The story behind your first century ride (either Metric or Imperial)

[RobinS]

While I had cycled on and off for most of my life, in my mid forties I didn't cycle but was in to running. While training for another marathon I suffered a severe back injury - a prolapsed disk, meaning I could no longer run. Somewhat frustrated I dragged my ten year old rigid mountain bike out of the shed, fitted some slicks, and gave it a go. I could ride relatively pain free as long as long as I didn't lift my bum off the saddle. Cue a few short training rides, and a couple of weeks later, and the Norwich 100 (miles)! Done on said mountain bike, bum plonked firmly on the saddle all the way around, in 5hrs 50 minutes.

Following year, and I entered again, and it was only while on the start line that I realised that the last time I had been on a bike was doing the event the previous year!

Nowadays (ten+ years later) 100 miles is a short ride, as I am more into multi-month, multi-thousand mile tours.

 

[BikeCurious]

I can barely remember my first century (metric). It was pretty uneventful. I just remember getting back home having covered about 98km and having to do a few laps of the local area to bump it to 100.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I cant remember my first hundred. In the mid 1980's I was riding with a local touring club, our Sunday rides were usually all day rides and a hundred mile Sunday in the summer wasn't uncommon. But we didn't have the electronic measuring devices we have now, we just went out and enjoyed riding our bikes, I only ever got to find out how far we had ridden if one of the lads told me, usually the following week after they had spent time with a map and worked it out.

 

[mjr]

I went out and did a slightly longer ride than I had before because it was the last day of the beer festival over in Norwich, about 50 miles away.

 

[raleighnut]

Dads job moved from Whetstone to just south of Manchester, he worked for GEC but on the Nuclear Power side so it was BNDC/ NNDC /NPC and when they closed the Whetstone plant they made thousands redundant and moved a few 'key' people up north (somewhere near Jodrell Bank, he wouldn't tell me exactly where what with me being a paid up CND member at the time). Anyway they bought a house in Knutsford and I'd regularly pop up to see Mum, normally when work had flown Dad off somewhere (in their own private plane) stop a couple of days then bike back.
Nice route, Leicester-Loughborough-Derby-Ashbourne-Buxton-Macclesfield-Knutsford.

 

[The_Weekend_Report_Guy]

I remember bits of it... So I went and look at the Strava ride.... https://www.strava.com/activities/23493532

Loved to read the comments on it, back then I was riding for just over a year or so... (some of the comments?

1. Pablo Alves Well let me tell you I am tired..! But it was a good ride... Very fast at parts and very slow at others overall I am happy with the speed for all this distance... I feel fine and I didn't keep going because tomorrow I am suppose to ride a lot again.. Had good company for like 40 km and I enjoyed made the ride easier.
   5 years ago
2. Jim McCaffrey Great ride, Pablo...damn nice!
   5 years ago
3. Tyler Bleszinski Congratulations Pablo! I always wonder why I'm doing it right before I do them but once I do it I'm super happy I did!
   5 years ago
4. michael conway Fantastic ride Pablo! You seem to have finished pretty strong too. Bodes well to back up again tomorrow.
   5 years ago
5. erhan pc Nice... you are making everybody else look bad
   5 years ago
6. Pablo Alves Thanks guys..! Tyler I never have the time to do this kind of rides, or the strength today I had both... Mike yes I was starting to feel good again after my lunch break but decided to back up with about 25 km to go... Tomorrow so far I am going again with my Slovak friend to PA and back... Believe me I am glad to have Red Raleigh back those hills going into PA are a real pain in the butt..!
   5 years ago
7. Murray Arthur Good shoot Pablo! That's a ripper of a ride!
   5 years ago
8. frank del corso Awesome ride today Pablo, great riding with you and I hope we keep our Saturday group going.
   5 years ago
9. Pablo Alves Thanks Murray and Frank.. Frank let try to keep it growing and add or take a climb here and there... Today was a nice group... If you want I can meet you up somewhere and we ride together to meet the guys..
   5 years ago
10. michael conway Ha ha ha with Pablo's proven skills for marshaling people I would not be surprised to learn that in no time, this becomes one of the biggest group rides on the East Coast ...
    5 years ago
11. Kenneth Trueman Congrats on banging out your first century ! I remember my first few attempts and the flats, rainfalls, etc., that accompanied them and ultimately led to their end. (Now I look forward to centuries all the time.) Keep up the good work !
    5 years ago
12. Mark Blacknell Great ride, man. Before you know it you'll be knocking these out without thinking twice about it.
    5 years ago
13. Bram Schittecatte Nice!
    5 years ago

But as it is mentioned there besides been a great thing to do... What did I do the next day?

https://www.strava.com/activities/23634928 Another imperial century...!! And my first 200 km ride.. And first time going over 2000 meters of climbing..

