-ride-completed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2014\/first-century-ride-completed\/","title":{"rendered":"First Century Ride Completed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/crossn81\/14206555352\/player\/\" width=\"75\" height=\"75\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> I am a Gravel Grinding, Century Riding, Crazy Biker!! On Saturday evening May 17, 2014 at about 7pm I completed what was probably the hardest event\/day of my life. \u00a0Completing a century ride (100 \u00a0miles) is a pretty good accomplishment in its own right. \u00a0But doing so on a 100 miles of gravel in the rolling hills of Southeastern Minnesota is a huge deal!<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/almanzo.com\/\">Almanzo 100 <\/a>is a free bike race\/ride that starts and ends in tiny little Spring Valley about 2.5 hours South-East of the Twin Cities. Traversing 100 miles of mostly gravel roads with a total elevation gain of over 5,000 feet I finished with an elapsed time of 10:06 (that&#8217;s 10 hours). \u00a0My actual riding or saddle time was significantly less at just under 8:30 &#8211; but the overall time is what counts.<\/p>\n<p>Todd&#8217;s computer said we were burning 1,000 calories an hour, which is hard to replace. \u00a0My <a href=\"http:\/\/www.strava.com\/activities\/142542013\">Strava <\/a>said total we burned 3,600 calories. \u00a0Todd&#8217;s number sounds more epic &#8211; but either way it is hard to replace that many calories on the bike. \u00a0I had several ups and downs related to fueling &#8211; not the never ending hills. \u00a0Two significant ones were around mile 55 and mile 95.<\/p>\n<p>Around mile 55, we were over the halfway point and about 10 miles to the next significant stopping place and where a friend had left me a drop bag. \u00a0We were riding straight into a headwind and I was going about 8 miles an hour. Despite having had a large lunch in Preston at mile 40 I was feeling in the dumps. \u00a0I was plotting my plans to quit at 67 and have my friend take me back to Spring Valley or Preston. \u00a0I ate some food and drank some more and shortly after we turned out of the wind I got my spring back and felt a lot better and was hitting some 18 miles an hour. \u00a0I was glad that was over and didn&#8217;t even think about quitting again after that!<\/p>\n<p>My hydration\/nutrition plan was to drink some water every 5 miles no matter what and to eat something every 10 miles. \u00a0I drank a lot in between the 5 mile increments but I knew it wouldn&#8217;t hurt to drink more. \u00a0I had 2 water bottles and a 2L CamelBak so I wasn&#8217;t really afraid of running out of fluid. \u00a0I also had dropped Nuun Tablets into all 3 containers so that I was getting some electrolytes back into my body and not just water. \u00a0My food really ranged &#8211; I had a variety of Gu packets, shot bloks, cereal bars, jerky, and more. \u00a0We stopped at Mile 40 in Preston and had an amazing lunch, many thanks to Eric&#8217;s brother-in-law and family, Steve &amp; Amy&#8217;s! \u00a0That was a nice boost of calories and deliciousness! The only other place we knew that&#8217;d we&#8217;d be able to refill water was at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dnr.state.mn.us\/state_parks\/forestville_mystery_cave\/index.html\">Forestville\/Mystery Caves State Park<\/a>. \u00a0The <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.mnhs.org\/historic-sites\/historic-forestville\">Historic Forestville Site<\/a> was super nice to let everyone refill water bottles, use the bathroom, and take a break. \u00a0Many people met their families with food there. \u00a0Carrie had left a dropbag for me at a picnic table off the road in the park and left some Ibuprofen for my back. \u00a0 It was greatly appreciated and probably helped get me to the finish! <a href=\"http:\/\/banjobrothers.com\/\">Banjo Brothers<\/a> had a booth setup near mile 75 I think that included Oreos, chips, and other salty goodies and free Hams beer. \u00a0I took a few sips of Todd&#8217;s and couldn&#8217;t imagine drinking any more!<\/p>\n<p>Southern Minnesota is actually quite pretty with some great views while on top of the hills! Very pastoral and rolling hills kind of beauty. \u00a0We stayed mostly in farmland but took a few trips into the woods, one of which was turning onto an &#8220;unimproved road&#8221; and at mile 81 included a creek crossing that only the most skilled mountain bikers were able to ride across. \u00a0At mile 91 we climbed Mt. Oriole which again only the best riders were able to successfully climb while still riding their bikes!<\/p>\n<p>The finish was pretty lonely and unexciting. \u00a0I was pretty exhausted and was lagging as I noted above. \u00a0A group of riders came by and I decided to try and latch on to the back of them. \u00a0Unfortunately, for me the back rider was slowing down to mess with his water bottle and I didn&#8217;t realize it in time to jump around him. \u00a0By the time I did, I couldn&#8217;t close the gap. \u00a0After they dropped me I began to hope I wouldn&#8217;t get lost!! I hadn&#8217;t looked at my cue sheet all day and seriously thought I might need to do so to avoid getting lost. But I could see a rider or two in the distance as we left gravel roads and began the final &#8211; paved stretch to the finish and into the wind!! Fortunately, there was signage as we turned off the main road and hit a bike path into town. \u00a0Knowing that we were close I picked up the pace and at least felt like I zoomed through the turns into the finish area!! Immediately after dismounting this dude came running up to me, kind of startling me and shook my hand! \u00a0I was a little caught off guard but I do remember that race director Chris Skogen likes to shake every rider&#8217;s hand and says &#8220;Welcome Back!&#8221; It is a nice way to finish. \u00a0I found my team, we enjoyed a celebratory beer and then some amazing steak at Steve and Amy&#8217;s!<\/p>\n<p>This was definitely\u00a0the hardest thing I&#8217;ve ever done in my life. \u00a0 I&#8217;m sure a flat and paved 100 miler would be tough, but the hills were just never ending and brutal. \u00a0Plus I may have been a little under trained!!