Paul's 100 Mile Challenge - Colorado, Nov 26 2011

The 100 mile challenge I think is a great idea - though it started off as mum's challenge - so she had most input! However when she picked the date in November I knew it was not going to be a very good time for me - right in the middle of World Cup set up in Beaver Creek (my paying job heading up the dye team!) However it was mum's challenge after all - and she didn't want to leave it too long and lose momentum - she gave herself three months to train!! In the end it worked out OK as I had the day off - I had been wondering how I would fit in 100 miles after a day on the mountain! Only trouble was I had worked every day up till then and my bike had no chain. I had tried to go to the bike shop twice but had been caught out by Thanksgiving closing!

So on the day of the ride my first task was to buy a chain. The first shop I tried at 10am was still closed - but fortunately the second was open and so I was able to buy and fit my chain. I also wanted to buy some overboots for my shoes as I knew it was going to be pretty cold out there - however they didn't have my size so I had to settle for toe caps instead - assured they would work just as well!! It was then pointed out that I had snow tyres on my bike - which as it wasnt really that snowy out might not be a good idea - they would really slow me down! So I headed back to the apartment to change tyres and was finally ready to set off.

I headed off on the bike path and immediately found some snow!! Interesting riding through it with my road tyres! I took it easy to start with - just having fun and enjoying being out on my bike again - and being entertained by Richard's tweets telling me how mum, dad and the Roswell crew were doing!! The bike path became a little confusing and so I had to go on to the road. I realised that I was going mainly downhill and that my idea of riding out 50 miles and then back again might not be such a good one - 50 miles back all uphill? Maybe not!! So I decided to turn around when I got to Eagle. After about 10 miles I stopped to put on more clothes - it was much colder than I had expected - colder than it had been up on the mountain all week!!

32 miles at Eagle and I was feeling pretty good! It was uphill now when I turned so harder work of course! However I miscalculated the distance back to Edwards so by the time I arrived my feet were really freezing - to the point I was worried about frostbite! Anyway this made me ride even quicker to try to warm up! So at 55 miles (10 miles further on that I had intended to stop) I was freezing with an empty water bottle - so I had a huge hot chocolate and some water and started to recover - although it took ages for my feet to warm up! Then I rode another 5 miles back to my apartment to get a load of extra clothes.

Then I was ready to head off uphill through Vail to do the 18 miles out, leaving me the final 18 miles downhill - another good plan, or so I thought. Halfway to Vail and the bike path was closed and so I had to take the Highway - but I noticed a shortcut through a gate back onto the bike path - however I ended up riding through 2 inches of snow (again very interesting) only to reach another gate which was closed! So, back to the Highway! It was getting dark now so I exited the Highway into West Vail once again back on the bike path, covered in snow, headed towards Lionshead. At Lionshead to go any further it meant taking a very icy road which I decided was probably not a very sensible thing to do in the dark - I really didnt want to fall on the ice! So once again I turned round and as I was beginning to get cold again I stopped a couple of miles downhill at McDonald's for another hot chocolate and the chance to warm up again! Ended up sitting here for quite a while to let my feet warm up again.

After this McDonald's stop I had another 25 miles to go - in the dark - but I knew the first 8 at least would be downhill! After that I decided to turn uphill towards Minturn - just a few miles - a lovely little village - it was kind of cool to ride through it in the dark! Then I turned round to go back towards the apartment, realising I still wouldn't have done enough miles. I was thinking of stopping for a while but my toes were now only cold and not frozen and I really needed to get finished! So I carried on past the apartment and did a loop through Avon and back to Eagle Vail and then back down the main road - until I was finally finished!! It had taken 7 hours 15 minutes of riding - which is pretty slow - but then half of it was uphill at altitude and it was extremely cold!! I was pretty tired at the end - wished I had started earlier without all the delays - there were times when snow tyres would have been useful but overall the roads were clear so they would have slowed me down further! The most important thing was that I didnt fall. And it was a great challenge - really was a 100 mile challenge for me - not easy - but a great thing to do!! I am very proud of mum, dad, Julie and John for finishing their first century - a really great effort - and I look forward to the next one! But let's make it in the summer - please!!