I reached my goal of completing a century by my 50th birthday. I have been riding regularly again since I received a road bike for my anniversary last October.

Time has been very tight this spring and early summer with rowing, forensics, Mt. Mitchell for hubby, VBS, camp and college orientation, etc...I was afraid we wouldn't be able to fit in a century for me.

But the waters parted and I did another search and found a big ride in Georgia that wasn't on the GA Ride website. The Cartersville Century.

We had been to Cartersville several times for gymnastics meets with our youngest son. It is a beautiful town. This century is billed as the 2nd largest GA ride. I did my first metric this spring at the Best Dam Ride which is billed as the 3rd largest ride. I am still not sure what bills itself as the 1st ride.

I had a pre-ride nutrition and hydration discussion at my LBS so I was prepared with electrolite tablets, HEED and an energy bar if needed. I have never had a problem with cramping like so many people describe, not just cyclists, but I wanted to be prepared just in case. My husband like Sustained Energy but it makes me gag so I was a bit worried about the HEED. My first bottle was citrus which was OK and very drinkable. My second was lemon-lime which was very acceptable. I feel comfortable making it my flavor of choice from now on.

I am prone to exercise headaches and did not want to ruin my weekend with one so I was mindful of my hydration and calories. I also used my Kafka neck cooler. It got too heavy for the longer ride so it came off and on. I think I am going to remove half of the beads, make a second scarf and partition the beads in 5 or 6 compartments to keep them distributed around my neck. I love the scarf, I have never gotten a headache when I have used it but it was just too heavy for more than 40 miles.

Dave took off with the lead group and I was somewhere in the middle. The lead pack stopped at the second rest stop and he wasn't ready so he did the double back and was the lead guy until he missed the next right turn. When I was at rest stop #2 a support worker was in a panic because it had been reported that the marker had been painted over and people were getting off course. I hoped Dave wasn't one of them but he was the first one. He ended up following the markings for a BCC ride and realized he was off course when he ended up back at the first rest stop. He asked directions from a local and they put him on a direct route to rest stop #3. His detour added about 5 miles to his ride. His big disappointment was that he lost the front pack. He had been expecting them to overtake him after their stop so that he could jump in with them again.

After rest stop #2 I was committed to the 100 mile ride. This put me near the back of the pack and people kept passing me. At rest stop #3 I wasn't sure if I was last, but I knew I was close. People were dropping like flies around me but I was rolling on slow but just fine. Through the remainder of my ride I would have clean-up wagons stop to check on me if they passed while I was pausing to drink, eat or text my Dave. They always had jersey clad guys in the back seats and bikes in the rear. I would assure them I was fine but slow.

I didn't get a chance to draft once on this ride. It was all me. Riders of my speed tend not to ride in a pace line when they get in groups. Instead they spread themselves across the road, bob, weave and make passing difficult. It is very frustrating for me since I have a lot of experience drafting with my husband and now my son. Some rides I get the chance to catch the occasional pace line and it is a blast while I can keep up. I guess I need to get faster.

I had my first clipless fall. I think it was at rest stop #4. As I left the group of walking dead I failed to notice that this was a switch-back rest stop. As I was turning left to go down hill, I notice the marker about 15ft up the road from the driveway telling me to go right and up hill. I did a quick u-turn, ran out of road, came to a stop, unclipped on my regular side which was uphill and fell to my clipped-in downhill side. Skinned my knee and elbow a little bit. Luckily the rest stop was so far from the road that I don't think anyone saw me and if they did they were too tired to help anyway. It was a pitiful stop.

The next stop was a rogue rest stop. An adorable little country church set up a couple of tents. All they has was water and ice but it was very welcome. This was the point that I needed to mix my second bottle of HEED. I also had brought my new 24oz polar bottle for water. The morning had been milder than the weather channel had predicted but the sun was getting high and hot by this stop and it was nice to have this big insulated bottle.

This was the most convoluted and twisty-turning ride I have ever done. Dave felt the same way. The markings could get confusing as there were several other events on the road as well and they were all in the same orange paint! Sometimes our route would cross over the others and at other times it would go the same way. There were several times that you would get to an intersection and there would be a rats nest of various ride markings, all in orange and you would have a terrible time making out the CC marking. Sometimes the CC wasn't in the rats nest and you would ride for miles before you knew you were still on the right route.

In the 70's I passed one of these confusing intersections, didn't see CC so I kept going straight. Shortly after I was stopped at a light, looking at a highway overpass and on a corner with a gas station. I saw two riders coming up behind me who had kept straight as well. We all got out our near useless maps to try to figure things out. An old guy in a tattered t-shirt with an official looking sheriffs pin on it came out of the gas station and out to us. He was a crusty old guy with a terrible speech impediment but I figured he liked to be helpful because of his pin. One of the guys tried to get him to point out our location on the map but the map was so bad and he was so difficult to understand that I knew another approach was necessary. I asked him if he had seen a lot of bikes passing through the intersection and over the highway all day and he gave me an enthusiastic yes. I made the decision to keep going, the guys followed and we eventually started seeing CC markings again and came to the last rest stop where I had a special treat. Dave was there waiting for me!

I took off before my new riding partners and Dave would drive ahead and wait at intersections here and there to squirt me down with cold water. What a treat!

I made it back to the park with just under 96 miles on the computer. That would not do for me. I went back out on the road and made some loops in the parking lot until I broke 100 miles. I had to do the same thing to get my metric century in April.

Then the nice support crew served me a hamburger and Dave and I went back to our hotel to clean up and rest. We found a cute little local flavor restaurant to round out our visit to beautiful Cartersville, GA.

I really enjoyed the ride. The support was first rate with the exception of the map and markings. But that just made the ride a bit more interesting. Southern hospitality is hard to beat!

Unfortunately, the MOD POD had to miss this trip. Not to worry, we have more camping/riding trips in the planning stages. We would like to do a ride with Nick in July and 3-6 Gaps and the Savannah Century are on the calendar for fall. We can't miss the Falluminum rally either. We have to get her back on the road soon to break in her new tires!