<\/p>\n<p>A few things got me through&#8230; Obviously, having teammates to catch up to and ride with off and on throughout the day made it hard to quit and knowing that my family was expecting me to finish. \u00a0But most importantly, looking down at the sticker on my bike that said &#8220;I ride for Clean Water&#8221; reminded me often of the kids who suffer daily to get clean water. \u00a0That reminder helped me reflect on my choice to suffer and the hope that I could help end their suffering. \u00a0As I consumed liters of clean water throughout the day they yearn for an ounce of clean water.<\/p>\n<p>Will you help me help them? $50 is all it takes to provide clean water to a kid for the rest of their life. \u00a0In honor of my 100 mile bike ride would you make a $100 donation and change 2 lives forever? \u00a0It is super easy just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/worldvision\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>PS I&#8217;ll do a separate post with pictures!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am a Gravel Grinding, Century Riding, Crazy Biker!! On Saturday evening May 17, 2014 at about 7pm I completed what was probably the hardest event\/day of my life. \u00a0Completing a century ride (100 \u00a0miles) is a pretty good accomplishment in its own right. \u00a0But doing so on a 100 miles of gravel in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[624,13,37,58],"tags":[661,660],"class_list":["post-5447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bike","category-my-running","category-race-review","category-world-vision","tag-almanzo100","tag-almazno"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4iaAv-1pR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5754,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2015\/bike-race-scheduled-dickies-scramble-april-25\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":0},"title":"Bike Race Scheduled &#8211; Dickie&#8217;s Scramble April 25","author":"crossn81","date":"February 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally have a bike race scheduled for the year, which will hopefully motivate me to get on the bike trainer more! I'm looking forward to hitting some gravel on April 25 at the low-key Dickie's Scramble event. The 75 mile gravel ride starts and finishes at JJ Tailgators Bar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7348,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2019\/07222019-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":1},"title":"07222019 &#8211; Bike","author":"crossn81","date":"July 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I brought my Motobecane hoping to get a good ride in and knowing there weren't any mountain bike trails and no obvious loops I decided to ride the road we were staying on and then next one over that kind of goes by the lake we were on. It ended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190722_071442.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190722_071442.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190722_071442.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190722_071442.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190722_071442.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6362,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2018\/04222018-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":2},"title":"04222018 &#8211; Bike","author":"crossn81","date":"April 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our first really gorgeous day! As a family we went for a walk\/kids biking in the early afternoon.\u00a0 When we got back I went out for a ride.\u00a0 I wore my Northwoods Racing Kit from Twin Six and enjoyed being able to wear shorts and a short sleeve jersey! I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/20180422_164040-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/20180422_164040-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/20180422_164040-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/20180422_164040-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/20180422_164040-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7300,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2019\/07062019-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":3},"title":"07062019 &#8211; Bike","author":"crossn81","date":"July 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning's workout called for a bike ride with 2 x 15k intervals. This meant a pretty decent long ride as 15k is about 9.3 miles. I had a fair amount of time and the actual workout was 3x15k but I didn't have quite that much time! After finishing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6877,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2019\/01052019-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":4},"title":"01052019 &#8211; Bike","author":"crossn81","date":"January 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A rare confluence of events meant that I had a few hours without any obligations during a warm spell in January!! Being that several days previous had also been warm I took the chance that the streets and paths would be mostly ice free and I was mostly correct! It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190105_112402.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190105_112402.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190105_112402.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190105_112402.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190105_112402.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7232,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2019\/06252019-bike\/","url_meta":{"origin":5447,"position":5},"title":"06252019 &#8211; Bike","author":"crossn81","date":"June 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The kids are signed up for enrichment programming through the school district and this week I ended up with 3 hours each morning without the kids. So of course I went out for a 3 hour bike ride! It was a little stressful to have a specific time to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bike&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190625_103157.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190625_103157.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190625_103157.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190625_103157.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190625_103157.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5450,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}