I've done several marathons and now am hoping for a fall century try. I'm very new to bicycling and have 'lost' my running conditioning, but I think it's coming back some. I was aiming at a Sept event, but my friend who used to be a pro at this said the one I wanted to try was one that 'kicked him hard". Since he used to ride 100 miles on a mountain bike (dirt roads) for Sunday fun during this time, I need to find another event.

I live in a scenic mountain area which is great on the eyes, but the one I had in mind had about 17k feet of climb in it. I'm looking for with with about 17 feet of climb