The Santa Fe Century

I first heard about the Santa Fe Century from a coworker. It was an inexpensive ride, only $30, and just about a five hour drive from home. Not a bad combo. I’ve never really spent any time in Santa Fe, so I was sold.  A new adventure and a new ride, how could you ask for anything more?

This ride would be the first in a series of rides that I would be doing to kick off the summer. I figured it was a good start to the season and a good training ride to prepare for Ride the Rockies. I had the impression this ride wasn’t as supported as other’s I’ve done, but I was pleasantly surprised and over all I think it was a fun ride.

I wanted Jessica to join me on this ride, but I wasn’t able to convince her. She said that she wanted the Elephant Rock to be her first Century. I would have enjoyed her company, but it was a hard ride, much harder that I thought it would be.

I got up early, wanting to get on the road by 7:00am. All went to plan and I was rolling at just about seven. It was a little colder than I expected. For the first two hours I was freezing. The start of the ride was nice though, mostly downhill and I got to ride fast. There were tons of people getting flats strait away, I was a little nervous, but I made it without a hitch.

The first rest stop was located in a small “ghost town” called Madrid, which I actually visited the day before. It’s just a street with some old buildings. There are some sets there that were used in the film, Wild Hogs. On the bike, I passed through the town rather quickly, so I’m glad I got to spend some time there the day before.

Leaving Madrid, things got a little steep. Lots of climbing. My legs started to tighten and I had horrible pains throbbing down my thighs. I would stand up to get some temporary relief, but as we continued to climb I had little time to stretch out.

About 40 miles in I came to the second rest stop. This rest stop was positioned before the dreaded heartbreak hill. Driving the course the day before I had seen heartbreak hill form the car. It looked steep, but I had no idea just how steep it really was on the bike.

I left the rest stop knowing what was ahead, but I also knew that once I hit the top it was mostly down hill for many miles. As I approached heartbreak hill I passed a few people. I didn’t want to be stuck behind them on this hill. I came around a bend and quickly saw the steep hill before me. There were a hand full of people ahead of me. They quickly gave in and jumped off the bike to walk up the dreaded hill. I wouldn’t give in though, I had to make it up this hill. I got out of the saddle standing up and pedaled as hard as I could. I glanced down at my heart rate, and it quickly approached 190BPM. This hill was hard, really hard, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything so difficult in my life. There were two things that made this climb even more difficult, traffic and the people walking there bikes. Trying to dodge both and stay on the bike was a challenge in itself. Once I reached the top of the hill there was a tremendous sense of relief.

The next several miles were mostly down hill. It was a great stretch and made up for the insanely difficult hill I just climbed. I had been breathing so hard my throat was soar and it was hard to breath. But I know I still had about half the ride left to complete.

I got to a great stretch where I was able to get up to 44mph and just cruse. It was great. There was a guy behind me for several miles. Other than him, there wasn’t many people around. His GPS beeped ever mile which started to get annoying. Finally my legs got tired and I let him pass me. At this point I started to get tired.
The route started to change as we headed back to Santa Fe. We started climbing again, which was not something that I was looking forward to. The last 10 miles of the ride was hard, I was tired and it wasn’t an easy course. Finally we started descending into Santa Fe, I started to speed up and I knew then finish line was close buy. I pedaled a hard as I could, I wanted to get this ride over with. Just over 6 hours of ride time, I crossed the finish line and was relived to get off the bike.

This was a difficult ride, much more so that I anticipated. I was exhausted and my legs were really sore. I’m glad I got it under my belt, but it makes me a little scared of what to expect with Ride the Rockies. I think the Elephant Rock course is going to be difficult too, but I’m happy Jessica and I got a chance to ride some of it. I think that will help us, and we know the second half is a nice easy ride.