I tried to do a sub 5h century solo last year and thought I had it but ended up 3 minutes too slow when I actually stopped the bike computer. Pretty depressing moment! Stops killed me on that one, I had to make three, and at one point I ran out of water and ended up in a really slow line (lottery people) that cost me 10 minutes. Was determined not to make the same mistake this year.
So this time I brought a lot more food on the bike. I ate two pbj's before I left the house, had seven rice crispy treats taped to my top tube (stacked for aero) and two more in my jersey pockets. Also three gels. And three bottles fully saturated with gatorade powder. I did make one 2-3 minute stop at a gas station around the 3h mark where I refilled all the bottles with a mix of redbull and glacier cherry gatorade but that was it.
Mechanically, I had two flats in the first 50 miles but I'm tubeless and luckily I only was stopped maybe a collective 3 minutes to get those sealed and re-pressurized (those little usb-c electric pumps are awesome).
The route was really flat and there was basically no wind so I just kept it steady and tried not to get carried away on the small hills. I generally felt really good until the end, but it was crazy how time slowed down after mile 80. I'd look at my bike computer, ride for 15 minutes and check it again and in reality 2 minutes would have passed.
At the very very end around mile 120 I ran into another road cyclist around one of the local sprint points. I couldn't help myself so I jumped on their wheel and sprinted with them. Immediately thought I was going to throw up and a few minutes later had to pull over and lay down so I didn't puke and ended the ride there before limping the last 10 miles home.
In my head I was thinking I'd do this so I'd never have to do it ever again, but now all I can think about is how close I got to 4:30.
by nimoto