July 27 Redway, CA to Ukiah, CA 96.8 miles

Redway, CA to Ukiah, CA 96.8 miles 7:01:10

Early morning wake-up call. I'm a bit nervous about today's ride at nearly 100 miles it will be my longest ride to date. The previous two centuries: the CASA Century on May 19^th is when I crashed and the 95 mile day out of Newport is when my derailleur sheared off.

Out the church door and down the steep hill I climbed to get to the church yesterday. It was easier to go down, but required caution. Shortly after leaving the church, I had my first climb of the day. The climb was somewhat difficult and my legs were not fully awake. My slow ascent left me near the back of the riding pack and far behind my riding partners.

The ride to the first rest stop seemed much longer than 25 miles. I refueled at the rest stop and caught up to my riding buddy Hannah. She only has two more days with the group. She'll be leaving us when we reach San Francisco, the half point in the ride and the end of segment two. She and I rode together off and on between the first rest stop and the second.

This section had a serious climb, meaning it was two or more miles long. In a car such a climb will take two or three minutes and depending on the grade the car may slow a bit, but otherwise it is no problem. But for a cyclist, especially one like myself who is not the most efficient hill climb, a 2 plus mile climb can sap all the strength from one's legs and leave the person gasping for air and praying for the end (the top) to be near. This climb is less winding than some, so it is possible to see the top off in the distance. When I'm climbing and I can see the top, it is like the shoreline from the open water—it appeas closer than it really is. I must say., the human body is amazing. Climbing the hill, I feel like I'm going to die and I'm praying not only for the top of the hill but also for the ride to be over, and then comes the down hill hitting speeds of 40 miles an hour, filling the lungs with fresh air, and the legs with new energy.

I cruised out of the next rest stop, which was at mile 60ish. I was burning up the flats with a 21 mile hour pace. Hannah was pushing to keep up with me. Of course, all that will change when we hit the next big climb. She's a natural cyclist and a very good climber. Part of the reason I was riding so fast was due to the fact that my left foot was numb. I just wanted to get to the end of the days ride. I rode for about 10 miles with my foot being numb. I had developed a spasm in my lower back, which was causeing my foot to be numb. I pulled off the road and into a rest area where I could lay down on the ground to have Hannah stretch my leg and back. All stretched and feeling much better and back on the bike for the homestretch of today's ride.

The homestretch included a long descent, which I flew down. As I was speeding down the hill, I happened to look down to my right as an exit approached. It was a good thing I did, because the exit was the exit I needed to take. I took the exit, and stopped to signal other riders, as they came flying down the hill, that this was the exit. Geezer Tom was the last person down in the group I had been riding with so I hoped back on my bike and rode with him all the way into Ukiah.

We met up with some other folks in our group, who had stopped off to buy a few things. We rode through town looking for the turn to the church. We were more than a mile beyond the total distance and had yet to see the turn. The group Tom and I met up with kept riding further, while we stopped for a Malt and a Shake. We asked the women who waited on us where such and such address was. She told us it was a mile or so back. After our ice cream break we turned and headed back the way we came. We bumped into Blake and Sarah who had also missed the turn to the church.

We rode a little over a mile almost back to where we entered the town of Ukiah to locate our turn to the church.

Our host church was the Ukiah Methodist Church. Members of the church cooked us a fantastic dinner and breakfast as well. We had a brief presentation that evening at the church, which was open to the public. The presentation was lightly attended, it was a Friday night after all, but those in attendance asked great questions.