Who's doing the Midnight Century tonight?

[Tom M]

Tonight's the Midnight Century, starting at 11:59PM at The Elk in Browne's Addition. Just curious if anyone's planning to go. I think I'm going to... I've put a fresh dilithium crystal in the Stumpjumper's warp drive and charged up my light system.

More info: www.outtheremonthly.com/otm.php?art=archives/jul09/everyday Moonset is at 12:03AM, so this will not be a moonlight-assisted ride... if you do plan to go, be sure your headlight can run long enough, or have spare batteries/kerosene/glowing fungi/whatever.

[Mike S]

Pat S is doing it: 26inchslicks.blogspot.com/

I think I did the very first "mid night century" in 2003, or something. There were only like 5-6 of us and I never saw anyone but the two other's I started out with. Fun ride.

[Tom M]

The Stumpjumper ended up being the right tool for the job. That last leg of rail-trail from Marshal to Spokane was a full-on mountain-bike ride in several places (not to mention that crazy section of Dunn Road!), and the washboard gravel roads also made me grateful I wasn't on 700 x 25s. The high-end light system also proved very beneficial, since I spent about 25% of the ride attempting to pick the best line on roads covered with variable-depth gravel and washboard.

Taped to the top tube, you'll note the dilithium crystal (cleverly disguised as a 3 Mustketeers bar) and the dual Snickers bars (cleverly disguised as Snickers bars). I was riding hard enough that I thought better of trying to eat candy bars, so they'll have to serve as recovery food instead


Catastrophic leg cramp in 3... 2... 1...

Back from the ride. I had challenged myself to make it back to The Elk by 6AM, so I beat myself up pretty hard out there. Unfortunately I missed the turn off Dishman-Mica onto Sands Road, because the sign at the intersection calls it Madison Road, and ended up doing an extra 7 miles, going all the way to Bowdish in search of the Sands Road turnoff, then having to come back Also, I stopped in several places to put smilie-faces on the road surface using pinecones or pebbles, for the amusement of the other riders ;D So I didn't meet my 6AM goal, and had to settle for 6:20AM.


Ride stats:

I saw

7 kitties
3 bunnies
3 owls
4 porcupines
4 deer
1 mouse
1 chipmunk
1 fox
1 meteor (cool!)

Other stats:

• Riding time: 5hrs 57min
  
• Average heart rate: 145
  
• Calories burned: 3800
  
• Distance: 100.1 miles
  
• Average speed, by the computer's reckoning: 16.8mph
  
• Real average speed, by wall time: 15.8mph
  
• Ounces of fluids taken along: 170
  
• Amount of it I drank: all of it!
  
• Number of times I wished I had a GPS so I knew if I were really on-course or not: plenty ;D I made do with a cue sheet clipped to the stem instead.
  

There was a good turnout, I estimate about two dozen riders? Pretty cool event

[Tim_L]

Okay, let me see if I understand correctly. You rode 100 miles in the pitch dark, on a mountain bike, over gravel, dirt and potholes, climbing hill after hill, all while dodging porcupines, kitties and metorites, and you averaged almost 17mph. DUDE. I mean, like, DUDE. Seriously!

Thanks for sharing Tom, sounds like it was alot of fun. I wasnt even aware of the ride until your post yesterday, but I think i'll have to plan on making this next year, even if it's just for half of the evening. It sounds like a blast.

[Tom M]

And for an encore, I'm going for another 60 miles with Ron & Don at 4PM; we're going out to ride Double Trouble. And this time it'll be 100°, not 75° & dropping. I hope my legs can take it, I don't normally do these distances.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun doing the Midnight Century, especially the first leg out to State Line where I didn't have to be constantly watching for the next turn, recalculating & applying skew factors to the mileages on the computer versus the cue sheet, or guessing whether an unmarked intersection was the one I was looking for or not. If you ride with the guys who have a GPS or know the route really well, you won't have to worry about that stuff, though Definitely come next year, it's the first Saturday in August.

[Mike S]

Aug 2, 2009 11:48:15 GMT -8 Tom M said:

And for an encore, I'm going for another 60 miles with Ron & Don at 4PM; we're going out to ride Double Trouble. And this time it'll be 100°, not 75° & dropping. I hope my legs can take it, I don't normally do these distances.

You are insane.

Anyway, let me know how the DT course rides. I swept the corners yestarday, although I think the corner by Wildrose cemetary could use some more touch up. There is also a new pot hole by the stop sign as you turn onto Swenson Road. It's well marked and should not be a problem.

[Pat S]

Mind-blowing stuff, Tom - you rode this course in under 6 hours, out front by yourself, on a front-suspended, fat-tired MTB. Wow, outstanding effort!

And thanks for the smiley faces.

[Tom M]

Aug 2, 2009 12:45:38 GMT -8 Mike S said:

Aug 2, 2009 11:48:15 GMT -8 Tom M said:

And for an encore, I'm going for another 60 miles with Ron & Don at 4PM; we're going out to ride Double Trouble. And this time it'll be 100°, not 75° & dropping. I hope my legs can take it, I don't normally do these distances.

You are insane.

Hehe, there's no question that I'm prone to doing things in excess ;D Double Trouble looked good, although cars keep tracking gravel into the corner so a little touchup won't hurt. By the way, if you didn't already have it in the plan, we ought to have those big water jugs at the Finish line so racers don't have to ride back to their cars for water.

Mind-blowing stuff, Tom - you rode this course in under 6 hours, out front by yourself, on a front-suspended, fat-tired MTB. Wow, outstanding effort!

And thanks for the smiley faces.

It's actually a pretty fast-riding bike... don't ask me how it does it with tires that size Glad you guys enjoyed the smiley faces, it was probably good for me to hop off the bike for a minute anyway One statistic I forgot to list is how much Ibuprofen I consumed on the ride (four tablets).

[sjf]

Tom, you are amazing but now I know how you do it. Performance enhacing drugs!
Four ibuprofens, you should be banned for life.

[sean]

Was this a race? I thought it was just a fun ride.

[Joel]

A) Sean... Everything is a race
B) Tom... Just nuts dude, just nuts!
C) Also, Tom I like how you disguised the C-4 as common candy bars... very clever!