My first 300 ride, and I was determined not to make a mess of it. I'd been reading all the tips threads, and I had plenty of snacks, and a wide variety of them as well.
I got to the start not late, but not leaving plenty of time either. I registered and was fiddling about with my bike, when I turned around everybody had gone out of a side entrance rather than the main entrance I was waiting next to.
Oh well, I set off 5 minutes late. I eventually saw a cyclist ahead, but determined not to go too quickly and burn out too soon. It was Bigsybaby, and I eventually caught up to him and we had a little natter before I gradually crept ahead using my greater downhill speed.
That was sort of the theme for the morning. I would stop for some reason, either to have a snack or change some clothes and Bigsybaby would come past. Then I would overtake him again later. This came in handy at the first info control, as I sailed straight past it looking on the wrong side of the road. I was stopped checking the card to see where it should have been when Bigsybaby came past me again. I had the choice of going back looking for the info, or asking Bigsybaby. I managed to catch him up again (eventually) and he was wondering if I'd managed to see it as I'd gone past so quickly.
Had a nice slice of carrot cake at the first cafe control, which hit the spot. Then off again. Took a wrong turn due to not pressing start on my GPS again after leaving the cafe, but was soon back on track.
Then, the first time sink of the day. I got a puncture in my front wheel. That took me about 20 minutes to change, as I took hellymedic's advice and ate something before I got my hands mucky taking the wheel off. Puncture fixed and tyre checked I got on the way again, only for it to puncture again 1 km further down the road. This time the tyre had a big hole in it that I could almost fit my little finger through.
I had a bit of an "Oh FFS" moment, and considered ways of just packing it all in and going home. Hardly the attitude required though, so I constructed a make shift tyre boot out of the thick plastic bag I'd kept my last spare tube in, and pumped the tyre up again. Another 20 minutes lost, but I was on my way again.
I grabbed a quick slice of cake at Little Dorrits. I don't think they were expecting anybody else. Then pushed on towards Skeggy. The next two hours were just nice cycling. Slightly dull, being so flat, but there was next to no wind, the sun was shining, I was feeling great. It was a beautiful day.
I made it to Poppies just as Bigsybaby was leaving but decided to take a bit of time for a good feed instead of trying to push on too quickly. I was just leaving on the A158 when there was a huge BANG! and my front tyre exploded. My boot had failed, taking with it my last whole tube.
Determined to carry on, I consulted the incredibly handy list of bike shops printed on the back of the route sheet and after chatting to an old guy for directions, headed for Halfords (the other shop I tried wasn't answering the phone so I assumed they'd be shut). Finding Halfords was a bit of a pain, as I took a wrong turn. If I'd turned right instead of left I'd have saved myself about 3km of walking before I found the shop.
Still, freshly shod with new rubber (and a few more spare tubes just in case) I put my head down a bit and got going, heading for Sutton-on-sea. This is where I started to get things a bit wrong. Worried about the time, I pressed on for longer than I had been doing, instead of stopping occasionally to have a break and eat something I was snacking on the bike and trying to keep the speed up.
I eventually stopped about 15km from Horncastle and had a proper rest and something to eat, and carried on feeling much better. I was rather glad the last run to the control was downhill, and I made it with 6 minutes spare.
I had another sit down, topped up my bottles and had something else to eat, then pressed on to Lincoln. Seeing the cathedral in the distance, all lit up and growing as I got closer was fantastic. I made it to the Lincoln control with half an hour in hand. Only 67km left to go!
The rest of the route was a bit of a blur. I was getting increasingly cold, despite the two jerseys and the jacket I was wearing. I pressed on for almost another 4 hours, but with over 20km left to go and with no energy left I was done. There was no way I could make it back in time. My belly was refusing to take any more food, riding the bike was awful. As soon as I set off the wind made sucked the warmth out of me. I could ride a couple of km then have to stop again to warm up. I rang the organiser and told them that I was packing and wouldn't make it back in time. I was offered a lift back, which I stupidly refused, thinking that I could make it to Mansfield and get a taxi back to the start.
Another few km of chilling myself to the bone and I was on the phone again, asking if he could please pick me up. Which he did. Hats off to Ian for helping me out there. I really appreciate it.
So close, but no cigar. 281km covered in 19 and a bit hours.
Lessons learnt? The first 2/3 of the ride I think I handled well. Despite the punctures it was my fastest 100km ever (well, it was also my first Audax on a geared bike rather than fixed which might have had something to do with it). I didn't push myself and had plenty of time in hand for the usual problems that crop up. Well, maybe not plenty of time but I was quite comfortable. Ignoring the bike computer and leaving the GPS on map view was great.
It's only when I started fretting about time too much that things went wrong. I was obsessively checking how long it was to the next turn, worrying about if I'd make it to the next control in time, pushing on too much instead of just doing what had been working for the first half of the ride.
I will be back. This time with a few more 200s under my belt first.