As of Friday afternoon, I was still waffling. With my confidence shaken by a couple sub-par (in my opinion) performances in the preceding weeks, and considering my general malaise, I came up with a short list of reasons why giving it a miss would be the smart and responsible thing to do:
- I had missed church the previous two weekends, first because Turtle and I were in San Antonio, and then last weekend because the Bonham ride and trip home took me longer than I had estimated. And then on Sunday evening, when I had intended to go, I fell into my usual Sunday routine and forgot. If I did the century, I wouldn't make it home in time to go again this week—and would be too exhausted to go, in any case.
- Time. At a 15 mph pace, I estimated that it would take in excess of 9 hours to complete the ride. Figure about 6½ hours of actual riding and at least another 2 or 3 hours for a lunch break and other stops.
- Turtle had been patiently waiting for a block of my time so that we could put together the initial design template for her business web site. If I did the century, I'd be gone all day Saturday (see #2) and most likely wiped out for a lot of Sunday.
- The weather forecast called for 20% chance of thunderstorms starting Saturday afternoon. The prospect of riding the latter portion of a 100-mile ride in the rain and having to dodge lightning bolts didn't thrill me.
- Finally, if it turned out that I'm just not strong enough to go the distance, Turtle would already be a good hour and a half away (at church) when I discovered it. There'd be no one to come and retrieve my capital-L-on-the-forehead-wearing butt.
If you want to know how the Fall Century went, you'll have to wait and see if rcarlino (who probably didn't wimp out) posts a comment about it.
4 comments:
I loved the rain on Sunday!
Foo, yes, I did do the PBA Fall Century on Saturday and felt pretty good afterwards. A little sore in spots, but otherwise OK. Actually, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I still wouldn't call it "easy", but it wasn't really a torture test either. I thought the Collin Classic 75-mile ride back in June in 97 degree heat was far more difficult. I think you're selling yourself short on your athletic abilities--you would have been just fine. I would have enjoyed your company on the ride, although a certain sub-5-ft tall blonde woman with a bellowing "LEFT TURN", "RIGHT TURN" in a decidedly French accent ensured that nobody felt bored on the ride. There were plenty of rest stops and the PBA prez, Chris, kept the pace nice and moderate (there were 3 groups--one fast, one moderate, and one slow. I went with Chris on the moderate one). Oh, and the rain stayed away too. Temperature was perfect. All in all a great ride. You will definitely have to do this one next time.
You did the right thing. :-)
You made time for the Turtle!
That was nice!
Wasn't it Turle???
B-)
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