Civil War Century Ride

GPS Track of My Civil War Century Ride

Elevation Profile

That was hard!

I’ve liked riding bikes all my life. When I was raising my family, I would get out of the habit of riding, restart for a few years, then fall back out of the habit. It was especially hard to go back out in the Spring after a Winter of getting out of shape. Now that my children are gone, I’ve gotten back to cycling, riding more than ever. And I got a smart trainer so I can train indoors when the weather is bad. I’ve come to know some things about myself: I find long hours in the saddle to be very therapeutic - my mind wanders, and I enjoy a hard challenge - it gives me something for which to train. Without a goal, I don’t push myself to get fitter.

I’ve wondered for years whether I could actually complete the annual Civil War Century Ride. This event happens every September, starts and ends in Thurmont Maryland, wanders through mountains, and visits Gettysburg and Antietam, hence the name. And the route features 7000+ feet of climbing. I’ve done century rides before, but they were flat. I knew this would be a stretch goal when I decided last year to do this ride, and I trained all winter and spring. My training slacked some this summer, with two trips that interrupted my routine. I showed up for the ride in reasonably good shape.

The route has a 1000 foot climb over 7 miles right at the start. I was afraid this would be too hard for me. I shouldn’t have worried. It was strenuous, but when I reached the top of the climb I was surprised, thinking, well that wasn’t so hard. But of course I did that climb with fresh legs and in cool temperatures.

Then I had the first of many descents during which I reached speeds in the 30s. There were a few descents during which I reached the 40s. I would bend down into a sloppy aero position to try to preserve kinetic energy to coast at least a little up the next climb. During every descent, I was in the drops, hands on the brakes, ready to slow down, busy checking for hazards ahead and thinking, “Please don’t hit anything! Now I’m going to have to climb again.”

So it was up, down, up, down, all day. I was doing OK until the climb at mile 60. That one was grueling. The climb actually started at about mile 48, with a long, but relatively gentle ascent of about 300 feet to about mile 59. Then there was a brief ride through Smithsburg, a right turn onto Raven Rock Road, left onto Ritchie Road, all during a relentless climb of about 800 feet, with all of it steep, parts more than 10%. Coming as it did when it was hot and I had just climbed 300 feet and with 60 miles in my legs, I was pretty tired at the top.

Then came the relatively flat part of the route, about 30 miles with only 500 feet of climbing. The brief ride through the Gettysburg battlefield was cool. I rode right past Little Round Top, thinking about how close the Confederates came to winning at that spot, and how brutal the fighting was. And then it was just a long slog back to Thurmont. I reached the end, really tired, and glad to be off my bike.

It’s good that I downloaded the course GPX file and installed it on my cycling computer. The route was marked with spray-painted marks on the road to indicate turns. But it was very easy to miss them, especially when the turn came on a descent. It’s hard to see a small bit of green paint on the road when I’m descending at 30mph with my attention on hazard avoidance. I spent most of the day constantly looking at the computer to verify that I was still on course. This route had a lot of turns and I couldn’t trust that the riders ahead of me were doing the same course (there were shorter options) or that they were even on the course that they wanted.

The rest stops were just OK. There were lots of bananas and sliced peaches on offer. But there was also plenty of water and Gatorade.

The weather was OK. I would have liked for it to be a little cooler, but I can’t complain. The temperature at the start was about 70 and it was overcast and the wind was very light, but it cleared up after a couple of hours. It also warmed up and the direct sun made for some hot stretches. With about 20 miles to go I was worried that it might rain as clouds rolled in, but the rain seems to have passed to the east, and it got sunny and hot again, and the wind picked up. It was sunny and windy as I finished. The ice cream at the start/finish was wonderful.

This was a real challenge - a hard stretch goal; I’m glad I did it; I doubt I’ll ever sign up again for that kind of ride with so many climbs.

Final numbers: 103.6 miles, 7667 feet climbed, maximum speed: 49.9mph.

Six Pillars Century Ride 2025

GPS Track of Six Pillars Century Ride

It was windy!

Totals: 102 miles, 780 feet of elevation gained.

I’ve wanted to do this ride for several years in a row as an early season organized event, but always had to cancel, either because of bad weather or, one year, I had just had major surgery. This year the weather was cool and clear, but very windy.

I drove to Cambridge early in the morning, claimed my rider packet, and started riding around 7AM. This was not a closed course, but traffic was very light. I and about 100 riders did the 100-mile course. The rest stops had limited selections of snacks, but plenty of water and Gatorade.

