Yesterday was the annual Hotter’n Hell Hundred ride in Wichita Falls. I was among the estimated 11,260 riders leaving the starting line. The four T-38 jets streaked over Scott Street about 7:06AM following the Star Spangle Banner. My heart beats proudly when I see those jets in a tight formation zoom by.

This year’s ride was well organized as almost every one has been. Each year there is something extra. This year the ride map came with the GPS coordinates for each rest stop along each of the routes. This is the first ride where I have seen this feature.

In spite of the name, this year the temperature was only 95 degrees when I finished at 1:27PM. My group had started at 7:20AM because we were some ways back from the starting line where the cannon sounded at 7:09. Wind was not a factor since it was light at 6mph and from the southeast. While I was waiting to start riding I spoke with another rider who was from Burkburnett, just north of Wichita Falls. This was his fifth time to ride. He told me about his first ride five years ago when he was going to ride with his daughter and son-in-law on the 25 mile route. A week or so before the ride his daughter called to tell him she was not going to be able to ride because she was pregnant. His son-in-law had planned on riding the 100k and he did not think he could make it that far since he had only been training for the 25 miles. They compromised and rode the 50 miles without incident. Since then he has ridden the 100 mile route one time.

The ride went smoothly for me. I was trying a new twist this ride. I bought a Flip video camera with the thought of recording some of the ride. While riding and shooting video would be tough my wife did shoot video at the start line and I did some of the rest stops. (Once I figure out my Youtube.com account I will upload several videos.) This is a video of the women’s criterium on Friday evening.

This is a video at rest stop number 4 on the 100 mile route.

The highpoint of the ride for me was taking the Hell’s Gate route through Sheppard Air Force Base. Last year a large number of airmen and airwomen lined a street and cheered the riders as we went past. I was impressed and afterwards thought I should have been cheering them. This year I vowed to do it differently. At first when I turned onto the street that takes us onto the base I was afraid the route was not going there due to road construction but when I turned there was another entrance down the street. Like last year I rode through the base, past various jets and other planes. This year was the same and I did ride down a street where the airmen and airwomen cheered the riders. As I approached the line of Air Force people I stopped to shake the hand of 3 or 4 men and thanked them for all they are doing for our country. I think I caught them by surprise since other riders were waving and shouting to them. Next year I want to shake more hands.

The finish line was in a slightly different location from last year. This was a factor in meeting my wife at the end of the ride. Unbeknown to me there were two presentation areas, one for the racers and one for the riders. I was at the riders’ area while my wife was at the racers’ area. We kept calling each other trying to meet and saying we were at the stands but we didn’t know there were 2 stands. Finally we realized this and went to the racers’ area and we got together. We should have checked out the finish line the night before.

Overall this year’s ride was great. The rest stops were well run and the people super friendly. The people are why I come back year after year. We stayed at the Best Western Henrietta Inn which is about 20 miles south of Wichita Falls. While this not the most convenient hotel the staff and facilities were good. The internet connection in our room was flaky though. Otherwise I would have tried to upload this post on Saturday.