My first ‘century’ is grueling, but rewarding

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - “Are we at 95 miles yet?”

“No.”

Moments later:

“Are we at 95?”

“No.”

After six hours in the saddle on my first 100-mile bike ride, I could barely speak.

“95?”

“No, I told you the last stretch was going to be difficult.”

It’s hard to call covering a four-day cycling tour through Maryland’s Eastern Shore a tough assignment — grueling is a better description.

My managing editor asked for a preview of the 18th annual Cycle Across Maryland, which started Thursday, and suggested I could write daily dispatches from the road. I said sure, and then, naively, volunteered for the longest ride each day to get the genuine feel of what the hard-core cyclists would go through: 37 miles on Thursday, 76 Friday, 100 miles Saturday — a “century” in the jargon — and then finish with 54 on Sunday.

I had never ridden 75 or 100 miles in my life.

But none of this was on my mind now as my right hamstring seized with every pedal stroke, my left quad clenched with every revolution, and both knees screamed like a victim in a B-horror flick. Fingers cramped; hands, wrists, neck and shoulders ached as my body begged me to stop. Toes tingled pins-and-needles numb. Spin classes hadn’t prepared me for this.

My riding partner Saturday was Michelle Goss, from Trenton, N.J., who lost 89 pounds through biking and Weight Watchers five years ago. She was motivated to beat her personal best in a century. We took short breaks at the rest stops and rode close to 20 miles per hour.

From the 45 to 60 mileage marks, Michelle and I got swept up with a pack of 20 riders drafting behind each other through the farms of southern Maryland and Virginia. We swayed in the middle of the brightly colored jerseys, past fields of 6-foot sunflowers.

One thing that has always made athletics compelling to me is its physical metaphor for life. We don’t know if we can run a marathon before we do it. We don’t know if we can start our own business successfully or return to college and finish our degree, finally. We expect it will be trying at times. We risk failure and embarrassment.

Athletes, even if the opponent is just themselves, risk failure, injury and bruised egos. But to go ahead, knowing the stakes, trusting that voice inside that says, ‘You can do it,’ makes all the work and preparation — like Weight Watchers meetings — and all the sweat worthwhile.

“Right, Michelle?”

“You bet it does,” she said, as we rolled into the University of Maryland’s Eastern Shore campus.

rcassie@baltimoreexaminer.com

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