Seagull Century

Most of my focus yestereday was on the rear wheel of the bicycle in front of me.  The hundred miles of the Seagul Century goes by a lot quicker when you're in a pace line and yesterday that's where I was most of the time. 

The Seagull Century is a "show and go" ride organized by Salisbury University in Salisbury Marlyand and may be the flattest 100-mile bicycle ride in the U.S.  The organizers offer two different 100-mile routes; a few years ago the original route got too crowded with over 5,000 riders and they added a second.  There is also a shorter, 62-mile "metric century."  Riders start from the university campus in a mass of colorful jerseys and swirling bicycles funneled into the tunnel under Ocean Highway and formed into a long flowing line of cyclists off on their day's adventure.  The day is new, bodies are rested and feuled with last night's pasta, and there's lots of conversation in the peloton.  On a day with good weather like yesterday, the early October sunrise comes a little after 7 a.m.  There's mist hanging over some of the fields.

The day warmed up and the mist burned off pretty quickly, and the line of riders thinned out within an hour or so.  I rolled along nicely with a group of five or six to the second rest stop at about mile 45.  There were only two of us to the third stop at Assateague Island.  And I was on my own for most of the next 20 miles to the last stop and it wasn't fun.  But after stretching out on the grass and eating a bit, I was ready for the last portion, especially since it was only 16 miles.  Not too far down the road my last paceline of the day came by and I came in feeling really good.  Feeling much better than these guys.

I've done the ride now maybe eight or nine times, not every year becuse several years we've been away travelling.  But now that we have friends with a house in the area, who've given us pretty much a standing invitation, Lynda and I come more regularly.  It's now the default event for the Columbus Day weekend.