Posting in this thread for the first time, but as a non-Londoner I read it all over the last few weeks for various hints and tips for getting to the start in the morning. So thanks for all the advice!
I was meant to be riding it with my wife, and it would have been her first 100 mile ride. We were riding it for The Lullaby Trust, who mean a lot to us as we lost our second child to sudden infant death in 2012.
Unfortunately great plans don't always come to be, and she broke her collarbone whilst out with our cycling club a few months ago. Initially I lost all motivation to do the ride, as my big goal this year was to help her achieve what she thought was unachievable. I wasn't even going to do it. But she and my friends talked me into it. As I've done audaxes and ridden 204 miles in one day, I felt bad asking for donations "just" to ride my bike. So decided to do it in fancy dress, first asking friends for suggestions on what I could wear (keeping within the rules of course) and then putting it to a vote. For some unknown reason, the "fairy princess" outfit won the popular vote so I lined up at 8:42am in my pink top and pink tutu, with a tiara on my helmet and a wand in my back pocket.
As a non-Londoner, getting the registration was a faff, as was the logistics of working out how to get to the start of the ride itself (but luckily a friend lives in Plaistow and I had a super easy ride to the start in the end) but the ride itself was special. Not the closed roads, I got over that pretty quickly, but the spectators on the side of the road, the people who were making a day of it at the end of their driveway, the towns with the music and PA systems. Organisation considering the size of the event was really exceptional in my opinion. I thought the start was going to be a bun fight for space, the fact they chuck you straight out onto a multi-lane carriageway for the first few miles was perfect. Everyone had their own room, including those that wanted to pull over to the side of the road to meet others.
Being... interestingly... dressed I got a lot of attention, and spent a lot of the ride high-fiving people and thanking people for saying I looked pretty. A bit of a change to the commute I must say.
As a daily cyclist around the Mendips, I will admit that the route wasn't at all challenging for me, but I appreciate that there are plenty for whom the day was a massive occasion - including my boss who completed his first ever century at the age of 65. Box Hill was an easy spin, the hill at Wimbledon felt just like a normal commute ;-) I went up it high fiving the charity supporters on the side of the road.
I was in a group who were diverted from Leith Hill, we were sent up Pasture Wood Road although at the time I didn't realise we were being diverted. I only realised we'd missed it when I noticed my GPS didn't match the mile boards. Unfortunately on this climb the whole ride seemed to grind to a halt, as people just stopped dead in the road and filled the whole lane up walking. This was at the foot of the climb. Plenty of shouts of "walk on the left" from others, one lady screamed back "it's not a race" but I've got to admit, I find it easier to cycle up hills than walk up them in cleats so whilst no, it wasn't a race, a little courtesy from all on this section would have gone a long way. Got up by cycling eventually by weaving around people (including those coming to a dead stop). And then on the descent a guy in front of me, four feet from the side of the carriageway, just slammed his brakes on and came to a complete stop for no apparent reason... in the middle of the lane. Cue a cascade of "woah!!" and people going left and right like the Red Arrows.
But other than that, considering the number of riders and range of abilities, I thought most people handled themselves well. I just treated anyone else as an unknown quantity and assumed the unexpected (lucky I did, as the several bike lengths I was leaving on any descent stopped me from clattering into the back of aforementioned chap!) I'm sure I unintentionally moved into someone's path at some point so will forgive anyone that did it to me.
Was really upset when I heard the sad news that someone wasn't going home to their family that night, I figured as soon as I realised we were diverted that it must have been a serious incident and respected any decision to make people skip the hill. The road will be there whenever people want to ride it.
Managed to catch the pros going the other way at Kingston, a total fluke of timing as it's one of the only points that the routes intersect.
Came through The Mall and left with a great memory of being cheered down a finishing straight for the first time in my life. Closest I've had to that was a walking school bus of primary school kids who cheered me up a hill once. Simply The Best by Tina Turner was playing but I'm sure that wasn't just for me in my tutu.
I'd do it again if I wasn't raising money for charity, but purely because I find it hard to ask for donations being an everyday cyclist who does a couple of hundreds and more a year. The roadside support made it so special, I loved seeing people enjoy themselves on the sides of the roads (special shout out to the couple having a picnic on an empty dual carriageway in the other direction to the ride, presumably just because they could). And I'd especially do it if I could complete the ride with my wife. Maybe I'm soft but I will admit to shedding a tear lining up without her. I know she was crushingly disappointed to miss out because of her collarbone, but still drove me to London then stood with our charity at Wimbledon to cheer everyone on. I know deep down that wasn't easy for her to do.
I've done it once and had to stop so I'm being evil on myself as well 
