Century ride into DC

The ride today was beautiful and hard. I went in to the day feeling pretty confident as I had completed a century ride before and my legs were feeling pretty fresh. Well, the first half of the ride turned out to be really hilly. It was kind of funny at lunch to talk about the ride as part of the group had been told it was going to be mostly flat until lunch and the other half had been told to expect the worst hills we had seen yet. The group I was in was not expecting the hills and we had a really rough time, as we were starting to get really hungry (first lunch was at mile 50). The other group got into lunch and didn't know what hills we were talking about. I feel this goes to show the mental preparation that goes into a ride.

We started off the morning in a slight drizzle and cloud cover. This made the first hour rough as it wasn't very bright out, but thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic at 6am on a Saturday. The sunrise was beautiful to see as we rode.. coming up through the clouds in a variety of colors, over the mountains. We also saw a ton of deer... including several fawn! It was amazing to experience the wildlife outside a car. There were a lot of small hills and gradual ascents through most of the morning. We stopped to take a picture around mile 20 and I gashed my leg laying my bike down. Leave it to me to hurt myself with my bike while I'm not actually riding it. Thankfully, Bishnu drove by right at that moment and we were able to clean it out and wrap it up so I could continue riding.

As I mentioned above, we were told that the rest of the ride to lunch should be fairly flat and easy, but we had three or four 1/4 to 1/2 mile climbs that were extremely steep right before lunch. After lunch, we jumped on the W&OD trail. I did several training rides on the W&OD trail, so I was familiar with most of it. It was so nice to be able to ride on the trail and not have to worry about cars! We stopped for a second lunch at Carolina Brother's BBQ and it was delicious! We saw a deer right beside the W&OD trail. I now know where the term "deer in the headlights" comes from as it gave us that look as we rode by.We also stopped for a third lunch at a local bike shop just outside of DC. A few B&B alumni joined our group on the trail and it was a lot of fun talking to them.

After our third lunch break, Bryn and Da'Quan got a second wind and took off. Meagan, Julia and I took it a little slower and enjoyed the sights in DC.  The three of us walked a small part of the Mall due to the amount of tourists wandering around.  The whole group met at the Capitol building and snapped group pictures. There was wedding party getting pictures at the Capitol, so it was fun to get see other aspects of life outside of our little B&B bubble. After pictures, we broke into small groups and finished the last few miles to the host. My bike computer was off in mileage, but our days total was about 103 miles in over 100F temperatures.

Our hosts were amazing and provided us a delicious dinner and shower. I'm constantly amazed by the generosity of people on this trip. After dinner, showers, and a presentation by the host, a group of us went out for a drink. We were on the metro for an hour, went to the restaurant for an hour, and then rode the metro back for an hour. It was frustrating at the time, but we passed the time playing Ninja in the metro station.

Quotes: "Beat your body up and Build" - Eduardo on what Bike and Build should really be called

Much deserved day off tomorrow!!

Pretty view right after I sliced my leg

Julia, Meagan, and I at the Washington Monument

Made it to the Capitol!!

Hard day completed :)

Our beautiful bikes in the nursery 

Ninja at the Metro Station!