100 Miles

Very early Sunday morning Michael & myself took ourselves off to East Sussex to find the HQ for the 100 mile time trial course. It was still dark when we found the HQ but there were the usual sights & sounds of other mad people about to embark on this escapade.

I did feel nervous as I had never ridden 100 miles & hoped that I would be able to complete the course in a reasonable time.

Off to the start, I was No 6 & Michael was No 48 so I set off quite a bit before him & expected him to overtake me some where about the 50 mile mark.

It did rain quite a bit & the roads were quite bumpy. The traffic was ok until a bit later on when the A22 & A27 started to get busy.

Just before we hit Pevensey we were joined on the road by lot of cyclists taking part in a biathlon. It was somewhere along here I heard my name being shouted so I looked up & saw Michael gesturing to me to keep going. This made me think he had chickened out because of the impending bad weather. After the first sighting he followed me around & shouted words of encouragement (at least I think that's what he was shouting).

As the end came in sight I was mighty relieved but very happy that I had completed the course. Everyone is so supportive and it has made me determined to improve on my time 5Hrs 38. 33 which was the slowest time of the day but I can live with that.

When we got back to HQ for a welcome coffee & substantial eats (thank you) I discovered the reason Michael had not started the course - He got lost on the way to the start! This has of course armed me with future teasing material for a little while ha ha!

I would encourage other members of TRC to have a go - you don't know until you try.

Rachelle.