How easy would it be to do a Century in each of the 50 states?

[Tim Kelley]

@Bilsko 39884 wrote:

Say, over the course of a couple years…and only ‘official’ Century rides.

Doing it all in one year (ie. ~one century per week) would probably be too tough logistically (travel, bike transport, etc.) unless you had a lot of disposable income and free time on your hands. But over the course of a few years (maybe one or two rides per month) seems like it would be manageable.

Source: Pouring a cup of coffee in the office kitchen this morning with CNN highlighting a story of a 50 states marathon runner with an aggressive form of cancer who just finished a Hawaii marathon for #50. Got me thinking about doing this type of thing.

Sign-up sheet for sponsors is over there.

Why limit yourself? You could pull a Dean Karnazes, compress the schedule and do 100 centuries in in 100 days.

Or just take a summer off and ride a big loop across the country.

[Bilsko]

@Tim Kelley 39886 wrote:

Why limit yourself? You could pull a Dean Karnazes, compress the schedule and do 100 centuries in in 100 days.

Or just take a summer off and ride a big loop across the country.

I figured somebody had done something like it (or crazier, like 100×100), but was a little too lazy to Google it. Thought about a summer vacation with a long cross-country out and back.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I’d be content to just visit all 50 states, or do a ride of any kind in all of them. I’ve done centuries entirely in VA and WV, and one that spanned MD and PA. I think I’ve ridden in 13ish states total, with probably the toughest, Alaska, ridden last summer on my honeymoon. I’m also hoping to hit California next month when my wife is in San Diego for work.

[Bilsko]

@TwoWheelsDC 39900 wrote:

I’d be content to just visit all 50 states, or do a ride of any kind in all of them. I’ve done centuries entirely in VA and WV, and one that spanned MD and PA.

Hmm… I hadn’t contemplated rides that span more than one State. Not sure how to deal with that one.

[eminva]

@Bilsko 39884 wrote:

Say, over the course of a couple years…and only ‘official’ Century rides.

Doing it all in one year (ie. ~one century per week) would probably be too tough logistically (travel, bike transport, etc.) unless you had a lot of disposable income and free time on your hands. But over the course of a few years (maybe one or two rides per month) seems like it would be manageable.

I read an article about a slightly different version of this recently (see p. 8 of the pdf):

http://www.bikeleague.org/members/pdfs/ab_nov_dec_2012.pdf

It strikes me as something best done if: (1) you have flexible work arrangements (2) don’t have mortgage and kid commitments or (3) are close enough to, or in, retirement and don’t have to worry about #2 anymore and don’t even care about #1.

@TwoWheelsDC 39900 wrote:

I’d be content to just visit all 50 states, or do a ride of any kind in all of them. I’ve done centuries entirely in VA and WV, and one that spanned MD and PA. I think I’ve ridden in 13ish states total, with probably the toughest, Alaska, ridden last summer on my honeymoon. I’m also hoping to hit California next month when my wife is in San Diego for work.

Oh no, now I feel bad. I’ve been to 39 states but, to the best of my recollection, I’ve only ridden in eight of them! I was running the wrong race! Drat, now I have to go visit those 31 again AND the other 11.

Liz

[PotomacCyclist]

I’ve only ridden in 3 states as an adult (if you count D.C. as a “state”). Do I lose my Cyclist-American card? (I rode in another state back in grade school.) But I have ridden in 3 states within one minute. (Actually, anyone who rides across the Wilson Bridge does that. A small sliver of the bike path is technically part of D.C. I think you ride from VA to DC and MD in the space of about 400 feet.)

You could ride in every state, but I doubt you could line up organized centuries in every state in a compressed time frame. Maybe you could start up some organized rides of your own to fill in any gaps. But that would take some time and effort.

[vvill]

@eminva 39975 wrote:

Oh no, now I feel bad. I’ve been to 39 states but, to the best of my recollection, I’ve only ridden in eight of them! I was running the wrong race! Drat, now I have to go visit those 31 again AND the other 11.

I feel like this in general too. I’ve been to quite a few countries (mostly before kids/mortgage) and over 20 states but only ridden a bike in a handful of them. Worse still, I didn’t even Strava some of those rides I did do in other places!

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