I rode the Portland Century last weekend. I hadn't done much training in the last month, so I knew it would be tough. But it ended up being a lot toughter than I was expecting...

It was very hilly with almost 5,000 feet of elevation gain. And I haven't done much hill training this year on account of my Seattle-to-Portland training. Luckily the weather was extremely pleasant - a hot day would have made this ride a killer! I started out with Par and Kurt, but got dropped somewhere before the first rest area. No problem, I'm used to riding alone on long rides. I caught up with another friend, Lindsey, after the third rest stop and we rode the rest of the way together.

I didn't have any physical problems but did lose mental motivation on Marine Drive (around the 70 mile mark). It also rained on us for the last hour of the ride, although it was a warm summer rain and not really that unpleasant.

Overall, the course was great, traffic pretty minimal, fun crowd, decent rest stops (although way too few bathrooms), and great food, especially the huge buffet at the finish line. At a little under eight hours, I wasn't a speed demon, but I felt like I finished at least in the top 50%. I'm going to have to come back next year and try to crush this thing!