100miles on wheels...

...with no carbon footprint. Fueled by food/fat/calories.

Century Ride. They call it the marathon for cyclist. I am proud to say that I did it! :)

A 100miles/160km of cycling. How far is 160km? Imagine traveling from Penang to Kuala Kangsar, I think that would approximately make up 160km.

I was in Ipoh last weekend to participate in Century Ride Malaysia organized by Kelab Roadrunners Ipoh (KRI). This is the longest ever bicycle ride I've done in my life. ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY KILOMETERS!! I did it in 5hrs 57mins...

There are only 44 female cyclist out of 590 participants. I must say I enjoy the ride. We were flagged off at 7am at Bkt Kinding Resort, a resort in the middle of some oil palm estate. It rained the night before, making it a cool morning. The ride didn't start out too well, I spent the first 20 to 30k chasing the peloton ahead of me trying to stay close to them but I kept being at the back of the pack. I have no idea how fast they were going but if they were going at the rate that I couldn't catch up, I'd say probably at a speed of more than 35km/hr.

Fed up of chasing, I decided to cycle at a comfortable speed. I got lucky when Mr. Discovery Channel come along. I call him Mr. Discovery Channel because he was wearing a jersey with Discovery Channel sponsors at the back ;) He ride at the speed that I can manage and is very consistent, it was easy to draft behind Mr. Discovery Channel.

I was following behind him for a very very long time until we start to hit the hills. He slowed down quite a bit as more and more climbs are approaching. Thought I'd ditched him for a while to maintain a certain speed up the hills and kind of anticipate him to catch up later on, but he never showed up anymore :( So I lost Mr. Discovery Channel. He's on a Willier bike.

Water stations were available approximately every 40km. They have water, 100plus, banana and bread. Throughout the ride, in total, I consumed 1 PowerBar, 4 bananas, 2litre of 100 Plus, 1litre of water. After the ride, I had 2 cups of 100 Plus, a bowl of chendol and half a biji of coconut water.

The route bring us through quiet kampung road, very few cars and we'd see kampung kids standing by the roadside waving as we ride pass. I enjoyed the ride up to the last 20km. The route turned to 'super' rolling (in comparison to gently rolling), I started to get tired plus, the weather got really hot. I think that time must have been around 11.30am kua.

I must say that the company along the ride helps me in getting through it. Was riding with Chin from the start. Met Miow and Andrew somewhere after the 2nd water station and we cycle together for a short distance. Am so glad to see Peter aka the Gu and Alan come along, err, not sure when but I think should be around the half distance mark (80km or so kua). 4 of us formed a peloton and more cyclist joined us to make it an even bigger peloton.

Along the way, I saw many cases of flat tires. And after the ride, heard many cases of crashes too. I am thankful that I completed it without any untoward incident, although I did witness some bloody accidents.

As a result of completing 100miles, I get to eat fried chicken and many other food without guilt for the next 7days. Ahhh, I am going back to Taiping to enjoy my favourite siew bak this weekend. Can't wait!!

Now, should I buy myself a bike already? If so, I also need a bike computer, er, and bike shoe perhaps? Everything also $$$.