I spent the whole ride in brutal headwinds and gusting side winds and merciful tailwinds. The scenery varied among typical Delmarva pine forests, wetlands, and brief coastal views. I had never seen this part of the Maryland Eastern Shore; it was a nice exploration. There was very little shade. I was glad I was mostly covered. I ended up nearly sunburned on my wrists where my sun sleeves left a gap with my gloves: now I have weird dark stripes on my wrists.

It was a long slog and I finally got back to Cambridge. I missed the turn before the airport near mile 90 and, by the time I figured that out, I just looked at my phone to figure out the best route back to the course. It added maybe a mile to the ride.

Instrument error was obvious through the entire ride: my Garmin 530 bike computer regularly showed my elevation was below zero.

This was my third century ride, but the slowest. I’m glad I finally got to do it. I doubt I’ll volunteer for this windfest again.

Sea Gull Century Ride 2022

On October 8, I rode in the Sea Gull Century cycling event that started and ended on the Salisbury University campus in Maryland. This was my second century ride of the year, and also my second ever.

Overall, this was a well-run event. The course was well-marked. The roads were in very good condition. The course is a circle, east of the city of Salisbury, on very flat terrain. The rest stops were well stocked with food and drinks. This is a popular event with clubs coming from far away to participate. The event was sold out.

The weather at the 7AM start was chilly and overcast and breezy. I wore a helmet liner, arm warmers, base layer, jersey, and gilet. I was especially glad for the gilet when it started raining after about mile 42. The rain lasted only a few minutes and the roads dried out over the next hour. The sun came out at about 11AM. I was finally able to take the arm warmers and gilet and helmet liner off at the last rest stop at mile 82.

Shortly after I made the last turn onto the road to Assateague Island, I was passed by two ambulances with sirens on. I soon arrived at the scene of the accident to which they were responding. I’m not one to linger and stare at an accident so I didn’t see much, but I did notice several bikes in the ditch and EMTs working on people who were out of sight. They were all gone by the time I came back past the same spot. This was the only accident of which I’m aware.

Speaking of Assateague, this was my first visit to the Maryland part of this island. The bridge climb was short and steep and easily the most prominent “terrain” feature of the ride. There were no horses around, probably because there were so many people, but there was a lot of horse shit. This was my favorite of the rest stops, with lots of room and food, right there next to the Atlantic Ocean.

I finished the ride under sunny skies and in gusting wind, riding through the tunnel, emerging to ride through a sparse crowd and cheerleaders cheering. I was really tired and ready to be done.

I was careful to take a few days off the bike before the event so I could start rested. Unfortunately, I hardly slept the night before, just turning over and over in bed. I had a COVID booster vaccination on Wednesday and, while I’ve had no serious reaction, my shoulder has been sore, my armpit is swollen, and my resting heart rate has been elevated ever since. I have no idea whether this contributed to my poor sleep, but I was not 100% when I started the ride.

I loaded up on calories the day before, and I ate before the ride. I wasn’t hungry but ate at each rest stop: I’ve never before had so many bananas in one day. I was especially fond of the Fig Newtons at the last rest stop. Because it was so cool, I didn’t sweat much and wasn’t thirsty, but I drank at the rest stops.

This was my second century ride, but my first was not a typical century. My first century, during RAGBRAI 2022, was a west to east ride with a near direct tail wind nearly the whole day. Also, there weren’t many pace lines in my first century, and the ones that were there were small. The Seagull Century is a circuit. And there are lots of club pace lines. I think the first one that passed me had 200 riders. The ones that followed were more like 20-50 riders. The rest stops were also different. During RAGBRAI, there were no designated rest stops, only pass-through towns where I could buy food and refill my bottles. The Seagull rest stops had bananas, bagels, cookies, and other snack food. So I stopped at each rest stop, as compared with RAGBRAI, during which I stopped when I wanted to. Now obviously I could have stopped anywhere I wanted during the Sea Gull, but I didn’t.

I was hoping to finish faster, but, given the wind, my lack of sleep, and the lingering effects of my COVID shot, I think I did OK. My final results: 101.0 miles, 1,004 feet of climb, 6:08 hours of moving time, 2,874 active calories.

Seagull Century Route

After the ride, I drove home and relaxed for the rest of the day. I laid down for a nap, but wound up sleeping for 12 hours.