I went out with every intention of riding the metric century despite the encounter with the deer earlier this week (maybe I’ll do a separate blog post on that later), but when I heard thunder at the 24mi food stop and my knee was beginning to stiffen up, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and decided to try to beat the rain back to the finish (which I did), so I ended up doing the 47 miler again (for the 3rd year in a row). I actually really like the ride and it is pretty flat. This year, despite the crash earlier this week and being even heavier than last year (by 2+ lbs, making this the heaviest I’ve ever been for an organized ride 🙁 ), I shaved another 3:23 off my time, so I guess I’m in half way decent shape. The temperature was perfect and I was under an overcast (as the rain tried to catch me) for the last half of the ride, so conditions were nearly ideal.