The Watchman 100

I have done a century each year I’ve been cycling. My first was the ULCER, around Utah Lake. Last year was the Heber Valley Century (which I didn’t even write about because it was so frustrating, but here are the stats). This year, with the family heading to St. George, I thought it would be fun to do the Watchman 100.

I hadn’t heard anything about the ride. It isn’t a big, popular ride. None of my riding buddies volunteered to join me. Also, given the business of the summer and with my recent involvement in scouting, I haven’t been able to train as much as I would like. So, I was a little nervous how I would perform.

Spoiler: I did remarkably well!

My previous centuries had been long affairs. I just wanted to complete them, and time wasn’t a factor. This time, I could go at my own pace without having to worry about staying with anyone else. I didn’t stop much this time. At the lunch stop I only was there for 15 minutes. Just long enough for a couple grapes, half of a PB&J, some water, and an orange slice. Other support stops along the route were just to top off my water bottles.

I carried some Honey Stinger waffles with me which were great. They were a little cumbersome to eat on the bike, but they tasted good and prevented me from hunger-bonking. I had a couple GU gels too, but only toward the end when I was feeling like I was running out of gas.

I also wasn’t scared to suck wheel. In cycling, you can save a lot of energy by tucking in closely behind another rider. I spent the majority of miles following closely behind someone else. At one point, around mile 65, I slowed way down to let a few guys catch up to me just so I could join their train, get out of the headwind, and save some energy. It worked great.

Manina and the kids had grand designs of meeting me at the finish. I had initially told them to expect me between 1:30pm and 2:00pm, since my goal was a six hour ride. Manina called me at about 1:00pm and told me she was just leaving to come meet me at the finish line. I was at mile 90 at that point, but I was out on my own and struggling a little bit. I told her she’d better hurry if she wanted to beat me to the finish line because I wanted to get to be done.

I came into the finish line without any cheers or cowbells or any other fanfare from my family. But, it was very nice to be done. I enjoyed some fruit, lots of water, and a soda. Then Manina and the kids drove up with some popsicles. We hung around the finish line for a while, with me eating and drinking anything in sight. It was nice to be done.

As I wheeled my bike back to the truck to load it up, the front tire exploded. Megan happened to be nearby and thought she’d been shot, but everyone was OK. My tire, however, was not. It had a cut in the sidewall about a centimeter long. The tube had been pinching out of that cut, and it finally exploded. The timing of this explosion could have been much worse — imagine this happening while going down a hill at 40mph. It certainly would have ruined what turned out to be a very, very good ride.

Here is a link to the GPS data for the ride.