Originally Posted by seypat

Not IM related, but somewhat cycling related and inspirational. Saturday we had a tough MTT route over parts of the marathon course. Some of the course routes along the James River. If you look at the included map, the route by the river on Old Gun on one end, to downtown across the bridges on the other end is the most popular cycling route in Richmond. You also have downtown where the World Championships were held. If you go down to the river, you have to climb off it. Cherokee all the way to Old Gun/Robius is a climb. The part of the route on upper Riverside between mile 4 and 6 is full of these curvy up/downs with some punchy climbs. The Nickel Bridge(the first one we went over) is a decent climb, no matter which way you're going. The 2nd bridge is the Lee which is part of the Marathon course. BB4 might know about that bridge. I think the Tour Of Richmond bike ride went along Riverside, so rccardr might have ridden that part as well There's an elevation tab at the bottom of the map.

Anyway, as I was headed down to the middle of the Nickel/river, I came upon an MTT gentleman older than I rolling along around a 10:30 pace. The bridge flattened out and we began the climb up to the other side. I slowed of course, and we chatted a bit. It was Dewey, a local fixture on the marathon running scene. Dewey is 84 years young! He's not one of the original's, but close to it. There's only one left that has run every Richmond Marathon. A few of them switched to the half a few years ago when they hit their mid 80's. One had a cycling accident and had to give up running. Still cycling. Dewey was looking strong. No limps, or hunches or those kind of things. Plenty of muscle tone also. He said he gets a little slower each year, but good otherwise. I barely made it to the crest of the climb on the other side without walking. I turned around as I transitioned onto upper Riverside. I had only gapped Dewey by 50-60 yards! I hope that I can make it to his age, and be in the kind of shape he's in. If we stay off the couch and take care of ourselves, maybe we all can make it that far.

https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/ZJRlbFkiY1