Double Century

*note - this is unedited and likely riddled with grammatical errors*


This one was a number of years in the making.  I'd tried planning/riding a Double Century since 2007, but things never seemed to line up.  I decided to give it another try and open it up to some other riders.  In the end, everyone bailed due to injury or other obligations except Katie and me.  Luckily, the weather decided to cooperate, and predicted highs were in the low 90s instead of the low 100s of earlier in the week.  I made the decision to take my road bike for comfort, so I swapped out my wheel sets the night before.


Katie and I got up at 4, quickly got ready and ate some breakfast before heading out.  We jumped in the car and drove to the starting point in Pflugerville.  Lit up like Christmas trees, we were able to get rolling at about 5:15, which was about 15 minutes later than I was hoping.  As we left behind the lights of Pflugerville, the roads were quite dark, which required riding a slow pace to keep an eye out for road hazards.  The first ten miles was along county roads with little traffic.  We turned the wrong direction at one point, but it actually ended up saving us a little time.


As light grew on the horizon, we turned onto 290.  I was a little nervous about riding on the highway, but the shoulder was nice and wide, and the road surface was like butter.  The ten miles we were on 290 seemed to disappear with little effort.  We rolled into Elgin and made our first pit stop at a gas station on the edge of town.  I ate a chocolate chip granola bar and tried to drink a lot of water.  My plan was to stay on top of hydration and nutrition early on, as to not end up in a deficit.


In high spirits, we made our way through Elgin and headed out a Farm-to-Market road.  I had to stop and consult the directions a few times to ensure we were on the right road(s), as a few of the roads went by multiple names.  Along the way, we got chased by dogs a couple times, which freaked Katie out a little more than it did me.  She was riding behind, so she was the one the dogs were after.  As the road we were on went from Farm-to-Market to County Road to just a regular road, the surface got rougher.  I was on the lookout for a right turn where the ended, but instead the road went left.  I checked the directions again, and the road was definitely supposed to go right.  I pulled out my phone and consulted Google maps.  Sure enough, there was supposed to be a right going right, but it no longer existed.  Luckily, it was only a short work around to get back on track.


We turned onto another FM road that had a nice shoulder.  The should on the road would last for a few miles, disappear for a bit, and then reappear.  There were a few rolling hills, but nothing that required a crazy amount of work to get up.  We had another encounter with a dog, which resulted in the dog almost getting hit by a truck.  Katie claims the dog was foaming at the mouth, but it just looked like a normal dog to me.  When we hit the 40 mile mark, I asked Katie how she was doing.  We were still about 5 or 6 miles from Lexington, and we both agreed that we should just push on and take a break there.  We were both dreaming of kolaches.  We rode into Lexington and found a convenience store/grill.  Luckily, they had kolaches!


We each ate two kolaches and filled up on water before pushing off for the next segment.  It was still very humid and starting to warm up.  Luckily, there were patchwork clouds in the sky, so we were getting occasional shade on the run.  We continued on FM 696 for about another eight miles before turning onto CR 324, which turned out to be what might be the worst stretch of paved road in the entire state.  For eight miles we battled potholes, terrible chip seal, rock and tar mixture, and general terrible surface.  During this stretch, I went to shift gears and my pedals started spinning freely like I had dropped my chain, yet I could hear the chain turning.  It quickly caught on the middle chain ring (I have a triple on the road bike) and I chalked it up to needing a tune up.  When it happened again, I made a mental note to check things out on our next rest stop, however, when I glanced down, it appeared as if my middle chain ring was warped.  Over the next couple hundred yards, I studied it.  The chain slipped again, and I pulled over.  


When I hopped off my bike to inspect, I was shocked to see that I was missing 3 chain ring bolts!  When I swapped my wheels the night before, all five were there.  The two remaining bolts were loose and almost ready to fall off as well.  I grabbed my multi tool and tightened the two remaining bolts.  I tried to jiggle the middle and big rings, but they seemed firmly in place.  I shifted the bike into my granny gear, and prepared to make a "bail out" call.  We were only 65 miles into the ride, and I wasn't sure I could make it with only my small ring.  As I contemplated, I realized that it would not only take a while to be rescued, but it would be difficult to describe our location.  With that, I hopped back on the bike told Katie that I only had my small ring, so I couldn't ride very fast.  I'd have to monitor the bolts, but as long as I stayed in the small ring, I shouldn't have a problem, as the bolts had no effect on the small ring.


After a few more miles, we came out on Highway 21 and turned toward Caldwell.  The road had a wide should and a fairly smooth surface.  I was having to ride a higher cadence than I like, but in the back of my mind I thought this mechanical issue could be a blessing in disguise.  First, it was keeping my speed in check and keeping me from doing something stupid like hammering 20+.  The slower pace would hopefully pay dividends on the second half of the ride.  Secondly, it was forcing me to ride at a faster cadence, which is something that I've been trying to work on anyway.  


After a few miles on 21, we stopped at a gas station to take a short rest break.  I had a Tabasco Slim Jim, a Red Bull, and refilled my Gatorade.  Katie had the same, except her Slim Jim was regular flavor.  I checked my chain ring bolts and they were still tight, so I lowered my panic level a bit.  As we continued on 21, I could feel the wind had picked up and we were riding almost directly into it.  We turned off the highway and took a series of county roads, which took us into and then out of Caldwell.  I had to stop and consult the directions and Google maps a couple times on that stretch, as the roads didn't match up with the written directions.  I think we too a slightly longer way, as we ended up in Snook, but it allowed for another rest stop before the final push into College Station.


