New open and Masters course record on the 12 mile hill climb today to the Birthday boy, Dan.
Despite being under the weather all week, I was determined not to miss Dan’s challenge of racing him on his 11.6 mile climb. After a great weather day yesterday, today was sunny and cool (very cold by my standards ~ 50 degrees). Five of us started the climb. I jumped out to an early lead, but just past the halfway mark at Mile High Cafe, Dan eased up beside and over the next 5 miles gradually pulled away to a 90 second victory. We both erased hiw old course record, but neither of us broke an hour which was the ultimate goal…next time.
Monty pulled a surprise in finishing only a couple of minutes back in third, after having just completed the 500 mile ride from San Fran to LA a week earlier. Scare of the day was Monty falling down off his bike at the end causing concern about his pacemaker. The real scare was Dan and I trying to figure out who would have to give him mouth to mouth. Hey, he’s your friend Dan.
So, Dan was the man today but the day is over in a couple of hours and the next time, I’m (we?) are going under an hour!
Thanks for coming up, Mike. You were the one I wanted to have show, because I figured I would know whether I was fooling myself or whether I was actually rounding into shape by how much you thrashed me by.
I shall savor the moment and not plan on it lasting long, because I know something you don’t, which is every pitch and every turn of this mountain. Next time I won’t have the advantage.
My only regret is not actually having ridden the hill with you. One of us was always clear of the other. Perhaps next time around we’ll have a bigger group of hammers and we can get up the thing in each other’s company.
Mike wrote: The real scare was Dan and I trying to figure out who would have to give him mouth to mouth. Hey, he’s your friend Dan.
I hope I’m not being rude and butting in here, but this reminded me of something I recently heard about two friends out mountain biking. It seems one guy fell, and in the process of getting back on the trail, he was bitten in the posterior by a rattlesnake. His buddy had a cell phone and called 911. The operator hooked him up to the ER, where a doctor told him that he needed to take a small knife and cut his buddy at the fang marks and suck out the poison. He hung up the phone, and the stricken rider said, “WELL? What did the doctor say?” The cell phone buddy replied, “The doctor said you are going to die!”