I had never ridden a century before. My longest ride up until January 8 was a metric century (62 miles), last March. I did not know whether I was in the right shape or how my body would react to the hours. Sometime in the last year, I flipped through Bicycling‘s issue on mastering “the hundo.” I give anyone permission to slap me if I ever use the phrase “hundo” unironically. I did not know how long it would take, but I estimated eight hours. I wanted to leave from and end at home, so I designed a route that […]
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge
Marsh. Swamp. Wetlands. Wildlife refuge. The road is low, flat, and straight. What roads in the desert and roads through the marsh have in common is that engineers saw no need to follow any contours of the land. You see either your destination, the horizon, or the next turn ahead as far as your eyes will focus. As I get closer to the Gulf, I swear I can hear rust forming on this (well-maintained) steel frame. Even the humidity has a saline taste. The air is thick like a mid-aughts poem that can’t help but use the word gauzy. Like […]