It’s true. Camaraderie is born in the furnace of affliction, and nothing afflicts better than climbing mountains on bikes for 100-124 (or 156) miles. Here’s the Horneytown crew at the top of Mountain Lake…alive…even smiling…a little.

One of the side effects of riding a challenge century is a propensity to make personal resolutions once the ride is over (or during particularly difficult portions). One considers many resolutions about how things will or won’t be done in the future. Below are the Top Ten (or so) Personal Resolutions made after mountain challenge centuries:

1. “I am never going to do this again!”
2. “I’m not doing another challenge century ride again until I lose 10, 20, 30 lbs — I’ll buy a lighter bike, get those zero brakes, carbon bottle cages, and…”
3. “I will never fuel for a ride by eating fried calamari and Goo, followed by an Endurox chaser.”
4. “I will not fill my water bottles the night before the ride and leave them in my hotel room refrigerator.”
5. “I will be diligent about paying attention to route markers — even when I’m chasing up to a cyclist who’s attacked off the front and is leading us all the wrong way and turning 124 mile double century into a 156 mile delirious epic.”
6. “I will listen to rest stop volunteers who say there are pot holes in the road surface at the bottom of the descent. I will also not try and read all the words marking the pot holes as I’m traveling through. I will stay out of nice people’s flower beds when the line through the curve wasn’t sufficient.”
7. “I will not climb more mountains than I have to.” (See number 5).
8. “I will not drink coffee the night before a ride — even if they say it’s decaf.”
9. “What kind of a sick, twisted, masochistic person am I that I would do this more than once? I’m starting therapy.”
10. “It’s not a race. I will not race. I will beat my last years time…”
11. “No matter what I say now, talk me into this next year.”

Having forgotten those resolutions, this Saturday, we’ll be lining up again at 3 Mountain Madness.