Note:
Westwood Park Century: map
I need to update that map as it's not the exact route I took due to so things not being as they appear. For starters I turned right on Gabbney, right Akron, left Sliker and I was supposed to turn left on Hopkins, but a cue sheet error caused me to turn right. This sent me onto the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, which I thought I had mapped out to avoid. But I thought it was a mapping error and kept going. The problem being, once on the Res there are no street signs so I wasn't sure where my next turn was. Nowhere to be found because I was not off course. I realized I probably had screwed up so I kept going figuring I would come out "somewhere". That was until I came to the end of the road. At that point I knew where I was because I had cut through the path that continues in place of the road many years ago coming from the Tonawanda Wildlife area. It wasn't until then that I actually stopped and looked at my map. A short backtrack to Skye/Bruning Rd popped me out onto Cedar right by the deadly steel deck bridge that nearly did me in several years ago. I was just South of it so I didn't need to cross it and I headed down Cedar about a mile North of where I intended to pick it up. All went well from there except near the end and my plan to cut through the cemetery. There is not entrance from Erie so I turned onto Signal and looped back to Erie and finished up from there. I also took a short detour off of W. Main in Alden to swing by my old house which now has a pool I see.
Beyond the mapping issue I lost the seat tube bottle twice on rough section. This is becoming a very annoying problem with big bottles that is going to have to be fixed because if nothing else it's dangerous. And the great sadness...I was unable to climb all of Fish Hill Road. I made it about half way before I had to stop. I then walked about 50 yards before getting back on the bike and completing the climb. The only other time this ever happened to me was the very first time I unwittingly turned onto Fish Hill and was taken by surprise. Today was some what a physical, but looking back probably more of a mental failure. I will be back.
On a positive note, this is my fastest solo century ever and only 0.04mph slower than the BBC group ride to Letchworth I did a few years ago. |
