So, finally I have some time to post about our Hilly hundred (or in our case 60k with what felt like a hundred hills
). We arrived friday night to our quaintly decorated Best Western, and went to pick up our race kits. Much to my dismay T-shirts had been sold out woth only smalls being left so no T-shirt for me, although Mark was able to get his, nice looking shirt. We ate dinner, laughed a lot, then off to bed. Our race didn't start until 9, but we all had to be there for a mandatory 7:00 meeting, plus they had pancakes, sausages and juice/coffee. Turns out there were 245 brave riders for this event (this was the 5th year for it) from as far away as Kitchener, Waterloo, etc. There looked to be about 20 or so riders doing the 240k (crazy) most seemed to be doing the 160k, and 10 of us did the 60k.
What a great ride, not to hilly to start (the first 10k was gentle rollers), but the pavement was bumpy! I'm thinking to myself, this isn't so bad, hilly my a$$, then the hills began. There were some pretty good climbs, but we took it easy, stopped at the tops, enjoyed the views, we toured, yes even Jeff and Tony toured with us. The downhills were fast, Jeff got up tp 78km/h without really trying, my top speed was 72k, just coasting. We turned around at the checkpoint, and the spread there reminded me of a trail race. Cookies, chips, trail mix, fruit, the ladies even made me a peanutbutter and banana sandwich! The 60 k was an out and back, while the rest of the distances were loops, good and bad points to this, we knew we'd get to go down all those climbs, but still had to do all of the other climbs. BUt we all finished with smiles on our faces (even if Jeff and TOny speeded ahead, the BBq was caliing). So at the finish they had hamburgers and salads and seconds if you wanted. The finishing award was neat. It's a stained glass "H" that a local artist made, different colours for different distances. All in all well worth my entry fee of $50, would definately go back and do it agian. Just be forewarned that there were a lot of hills, some of them even had names, but slow and steady got me through (well my contessa and granny gear probabley helped) . Fun was had by all (at least I think so)