Funny comments on the ride?

1. Pablo Alves First time ever doing 200 Km, first time ever doing more then 2000 meters in one ride.. I am beat..!
   5 years ago
2. Pio C Magnifique! I admire rides with koms regularly distributed all over the way and this ride was definitely one of them.
   5 years ago
3. michael conway Wow. Pablo you are outdoing yourself here. To do this ride on the back of yesterday's is stunning. I bet you sleep well tonight :-)
   5 years ago
4. CDC Finley wtf Pablo. You've gone crazy. The good kind of crazy hopefully.
   5 years ago
5. VirtKitty Cat This is the kind of crazy stuff that happens when your family sneaks off?? I sure hope they get back soon. ;-)
   5 years ago
6. Jim McCaffrey Totally crazy...congrats!!
   5 years ago
7. Pablo Alves Thanks Pio.. Lots of elevation, climbs.. Maybe too many for my taste. Michael: Shhh I am asleep already.. Believe me I didn't know what I was getting my self into.. Knew the distance but not the profile.. Vasia is nuts about hills I should it know. Finley: sort of... I am bored at home by my self and have this skratch challenge I want to get done.. 60 miles to go.. I should be fine. Cat: I am missing them a lot.. But can't deny that I enjoy to go out for a ride without thinking crap I have to get home by this time. Would switch in a sec if I could to have them back but the kids need to enjoy Oma and Opa.. And my wife a little break from routine. Just sucks I couldn't go.
   5 years ago
8. Murray Arthur Wow, no one in their right mind backs up 160k with a 200k ride Pablo! Well done mate, well done!
   5 years ago
9. Joe Bowman You've turned into a monster. Hills and distance.
   5 years ago
10. Will Cycliste wow! Brilliant
    5 years ago
11. Bram Schittecatte Wow! Insane ride!
    5 years ago
12. Thomas Van den Elzen massive! congratz!
    5 years ago
13. Tyler Bleszinski Wow Pablo, you did this the day after doing your first century? That's CRAZY. Huge, HUGE kudos my friend. I've never done anything like that.
    5 years ago
14. Will Armitage Idiot ;-) But seriously that's cracking stuff. Chapeau.
    5 years ago
15. frank del corso Wow Pablo! Nice weekend my friend, you are inspiring me to get out more.
    4 years ago

Thanks to who started this post...! Brought so many good memories back..

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

100 miles, no idea, it would have been a long time ago, either a clubrun or a hosteling trip. The first time I remember really going for a stretch target was when I was working in Derby. A group from work were entering a charity ride from Manchester to Blackpool. Four of us thought, well that's not very challenging, it's only 60 miles. So we hit upon the idea of doing the ride then carrying on to ride back from Blackpool to Derby. I think it ended up being about 140 miles in total, we made it home about 9pm. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

 

[robjh]

My first metric 100 was in 1988 in my mid-20s, but it didn't register as such as I was counting only in miles (and rough estimates based on the map at that). It was from near Leicester to Stratford-upon-Avon and back, probably about 75 miles, and my legs complained so much I thought I'd never get back on a bike again.
My first imperial 100 was in 2008. By this time I'd been doing a few 70 and 80-milers in recent summers, and I bought a lighter road bike off a mate at work and got talking to him and another colleague about longer rides, and decided it was about time I did a century. I rode in a triangle from Leicester to Birmingham to Stratford and back to Leicester, with about 30-35 miles in each leg. I was doing fine until Leamington Spa on the last leg, when I decided to drop in on the friend who'd sold me the bike, and after a cuppa and a chin-wag with him I found my legs had stiffened up and that last 25 miles up the Fosse Way felt like a long long way.
But it was in fact the first of many, and I haven't looked back.

