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Sierra Century: I rode neither a full century nor in the Sierras. Discuss.

My friends Barb and Jess talked me into doing the Sierra Century, a bike ride with several distance options that wind around the steep foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I don't generally love courses known for both scorching heat and endless climbing, but it sounded like good training for Ride the Rockies, which is coming up very soon.

Dave and I signed up for the 100-miler. It would be Dave's first time riding that distance. I've done 100+ miles many times, but I was hesitant about the 7,000 feet of climbing. The 4,700 feet of climbing in the 67-mile ride sounded like plenty to me. That is a lot of uphill riding for one day.

Riding in the cool and damp Bay Area, I almost never leave home without an extra layer. I always have arm warmers, possibly knee warmers, maybe a vest. When we got out of the car at 6am Saturday, it was still cool out, but I noticed that NONE of the 2,000 other riders wore anything other than shorts and a jersey. I waffled about this. I really wanted to put on arm warmers. I was in denial. I knew that it would warm up fast, but I am not used to this. I left the arm warmers in the car.

We started riding at 6:30am. The first 20 miles were flat and fun, and my average speed at the first rest stop was around 17mph. I knew that number would drop quickly. And, yeah, it wasn't even 8am and it was already getting hot.

The next 20 miles were gorgeous but tough as we followed Sutter Creek upstream toward the little mining town of Volcano. Around mile 30 I pretty much talked myself out of doing the full 100 miles. My back was already sore, my arms were tight. I did make friends with a woman who was going my speed and who had also done Ironman Coeur d'Alene last year, and we chatted for several miles, but I lost her at the next rest stop.

The third 20-mile block was difficult. We climbed a pretty steep grade that was about 7 miles long, in searing heat. After a nice long descent to the rest stop at mile 60, my friends had talked me back into doing 100 miles.

But as we enjoyed the awesome rest-stop food (ice-cold sodas, pretzels, sandwiches, chips, cookies, m&ms, fruit), what seemed like the entire fleet of local law enforcement vehicles zoomed by the rest stop, going at impossible speeds up the narrow mountain road, sirens whining. Several Highway Patrol cars, two fire trucks, an ambulance. This is a sound that always freaks me out when I'm on my bike, but on this day I found it especially worrisome, especially since Dave was was ahead of us (along with 1,000 other cyclists) and because I am PARANOID AND NEUROTIC.

As we went back to our bikes we asked a volunteer what happened, and he said, and I quote, "Some guy got run over and died." A cyclist? we asked. Yep. Kind of an insensitive way to put it, but yes, a cyclist was killed during the ride.

That was it. I was done. I was pretty upset, too. Not as upset as I would have been if I had had to ride by the accident site after it happened, as many riders behind us did.

I bade my friends farewell and rode the final 7 miles back to the finish, completing the metric century. (Did I mention that it had 4,700 feet of climbing???) Then I headed back out onto the course to extend my ride to 80 miles. I crossed paths with Dave along the way as he returned from the 100-miler, and we rode back together.

Back at the fairgrounds, Dave and I enjoyed the post-ride food and then flopped out on a picnic blanket and waited for our friends to finish. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, except for the fact that every 20 minutes we had to move our blanket to keep up with the shade so we wouldn't cook in the sun.

The next morning we got up and went for a short ride, I did a 40-minute run, and then we hit the wineries of Amador County in a big way. More on that tomorrow.

June 5, 2006 8:45 PM