Seattle Century 2009

The Seattle Century is put on by the same group that does the Portland Century, Oregon Bike. This is a ride through Seattle and around the eastern suburbs. It was actually only a total of 94 miles, but that still counts as a century. The weather was hot, in the ’80s, but we even got a touch of welcome rain. The ride was done with Jamin King, as well as Russ & Luc Andersen. Unfortunately, there were no photographs taken, even though I brought my camera. I need to slow down at times and flash some pictures since we did some nice views.
 
This century was a little bit problematic because 1) Seattle & Washington streets were in much worse shape than Oregon streets. Even the Burke-Gilman trail was quite awful, with lots of tree root bumps on the trail. I’m a little bit disappointed with the city of Seattle.  2) The route was not well marked, and we made frequent wrong turns, only to discover the error of our ways. It was not unusual to see riders re-tracing their route, to get back on the designated pathway.  3) The published route and the actual route were a touch different. The actual route was really better, with less futile looping around like was done in previous years.  Still, there were multiple turns all the way through the ride, making it a bit confusing. This century was nice because 1) You were very well fed at the rest stops, including the final stop on the route, and 2) It had a moderate amount of hilliness, giving you a good workout at the end of 94 miles. We did the entire trip in well under 6 hours, and at an energy expenditure of roughly 5600 calories, only 1.4 lbs. of fat. Yikes! You need to ride a lot to lose 10 lbs. of fat!
 
The only problem that I had on this ride was that I was a bit sore from a backpacking trip, the first of the season, and done the last two days before the Seattle Century. It didn’t help that the weather was hot. Still, it was an enjoyable ride. In comparison with the Portland Century, the roads were better, there were better hills, the stops were better, and the route was very clearly marked with no obscure turns. I would have no problem repeating the Portland Century, but probably not the Seattle Century.