National Runway Cycling 2007

I wasn't aware that there was such a thing called Runway Cycling until last week, just days after I got the new road bike. It turns out that this is something that the Air Force organises every year. I'd not ridden a 45km 'endurance route' at one go before, so I worried that I might come in last or something. Still, cycling on an airport runway is probably one of the top 10 things I want to do before I die, so yeah...

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the winds were just right. So now I know what's good about a road bike. I hadn't been training, but the 45km seemed relatively easy. (I wasn't really racing hard or anything.) I don't believe I can finish the route reasonably refreshed if I were to use the mountain bike I had earlier. Pedal, pedal... At the start, it was very crowded with thousands at the waiting line. But it got progressively less crowded, and that's when you become one with the runway, especially the white lane strips/centreline, which was just huge. Each loop below was 15km. Participants had to do the loop three times...

Distance covered reported by Garmin Forerunner 305: 43.99km (.gpx obtained with this TCX convertor.)
Distance covered reported by Cateye computer: 43.98km