25 things I love about the bike – #22

Century.

Sorry, no cool pictures today. Only a cool concept, courtesy of FixedGear.

One Hundred Miles, in one day, ideally in close to one sitting. Three digits of distance under human power. Hartford to Boston in time for lunch.

I’ve done it. Twice that I’m sure of, but there might be another one in there. Once was Houston to LaGrange (yep, the town with the Chicken House). The other was Houston to Shiner for Bar-B-Q and Beer.

It’s just a good distance. Lots of scenery, a reasonable amount of time, etc. It doesn’t carry quite the emotional baggage as “Marathon”, so it’s not quite so scary. Plus, you can always mumble *metric* before you loudly say “CENTURY” and take credit for the 62 mile ride.

I can’t immediately come up with any historical “century” references, but don’t think it really needs them. Everyone knows what 100 is.

Then, there’s the allure of the five-hour-century. Average of 20 miles per hour under human power. Once I work out the running bug, and the boys decide that it’s not quite so cool to hop on pop on weekend mornings, the five-hour-century is going to become my holy grail. Buy stock in Continental Tire.

That’s it. Remember, I will consider requests if any of y’all have cycling questions.

2 thoughts on “25 things I love about the bike – #22”

  1. you will come to california and we will ride a century on the 395 across the mohave, past mt. whitney and up into mammoth.

  2. I have to admit, the idea of a century really appeals to me. Of course, so did the marathon, so I guess it’s no great surprise.

    A five hour one, though, sounds incredibly daunting. Good luck with that!

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