 

[tommaguzzi]

When i was 14 in 1972 me and two school pals decided to ride to chapel St leonards (near skegness) from Sheffield 106 miles. Parents let their kids do things like a back then without a thought. i had a 26" wheel Hercules with 3 sturmy archer gears. They had 5 speed derailers but were no better. We carried a tent and all our food, because we didn't have enough money we camped on the sand dunes for a night and rode back next day.
I still have no idea how we did this.

 

[pawl]

I cant remember my first hundred. In the mid 1980's I was riding with a local touring club, our Sunday rides were usually all day rides and a hundred mile Sunday in the summer wasn't uncommon. But we didn't have the electronic measuring devices we have now, we just went out and enjoyed riding our bikes, I only ever got to find out how far we had ridden if one of the lads told me, usually the following week after they had spent time with a map and worked it out.

Happy days

 

[al3xsh]

My first metric century was march last year on my hybrid - 66.6 miles with 5209ft of climbing at 14.5 mph with a friend from work (had been cycling just over a year).

My first "proper" century was about 6 months later on a quite new road bike - 102.3 miles with about the same climbing but at 17mph!

Just waiting for some free time to go do it all again! (Aiming for another metric 100 over Easter if we get some half decent weather!).

A

 

[Welsh wheels]

My first metric century was 62.4 miles on my road bike and was done on one of the coldest days this year. I was motivated by the Strava monthly Gran Fondo challenge. I was climbing one of the last hills, the infamous Caerphilly mountain, when a concerned chap stopped me at the top. He told me he cycled too, and even though I was young, I shouldn't be out climbing hills in the cold. He said he had heard me coughing my way up the hill (probably due to the cold affecting my asthma!). When I got near home, I was still a few miles short, so I did about a dozen laps of a local residential street. On the final laps, suspicious or curious residents were observing me from behind their net curtains. I haven't completed an imperial century yet, but I hope to this year, if I don't chicken out.

 

[gbb]

Mine wasn't intentional but 50 mile rides were pretty standard for me but with a summers day off work I thought I'm going for an all dayer, knock a mile per hour off my normal cruising speed and see how far I get.
Pboro, Crowland out towards Spalding and beyond, not sure where really, just went where my nose took me. I remember coming across an old railway station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, almost invisible behind overgrown bushes and nettles. What an odd place, probably Victoriana or Edwardian, old at any rate.
124 km. I was really happy, 77 miles I think with no dramas, felt ok when I got back, smashing sunny day.

For me, time is the problem, I choose not to abandon my wife too much, she's good....but I don't like to take the wee. Also I'm more of a fast cruiser and push as hard as I can so distance doesn't really fit in with that.
50 miles would be great nowadays

 

[GuyBoden]

The earliest 100 mile ride I remember, was Warrington to Abersoch (North Wales), in the early 1980's, I was probably 18 or 19 years old, but only weighed about 11 stone at 6 foot 1 inch. I had a good Ron Spencer bike (531 steel) and proper cycle shoes. I purchased a rack/panniers and took basic camping stuff, I still remember it as a beautiful sunny week cycling around North Wales, at that age, I repeated similar longer rides/tours. I could even ride up the steep(ish) climbs, without really thinking about it.

My uncle was a good cyclist (Tour Of Britain, National Champs), so riding 100 miles wasn't a big thing in our house, so nobody was impressed by my 100 Miles. My uncle would ride 100+ miles every day when he had the time, even in his 60's.

 

[User10119]

First 100-ish km was the daytime recce run for the FNRttC to Cleethorpes in 2010 with dellzeqq, which I was going to do the first half-ish of (to see how I fared and whether it would be stupid to do the actual ride) but sort of accidentally forgot to stop at the bridge and carried on to the seaside. Followed a few weeks later with the night-time version. Then a few weeks after that I went out and did a 50ish miler with my eldest, then 8, but dropped him off at his granny's in the middle while I went out and did a 50ish mile loop so did a total of nearly a 100 miles, mostly to prove to myself that I more or less could before then tackling the 2010 DunRun which was my first really over 100 mile ride, as well as being my first tandem stoking experience and my first clipless ride (apart from a 10 minute "proof of concept/test of leg length" trial a few weeks beforehand).