In late June of 2017, during one of my not-quite-regular appearances at Sunday Mass, I noticed an item in the bulletin: a group of parishioner-cyclists would be meeting on Saturday mornings throughout the summer to prep for something called the “Capital City Century.” I had not only never heard of this event, I wasn’t entirely sure what a “century” was. I mean, duh, it involved 100 of something, presumably miles, but was it over a couple of days, like the MS 150 that my sister-in-law used to ride in Texas, or was it a single day? And so I stepped into a rabbit hole… from which I haven’t really emerged.
But let me double-back a little bit, and talk about the cycling that I did during the prior 30 years: namely, not much. In the late 90’s, Pam bought me a nice hybrid bike, a steel-frame Giant that I still have (and that 25 years later is still worth $130 according to Bicycle Blue Book, so it was a quality bike.) I would pedal around the neighborhood, maybe a couple of days a week, maybe logging five miles, then lean the bike against the wall of the garage until the next time. Some years, I never touched the bike; at most, I’d get onto a small riding binge for a few weeks, but it never lasted and I never got out of my neighborhood. I would always ride free-handed for a stretch, just to show myself that I was still good at it (which ain’t safe at all, and which has been a hard habit to break). But I was just my usual dabbling dilettante, hence the need for me to look up what a “century” was. (It’s 100 miles in a day.)
The Capital City Century, held the weekend after Labor Day, is actually several rides of varying distances for participants to choose from: 25 miles, 40, 62 (a “metric century” of 100 km), 100, and 124 (a “double metric”). With less than two full months to train at that point, I nevertheless decided that I would ride 100. I printed blank calendar grids in Outlook, and mapped out a training regimen. I took my bike to Scheels and got some new tires and a tune-up, and I started riding: three short rides during the week, usually in the evening, and progressively longer rides on weekends. I felt that if I could reach 75-80 miles over Labor Day weekend, I could ride 100 the following week. And I did.
It was hard, maybe the hardest physical challenge I’d ever given myself. But it didn’t take me long afterward to decide that this was not just some one-and-done, bucket-list accomplishment. If I did it once, I could do it again the following year… and I could do more riding in between… on a newer, lighter bike.
The real journey had just begun.
Rideworthy 