Tour de Furniture Report

• Distance: 100K (62 Miles) Ended up being 63.9 Miles
  
• Time: Approximately 3 hr 25 min, averaged 18.5 mph
  
• Weather: Sunny, 10-12 mph winds, air temps in the low to mid 80's

Going into this event I didn't know what to expect. After completing it, I'm pretty sure I won't do it again. There were maybe 75 people that chose to do the 100K distance like I did, and except for a few at the back, everyone rode off in a large draft pack to start the event. After having done several group rides in the past I was well aware of the energy saved by staying in a large group of riders, so I chose to go with the pack. There were police stopping traffic at all the intersections until we got outside the city limits. One motorcycle cop stayed with the lead pack and would ride ahead to block traffic at any intersection we were approaching. I wasn't really paying much attention to the pace, but instead concentrated on not colliding with anyone that was surrounding me on all sides. Everything was going relatively smooth until around the 20 mile mark. I could tell the pace was starting to pick up, and when we made a left hand turn I found myself getting dropped off the back of the pack. I looked at my speed and saw that I was going 23 mph while the pack was pulling away. For the ironman I'm hoping to average somewhere around 19 mph, so trying to catch up to the pack which was going several mph faster than that was not going to help me in the long run. I decided that I would let that lead pack go and I would continue the rest of the ride at the pace I was more comfortable with. I looked behind me to see how many people were in the same situation as me and was shocked to find that there was no one in sight. Apparently the few people that chose not to go with the lead pack at the beginning were now miles behind me and I was all by myself. The bad part about being dropped from the pack was that there were no more motorcycle escorts to stop traffic. I had to stop for all traffic which further increased the distance between me and the pack. I rode the next 12 miles thinking that I couldn't believe I paid to do a solo bike ride which I could have done for free. When I got to mile 32 I saw one rider up in front of me and I wasn't totally convinced he was even participating in the event. I just assumed it was some random guy out riding his bike. As I caught up to him I was able to determine that he was part of the event. He was apparently glad to see someone else because he wasn't familiar with the course and didn't have a map of which way to go. The two of us rode together for about 10 miles before we reached a designated event rest stop that I had planned to stop at. When we arrived there were several other riders there, but most appeared to be doing the 50 mile course instead of the one I was doing. I picked up some food and water and decided to head back out by myself after a brief stop. This part of the course was where most of the shorter distances were starting to come together and we would all be on the same route back to the finish. I was a little relieved that at least I would see a few people on the way back, and I was able to pass a lot of the slower riders from the shorter distances. I got back to the finish and "checked in". I was informed that since a lot of the riders from the shorter distances had already finished, the event organizers went ahead and gave away all of the door prizes so everyone wouldn't have to wait around. To make matters worse, I noticed that the event bike jersey which I purchased at packet pick-up the day before the event was now being sold for $25 less than I paid for it. I asked one of the Red Cross employees that was in charge of running the whole event why I was charged $25 more and I was told "you should see what we charge for them on Monday". One of the volunteers overheard the conversation and said "at least it's for a good cause". Apparently with that logic this volunteer would be ok if someone stole money from her as long as they used it for a good cause. I think next year and all future years for this event, I'll keep my money and ride my bike by myself for free.