Bike 50 States: Hotter N Hell Hundred, Tour de Plano but neither gets me a new state

Saturday, August 24, marked the 15^th time that I’ve done the Hotter N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, Texas. So obviously this ride did not add to my state count which has been 38 since Thursday night. This century ride which is done every year at the end of August and usually features triple digit temperatures, is something of a “rite of passage” for Texas cyclists. I did it for the first time over 20 years ago. Even though most riders are from Texas, it attracts riders from all over the country and many from around the world. This year there were over 10,000 riders doing the century, metric century, 50 or 25 mile road ride routes.

Waiting for the 7:00 a.m. start

It's getting lighter out. Almost time to start.

The ride is kicked off when 4 jets from Shepard AFB
fly down the main street! Look closely!

For many HH100 cyclists this was a year of PR’s (personal records) because it was more like the Warmer N Hell Hundred. For most of the day the temperatures were only in the 80’s, finally reaching 90 degrees in the early afternoon. But the mercury never approached the temperature century mark. So that may explain why I was able to do the ride at an average of 17.5 mph, the fastest recent ride, and my riding time of 5 hours 44 minutes was shorter than all but one other of my previous HH100 rides! I wasn’t sure if I was even going to do the century because I did not sleep well the night before. But when I got to the cutoff points for the shorter distances, and I saw that I was averaging over 18 mph, I couldn’t bring myself to end my ride. I have not seen a ride that fast on a ride of more than 10 miles in several years.

The Start

Pyro Pete, the HH100 mascot welcomes riders to "Hell's Gate" at the 60 mile mark. You have to arrive there by a designated time or else you will not be allowed to take the full 100 mile route and will have to go straight back to Wichita Falls (75 miles).

I was still averaging over 18 mph at the 70 mile mark. And with the cooler than usual temperatures I came within a few minutes of my previous fastest HH100 ride. The cooler temperatures certainly helped, but there had to be something else. My friend Darrell attributed my almost PR performance to my eating some General Tso’s chicken for dinner the night before. That may become my new pre-ride meal of choice!

Like a ballplayer who always wants to retire after a successful year, not after a clinker, any thoughts of doing another HH100 have been abandoned. This was definitely my swan song HH100 ride. I want to go out on a winning note.

Approaching the Finish Line

Finisher Medal

Darrell (L) and I with our finisher medals

Sunday

This morning I took Darrell on a 12 ½ mile ride around Plano, TX so that he could see some of the routes that I used to do when living there from1996-2003.