GSW Seacoast Half Century

Rode a half century in the GSW Seacoast Century. 53.7 miles

For the past few years, I have tried to ride the Seacoast Century, mainly because I really like the ride T-shirt, and the ride is not half bad, either. However, today is also the day when we had Red Sox tickets and my daughter had to be at the football game to play in the band. Given the conflicts, I opted for the half century. The forecast for the day was for partially sunny and 70s. But, as I cranked toward the Newington rest stop, it was 55 and drizzly. The grate on the bridge heading to and from Salisbury over the Merrimack River at the Hampton rest stop was slippery and treacherous. I was glad to be heading back, but the route was unfamiliar and the markings on the road were impossible to discern. There were no flaggers anywhere. There was talk the flaggers they hired for critical turns had worked too much yesterday, so they took the day off. I began following the wrong markings and got lost for a mile after missing a turn. The one good thing about heading back early was I was able to follow the trail of stragglers heading north. I felt really bad for riders starting a century at 10 a.m. I tried to ride around 20 mph on the way back, which is about my limit, because if I'm not going to do 100, I'm going to hurt myself doing 50. Actually, I was glad that I had cut the day short. Lake Tahoe and its insane climbs are next week.
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