Day 14: Lisa’s Century

Prior to our trip, Lisa’s longest bike ride was about 33 miles. The route to Columbus, New Mexico (pop.1800) was just under one hundred miles. In cycling circles, this is the classic Century. In preparation we awoke well before sunrise and hit the road as soon as it and we were visible. This enabled us to get a few photos of the sun rising over the mountains and allowed us to complete our 100 miles before dinner.

We didn’t need to worry because we had a strong tailwind (25 mph) for almost the entire distance. We were racing downhill and cruising uphill with our air assistance. Without a speedometer, we had to estimate our speeds. Near the end Lisa tracked the time between mile markers and we were close to 2 minutes per mile (30 mph). Needless to say we didn’t need to leave so early as we pulled into camp at 2 pm. We turned directly into the wind for the final 1.2 miles. This last stretch took us about ten minutes (6 mph).


Tomorrow we all get a well-deserved day off, which means we can sleep in until 8 AM breakfast and then visit Pancho Villa state park and then head about 2 blocks over the border to visit a friendly cantina–first margarita is free!

What Lisa keeps saying is “I can’t believe I’m doing this!” It is truly an experience most people will not get to partake in but one which has already been amazing–the fact that we are also doing this for our near and dear charity, www.customcanines.org makes it all the more sweet!