#saddle-sore

My Rapha Women’s 100 ride in pictures. 20 July 2014.

When Strava’s Rapha Women’s 100 rolled around this year, I clicked ‘join’ with a certain amount of reckless trepidation. I hadn’t ridden 100km since April, my iron stores were through the floor, and I was in hospital having a colonoscopy on Monday.

Hoping the weather (and my saddle-sore butt) would last the distance, I set out with clubathletica on a perfect powder blue morning. We took photos along the way and stopped for a seriously delicious brunch at the half-way point in Fremantle.

Although my sit-bones were hurting from the get-go, my suffering wasn’t noteworthy until the 82km mark, after which I well and truly earned my Sufferlandria badge. Let’s say my most hated surface is the concrete slabbed path past the SAS barracks.

For all the coasting with my tush hovering above the seat, I still managed to achieve my goal of keeping my average speed above 21kph - slower than last year but circumstances were different. And there you have it: 103km completed along with thousands of other women cyclists all around the world. Congratulations all.

1). The sound of people eating2). Plastic nativity scenes3). People who aren't British/Canadian/Australian/etc spelling things like "colour" or "favourite"4). Shades of black that don't match5). People who don't believe in gay marriage for other people and can only justify themselves based on religious views