The first Saturday in August is usually the day of the PFW event. The club decided not to do the event this year because of falling ridership and the hassle of staffing it. I agree with the decision but still wanted to ride an event type route so I put a few routes together and posted them to the PFW Facebook account to see if I could get some other leaders to join me. I was thinking it might be like a adhoc all paces ride but it didn't really work out as I expected. I think the main problem was the weather.
I put posted a metric for Saturday and Laura posted a Century because she always does a century on the day of the event. We ended up getting rained out on Saturday so had to reschedule for Sunday. Like most of the PFW event days it was a hot and sunny day. I rode down from my house to Mercer park. Chris and Linda were already there and we were soon join by Andrew then Laura, Jack, and Ricky rode in. The last person to arrive was Sergey. Because of the heat Linda wasn't sure if she was going to do the century or metric but since we were going to ride together until mile 45 she didn't have to decide now.
It in the mid 70s when we started but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter. The route I had planned was similar to a century I had done a couple of years ago. I made some modification so that we would pass by enough Wawa's and other stores to keep us well fed.
We maintained a nice relaxed pace as we went through the Assumpink and wound our way down to the Wawa in Jackson. The first stop was only 21 miles into the ride but I wanted to stop early because I knew it was going to be a long ride and because I know a lot of the other people already had a 8-10 miles before the start.
From there we headed to Cassville and then on to New Egypt for our second stop. The humidity had decreased but the sun was still hot. Besides the water in my camelback I also had a bottom of pure Gatorade that I was drinking through out the ride so I actually felt OK at the 45 mile mark. Not good enough to do a century but I knew I shouldn't have a problem making it back.
New Egypt is where the group split up. I headed north with metric ride and Laura, Linda (who decided to do the century) and Ricky headed south for an extra 35 miles. When I created the metric route I decided to come back Hill Rd. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea putting the hills near the end of a long ride. The group spread out a little but nobody had a problem with the hills.
By the time we got to Allentown I was starting to feel the heat and miles. I asked if anybody needed a stop but we decided just to grind out the last 8 miles to the end. We actually did make a quick stop in Allentown as I saw Ron by Woody's so we stopped for a few minutes to talk to him.
As we crossed 130 and rode on Meadow Rd I was starting to fade a little. I had drank as much Gatoraid as my stomach could handle and taken a clif shot. It definitely helped me make it through the ride but I had weird sugar buzz on while feeling dehydrated.
I led everybody back to the park then headed for home. Jack followed me to get a few more miles. He had ridden in from home and needed the extra miles to get a century in. I was happy to get 74 mile in. I cramped up about a mile from my house but was able to push through it and get home.
It felt really good to finally be off the bike and in air conditioning. After Jack left I had to sit down on the floor for 15 mins just to get enough energy to clean up and get something to eat.
It took me a hour and a half to be able to be truly functional again. I'm glad I didn't try for a century especially after hearing that Laura cramped up at the end of the ride. In heat like we had today I can only stay hydrated for so long so 74 was more than enough for me.
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