I left the hotel just before 6 AM headed to the starting area. I found a spot in an closed Izzuo dealer’s lot. Unloading my Canyon Endurace I got ready to ride to the 100k starting block. The sun was beginning to peak above the horizon. While waiting beside me was a couple and the husband was riding a Canyon bike. I asked him if it was and Endurace and he said no, it was the Ultimate but he had thought about the Endurace, We continued talking. I learned they were from Garland and this was his wife’s very first bike ride. She was doing the 25 mile route and he was doing the 100 mile. He purchased the Canyon 2 weeks ago. He previously rode a track bike so this was a big change. His wife had a nice mountain bike. Later he caught and passed me after his wife made the turn on the 25 mile ride. When the national anthem played and the planes flew over I hear the cannon shoot at 7:05 but it wasn’t until 7:23 the 100k pylon moved to the right that the ride began.

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Weather: start 71 (96% humidity, 70 dew point), fair, wind SE 3 mph; finish 88 (55% humidity, 70 dew point), a few clouds, wind S 14 mph.

I saw two people down from crashes. The first was a lady in the grass. She was trying to get up but a man dressed like her told her to not get up. Not too long after that an ambulance turned off of a side road and headed in her direction. The second was in Burkburnet on a street. A man sitting on the pavement with several people around him looked dazed. Later a Burkburnet Police car passed with lights and sirens going towards there passed. I hope both are doing good.

Wind wasn’t bad until the route turned to the south. The 3 mph SE wind had grown into a 14 mph headwind. I battled it from about mile 47 until the 12:11 PM finish. I stopped at the 5th rest stop around mile 53 to rest up, eat a cherry snowcone and chocolate chip cookies, refill my CamelBak, go to the Porta Pottie before riding back into the headwind.

Riding through Shepherd Air Force Base is always thrilling with the cheers of the airmen and airwomen on the side of the street as the bikers ride by. This year was no different. You can see this in the video. Since my last HH100 in 2015 the exit from the base changed some. From there it was about 4 miles to the finish. Probably half of those miles were on a bike lane on the shoulder. The lane was mostly smooth. Many miles of the ride was on chip seal roads. My Canyon handled the vibration pretty good and I survived. Before rest stop 2 the road was very smooth asphalt but with some hills. The price you pay for smooth roads.

As in the past I skipped the first 2 rest stops to avoid the crowds. The ones I stopped at the volunteers were very friendly, held my bike while I went to the tents, and well supplied.

A batch of metals show up on my Strava activity page. Click the image below for more information about them

Thanks to the 62.8 miles this was a 200+ mile week. Each week since June 23rd has been 200+ miles.