"Sunday in June" ride report

Sunday in June is a bike tour that takes riders through Ohio's Amish country in Geauga county. The ride features distances of 25/50/62/100 miles. I chose the century distance.

My day began at 6am when Jodi picked me up. Jodi is great to ride to an event with. She is always calm, friendly, and punctual. I am always very grateful for her generosity and kindness. Tho I am sure I don't show it very well with my stoicism.
That said, Thank You Jodi, you are Awesome!.

Anyhow, we arrived in Burton at 6:45 and met with other CTC members including bloggers DaisyDuc and Craig. Next we descended on the Cleveland Touring Club(the other CTC) volunteers to register. We headed back to the cars to get our selves together. Jodi was doing the 62 mile route as she is tapering for Ironman Cda in 2 weeks. So I made plans with CTC member Adam for the ride home. At 7:30 we joined the front group and departed.

The group took off quickly and I decided that the pace was not mine. I found my pace and settled in. I was feeling a little bloated and found aero position to be uncomfortable. At mile 12 was an aid station for me to relieve my abdominal pressure....I missed the stop.

Shortly after the missed rest stop I hit a bump on a bridge. My bike started making some not so funny noise. I stopped peddling, watched the lead pack disappear, and did a quick inspection. The bike was fine, just a light adjustment and I was off. I was also alone.
Being alone was not what I wanted to do. The next 20 miles were spent alone anyhow.

The scenery was gorges. Rolling hills through Amish county. Wild flowers, tree lined fields, horses, blue skies, buggies and and many amish children enjoying the day watching the cyclist pass by the farm.

Eventually I was joined by another rider for a few miles. He pulled over for a pit stop and I continued on.....The wrong way.

The course was color coded with arrows panted on the road. I was following green. Green was gone. I backtracked, picked up the correct coarse and joined the second pack. Getting off course was a blessing. I was no longer alone.

The rest stop soon arrived and I headed for stress relief. Nothing was moving. Not cool. I was struggling to take in fluids because of this. Uhggg.
I gave up and moved along. The rest of the first 62 was fun despite my personal issues. I joined a group of other triathletes and the miles just slipped by.

At mile 62 we were back in Burton. I had some lemonade and pressed on.

From 62 through 82 I never saw another bike. I was out of sports drink and the entire stretch seemed up hill. At one point I crested a hill and felt like I could see the Atlantic. The view was incredible. I also was excited to finally be heading downhill. That lasted a 1/4 mile before turning right and heading up another hill. When the downhill finally arrived, the road was so bad that I wanted to go uphill again.

At mile 88, I arrived at the final aid station. I refilled my Gatorade, had some water mellon and finally rid myself of the internal issues....12 miles to go. I felt fine.

The next 12 miles were tough. Mostly uphill and very little shade....Seems like uphill was always in direct sunlight and downhill was always shady, making it difficult to see bumps, potholes and buggy grooves.

I passed a group of Amish kids being pulled by a pony. Just behind them was another kid riding a pony. I laughed.
I also saw a Buggy shop. I tried to Imagine a really aggressive buggy salesman pushing used buggys on the Yoders and the Millers.

At mile 100 I passed an athlete named Kurt. He was doing a brick run. He is also training for IM UK.

At mile 102.63 I finished my ride.

As I entered the building where lunch was being served I saw Adam and his friend Jack.
I asked, "How long have you been waiting?"
"Not long at all", they said. " You paced smart".
We ate pasta and salad and headed home.

The day was mentally demanding. Physically I felt like I had trained well for this distance. I did what I set out to do.
My first Century.

Big thanks to Jodi and Adam for the ride.