As we left Snook on FM 60, I started feeling the fatigue in my legs.  The headwind was becoming very annoying and the heat was starting to take its toll.  My general attitude was headed south very quickly.  I tried to push the negative thoughts out of my head, but I really started doubting that I could turn around and ride back to Austin.  We were already over 100 miles and we had not even arrived in College Station yet.  I was hoping a meal would re-energize me, but I wasn't convinced.  The original route included a loop through campus, but we cut that out to ride directly to Northgate, as we had already hit 105 miles.


We made our way into Fitzwilly's and ordered burgers, fries, beers, soft drinks, and water.  The staff at Fitz was super friendly (as always) and inquisitive about our ride.  We chatted with them and answered questions about how far the trip was, when we left, when we thought we'd get back, and other similar topics.  Katie and I both took down a cheeseburger and fries.  I added three glasses of Dr. Pepper and a ton of water to my lunch.  After the foot and some time off the bike, my spirits rose a bit.  I took a look at the map and found what I think was the original route back to Caldwell, so I told Katie we were going to follow that back, as I figured it might cut off a couple miles on the return.


We thanked the Fitz staff and got back on the bikes.  The wind was now at our backs as we headed out of town.  The temperature had dropped a bit and the wind felt cooler.  All around us in the distance were dark clouds and signs of rain.  As we turned off FM 60 to the county roads, I felt a few rain drops and Katie started noticing lighting off in the distance.  I was hoping that if a thunderstorm rolled through, we would be able find shelter somewhere.  We continue to ride through verdant farmland with very little traffic.  As we were about to crest a hill, Katie mentioned that she thought she had a flat tire.  We stopped at the top, and sure enough, her front tire was pretty low.  As we changed the tube, we heard thunder in the distance and spotted more lighting.


Tube replaced, we got back on the road.  It was getting a little uncomfortable sitting on the saddle, but I wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought I would be.  The ride back into Caldwell felt quick.  We made a stop at another gas station and picked up more water and Gatorade.  Katie spotted push-pops, so we snagged a couple of the orange delights and made our way over to a table to enjoy them.  There was one open table, with the rest of the tables occupied by locals, who were staring awkwardly at us.  One of the older men asked us how we were doing in a nice, but suspicious, manner.  As we sat and ate our treats, I tried to ignore the room full of eyes staring at us in our spandex.


I made another change to the route to try and cut a few more miles off, as we were on pace to go over 200.  We went straight through town and took 21 out instead of the country roads that would have dropped us on 21 outside of town.  With the smooth road and tail wind, we were back on the terrible stretch of road called CR 324 in what felt like no time.  The plan was to try and make it back to Lexington before taking another break.  The rough road was really rattling my hands and arms, but it was making sitting on the saddle uncomfortable.  After what felt like way too long, we finally made it back onto FM 696 and headed toward Lexington and regained the tail wind.


Just as we rolled into Lexington, we hit the 155 mile mark.  Katie had begun to get a little down on herself somewhere around mile 130 or so, but once we got over the 150 mile mark, she seemed to taste the possibility of actually pulling off the feat.  She was really, really uncomfortable in the saddle.  We had already covered 75 more miles than her longest ride ever.  We took a break at the same grill/store as we had eaten kolaches in that morning.  I'm sure they thought we were crazy coming back through, but we didn't really care and joked about it.  We split a cosmic brownie, which tasted absolutely out of this world (pun intended) and then reluctantly climbed back on our bikes.  I eased my butt back onto the saddle as the pain slowly returned.  The next stop was Elgin, and from there we would be in striking distance from the finish.


As we set out for Elgin, my legs were actually feeling strong.  If I had more gears, I could have easily picked up the pace, although Katie and I were in it together.  After 15 miles, we made a quick stop to take in a little fuel and get off the saddle for a short bit.  We split a pack of power gel chews and then started pedaling toward Elgin again.  The sun was getting close to the horizon, so I mentioned to Katie that we'd need to turn out lights back on when we made our next stop.  Once we turned onto 290, we had a nice headwind and that smooth, smooth road surface, which allowed us to ride at 18-20 mph.


We made our final rest stop at a gas station where we split a nutrigrain bar and each had a Red Bull to power us through the final 20 miles.  We were at 182 miles.  The only thing that could stop us would be a catastrophic mechanical issue, which I was praying wouldn't happen.  I tried my best to push those negative thoughts out of my head.  Tail lights on, we set back out on 290 and cruised along in high spirits.  We turned off 290 with 10 miles to go and the sun waning.  Headlights on, we worked our way north on the same county roads we had ridden in the dark that morning..  After starting in the dark, it was only fitting that we'd finish in the dark as well.  We had a quick celebratory yell at the 200 mile mark and pushed on toward the finish.


Seeing the car in the parking lot was a very welcome sight.  We pulled in with huge smiles on our faces and celebrated finishing 202.36 miles.  I had just logged 77 more miles than my longest ride ever.  Katie logged over 120 miles more than her longest ride ever!  I was both impressed and proud of her for getting through the challenge.  Doing a ride of this magnitude should be a huge confidence booster for her going into IMWI.  For me, it was finally checking off a challenge I'd been trying to accomplish for a number of years.  It felt good to finally knock this one out.


What's next?  Who knows.