Saturday, August 13, 2005
Greylock Half Century Ride 2005 photo slideshow
Greylock Century Ride info
Well, THAT was a bear. Truth be told, I was using much stronger language to describe the experience while it was happening yesterday... fortunately only when there was no one around to hear me, which was most of the time.
THE UGLY
The darn ride T-shirt, which is a white T with the Century ride elevation profile on the front. Yuck!
THE BAD
OK, this could take a while. Be assured, once I'm done griping about the ride, I do have some good thoughts about it.
I had to leave around 6 AM to get there in time, so that meant getting up at 4:30. Bleah. Went to bed early and listened to the rain, wondering if I would be riding after all (if it had been raining steadily I'd have gone, picked up my goodie bag and shirt, and come home.) In the end, went to sleep around 1 AM and woke up every hour after that until it was time to get up at 4:30.
All went smoothly that morning and I started riding at 7:45 AM. Fairly cool morning, if a bit humid, but a good start.
6 hours later I finished. Blazing hot and tropical humidity levels.
50 miles/6 hours = 8.3 miles per hour. My usual average is 12-14 mph.
Everything was going decently until I hit the base of Mt Greylock. At that point I had a 3 mile climb that I just don't have the legs or gears on my bike to ride... so I pushed the bike for 3 miles uphill. Got a break for a few miles when the road levelled off, but then had another 3 miles uphill to push the bike. So by the Greylock Summit I'd been out for 3 hours and had spent about 2 of those hours hiking uphill lugging my bike. My legs were NOT happy about that. In addition I was drenched with sweat, and the humidity meant it had nowhere to go. My cycling gloves were so wet they squished when I squeezed my hand down on the handlebars.
At the summit I was lucky enough to meet the food & drink person as she was getting ready to leave and refilled my Camelback (water backpack.) She also let me know that the next food/water stop was 25 miles away, which made me glad I'd lugged lots of food and fluid with me (despite assurances that we would be very well taken care of and there would be tons of supplies out there.) Rested briefly, chatted with a fellow who was dropping out because the Greylock climb had destroyed him, changed into a dry shirt, and had a very pleasant ride down the mountain (other than worrying that my brake cable would snap and I would, well, crash and die. It's a very steep descent.)
After that I had a hot, exhausting plod (err... ride... but slow and plodding!) to the next rest area. Virtually no shade the whole way, and my legs were pretty much shot from the 6 mile uphill hike I'd done. Got to the rest stop and, no surprise, the person was gone (good thing I saw the previous one as she was leaving and refilled my water, huh?) To add insult to injury, just beyond that was another 1 3/4 miles of steep uphill where I... yup... pushed the bike. Then I had a fairly easy ride down into town, followed by another 1/4 mile uphill push the bike session, and a relatively easy couple of miles back to the car.
So by my estimates I rode for about 42 miles and hiked uphill for 8. The 42 may be off... my bike computer said I'd done 54 or 55 miles by the end, but maybe it was mis-calibrated.
All in all, I finished (didn't have a choice, really - that was the only way to get back!) but it was a pretty miserable and somewhat demoralizing experience. The Lowlander Century ride is 1 month away, and I have no idea if I can complete it... even with a two more long rides squeezed in (a 70-ish miler, and hopefully one even longer, around 85 miles or so...)
I am also NOT impressed with how "well" they took care of the riders. At the start I filled out an emergency contact card... which was totally useless, since after the summit they had no idea where I was, I had no way to get in touch with them, and there was nothing to ID me as a Greylock Half Century rider. (The gal at the summit actually stopped and asked me if I was as she was leaving the parking area. Earlier someone with another group ride that was going on at the same time in the same general area stopped and asked me if I was part of their ride.) The only way to get a ride back to the start if you were injured or had mechanical problems would have been to get to the food/drink areas, and clearly THAT wouldn't have worked for me. They had no one driving sweep, unless someone came through long after I was done. (Had someone pulled up and asked me if I needed a ride back to the start on that later 1 1/2 mile uphill slog, I probably would have said yes... I was pretty exhausted and miserable.) And since there was no check-in at the end, they don't even know that we all made it back. Maybe they do a better job keeping track of the Century riders... I know that's the main focus of the ride, and I only talked to one or two people who were doing the shorter distance.)
THE GOOD
I finished! Made it to the end entirely under my own power.
My walking pace was about 3 mph. That means I walked for about 2 hours 40 minutes and rode for about 3 hours 20 minutes.
42 mi / 3.3 hours = 12.7 mph! Not bad at all, given the heat and humidity, 3 hours of sleep, and destroying my legs on the hike up the two steep portions going to the Greylock summit.
The couple of people I chatted with were really nice.
I carried plenty of food and drink with me... even if I hadn't refilled my water at the top I think I would have had just enough to make it to the end. For once my tendency to overpack has paid off!
I also learned a valuable lesson - no more biking up mountains on long rides unless I have (1) dramatically increased the strength of my legs, and even more importantly have (2) acquired a bike with gears meant for steep mountain grades (ie. at least a triple chain ring, and probably a 9 or 10 speed cassette rather than the 7 speed I have now. Of course, that's at least an $800-$1000 investment, so that's not happening anytime soon...)
And I learned that I will probably never again do either Greylock ride, because I don't like how they take care of the slow riders. Or rather, how they didn't take care of at least one of them yesterday.
The Lowlander does have a significantly nicer profile that Greylock... there are some climbs, and I may have to push the bike occasionally, but it looks a lot more doable... maybe.
Lance Armstrong can retire with nary a worry, since it is clear I will never challenge his dominance in climbing mountain roads on a bike.
I finished! (and my legs don't feel too bad today... I even contemplated going for a run...)
Oh, well. Lessons learned, I guess.
-JMH
Next up is the Savoy Mountain 4.5 mile trail run next Sunday (great, the M word again.) I'm hoping that will go well... I could really use an event to pick me up after Indian Ladder and the Greylock Half Century.
UPDATE
And just to show that I am truly crazy... I now realize that if I do ever get a bike with proper gearing for that sort of climbing (and get my biking legs in shape for it) I will probably do one of the Greylock rides - just to prove to myself that I can. (shaking head sadly at own foolishness.)
