Date: September 19, 2010
Location: Collingwood, Ontario
Distance: 178kms
I was looking for a race that I would be able to do this year since I wasn’t able to run this summer I thought this would be a good way to get at least one race in this year. I had been doing a fair amount of road riding and was seeing steady improvement in my surgically repaired knee so I thought I might as well sign up for the 100 mile race. They also had 25 and 50 mile races as well but I wanted a bit more of a challenge and did I get one.
The race started and finished at Blue Mountain and was a great place to hold this event. There is a lot of accomodations available; getting up and walking out the door to the start line was really nice. The event ran on the 18th and 19th with a free concert featuring 5440 on Saturday afternoon. The organization of this event was top notch though a bit more communication on changes made to the course would have been nice to know before heading off.
You may have noticed that I indicated the distance of 178k and by most people’s math 100 miles is about 160k. They had posted that the race was going to be 105 miles which works out to around 168k so I was ready for that but I wasn’t ready to hit 168k and see a sign that says 10k to the finish. That last 10k pretty much killed me and a lot of it my own doing but not all.
I have never ridden in such a large group before but the start was really smooth and we cruised along to the first climb. This climb separated those that were going to compete for the win and those of us that were looking to have a good solid ride. I am firmly in the latter group and watched the leaders disappear in the distance. The first climb is a good solid grinder and they you cruise along on some truly stunning roads for the next little while. There were a few small climbs mixed in but nothing that really caused too much of a challenge. It had been a pretty cold morning and I thought that it would warm up and I would be able to take off my vest so I put all of my food in my jersey pocket. It didn’t warm up and I struggled to get my gels out of my pockets and for the most part gave up. I was in a good group and grabbed a gel at a couple of the aid stations along the way. I was feeling pretty good until we hit the “King of the Mountain” climb at 140k. I felt really good for the first part and then the wheels started to fall off. I made a rookie mistake, I thought I feel fine and I only have about 28k to go, I can gut it out. What I should have done is started pounding back gels to get some energy back in my system! I started the climb with a really large group and by the time we got to the top I was on my own and struggling. I have watched enough of the Tour to know that Phil Liggett would have said “He’s cracked he can only hope to finish now” and it is funny that that is what went through my head as I dropped back. I knew that there were a few more climbs coming but thought they weren’t too bad and only 3 short thought steep ones. It seemed like we kept climbing for about 10k before we hit the 165k so I though nice it is all down hill from here. It was not, I still hadn’t hit the 3 short climbs (or that damn 10k to go sign); due to construction meant they had to change the course on race day which added length as well as a few more climbs. That last 10 was some of the hardest riding on the course though it did include a descent of about 3k to the finish.
I have done some really hard training days and some challenging bike courses in races, Lake Placid’s IM bike course is a tough ride but it has nothing on this one.
I have to say this is by far the hardest ride I have ever done. Some of the difficulty was of my own making but the majority was the route, my SRM said that I had climbed a little over 7500ft. That being said it was something that I am very happy I was able to take part in and look forward to doing it again next year.
Congrats to John Yip and the rest of the Team Running Free entry into the event.
