Monday

Saturday's Centurions

Good morning! I hope you are well on this mild Monday morning. It is so very nice to have nice weather, isn't it? The weekend was amazing! There is nothing quite like warm sunshine and air temps in the 70s. Perfect!

A few of us did a Century or a 100 miler on Saturday. Pictured above, holding up fingers to designate how many centuries this year, are Scott, me, Jim, Roy, and Iron Bill. Bill did not hold up fingers because he doesn't have enough to show how many centuries he's done this year. Seriously. He did a few on a trainer. Amazing!

We rolled out of Parkview right at 8 on Saturday. Some of us ate breakfast at McDonald's first. Timmy G rode south for the first hour with us and then turned to go back. We headed to Orleans and then made a move to the southwest, into the hills toward French Lick. It was beautiful, stunningly so! The hills were hard but not terrible. After a few miles we headed back east, into Orleans.

After a very brief stop at Huck's, we headed south again, going past the Syria Christian Church, on our way to 56, which we took us into Livonia. From there it was the hilly Livonia to Hardinsburg Road, 7 more miles of beauty. Bill wanted to take the unaware and uninitiated to Chainsaw Hill, which is out on 66, which goes to Milltown. It was quite a climb. The payoff? A yard full of chainsaws poked into the ground. No kidding. Weird and funny.

After turning around and screaming down the hill toward Hardinsburg, we stopped at the General Store, a neat store run by Mennonites. There we got some water and replenished are nutritional supplies. We were sitting on 60 something miles. I was wearing down and the sun was warming up. Bill is a great leader. He got me back to 337 and then pulled us all from Livonia to Orleans. We had a nice little tailwind and averaged 20+ on that segment. 

From Orleans we road 37 back to Bedford and finished up our 100. It was not my best century but it wasn't terrible. I didn't bonk but wasn't as strong as I wanted to be. I'm glad we did lots of hills. They will make me stronger. Ironman Florida only has 1 hill, I think, which is a big bridge over a canal.

Rand is in Boston, probably getting ready to board a bus to be transported to the start line. I have such wonderful memories of all those experiences. I hope he has a good day today. I texted with him last night, and I think he is ready to enjoy the day.

We had a great weekend with our family. Luke surprised Kedra and me by coming home with Rebecca and Micah. What a nice surprise! Friday night we had all our kids home to enjoy some smoked chicken and other good stuff.

Yesterday was a good day at church, and then the afternoon's weather was icing on the cake! It was a good weekend no matter how it was measured. This week is going to be crazy. I have a trip to Nashville on Thursday and then all kinds of things this weekend. Oh well, it will be fun. Thanks for stopping by.