Marin County Century

Just another plug for an upcoming century. The Marin County Century is a little more than a month away on August 2nd.

This ride has five options ranging from a leisurely 30 mile ride to a grueling 200 mile ride. This year, several friends and I will be doing the 94 mile hill course. I've been thinking about 200 miles in a day, but honestly I am pretty intimidated...maybe next year.

I also just got back from my home town of Arcata. My girlfriend and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. We had breakfast in the morning with some older couples and I am surprised to say that 50 must be the new 30. We met a woman who had decided that for her 50th birthday she would buy herself a bicycle and train for her first century. Rock on!

She trained with Team in Training and mentioned that they helped big time. And now that she's done one, she's eager to keep them rolling in.

There are a few organizations out there that will train you for a century, triathlon, or marathon and in exchange for training they ask that you help them fundraise. They ask for a pretty large amount (mine was $2,500 for AIDS LifeCycle) and fundraising can be tough, but everyone I've spoken with has been thrilled with the experience and many continue to do it year after year.

And I think one of the biggest benefits is that they have experience training people for their first endurance event. Endurance events can be tough to train for because it often takes months to prepare and the first one's even tougher because you don't really know what to expect. But the good news is that after you've done one, you're hooked.

Keep on pedaling! And pedaling and pedaling and pedaling...