100

B asked the other night if I was excited about doing the Century this weekend. I was honest and said, no. I was thinking about it, but that's about it...

That was Tuesday. Now that it's Thursday, I am less excited than nervous. Not so nervous about the effort or the suffering but about the ride itself, if that makes any sense. A little worried about my back, but that should be ok.

But the biggest thing on my mind is trying to do this without a Camelbak. Mountain biking, I am accustomed to being totally self-reliant to get out of almost any backwoods situation. Tubes, patch kit, blowout kit, spare energy bar, spare chain links, water, and in the case of the Breck Epic survival blanket and emergency raincoat (as was required the first year, but voluntarily carried the second year.)

And in a 24 hour race it's pretty much the same, but every hour or so, after completing a lap, you ride back through the start-finish and have an opportunity to pick up or drop off anything you want from your camp site. And if you're one of the lucky ones with a support crew, you can have someone meet you at the start-finish with whatever you may need.

So dumping the Camelbak means whatever I want to take with me I have to either attach to the bike (waterbottles in their cages, spare tube and tire levers to the seatpost) or carry in my shirt pockets. No plan to use a seatpost rack for this one day ride.

So it looks like I am carrying:

• pump
• 2 energy bars
• shotblocks
• multi-purpose tool
• small raincoat
• and maybe a bottle of energy drink (ugh).
• Oh yea, and a cell phone and id.

I guess the camera is going to have to wait in the car like a bad dog.

And if the day starts cool, I may end up carrying any clothing that I may have to shed as the day warms up, but that is apt to only be arm warmers...

First big ride on the new bike. And my first Century. Should be interesting.