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Old 07-19-09, 09:41 PM
  #1670  
palesaint
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Location: Los Alamos, NM
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2009 Mt Evans road race (should be called hill climb):

I thought about creating a thread for this race, but don't have the energy. Bottom line is that the weather was gorgeous and the route was an absolute blast. Entered the 35+ 4's and hung with the front group for almost 10 miles. By this point we were well into the hills, I was starting to feel the sting and had to make a tactical decision: try to hang in the front and possibly blow up or back off a bit and conserve energy to make it to the end. Being my first race of this magnitude, I opted for option 2. So I backed off and just held a manageable heart rate. Hitting 12K, I felt good. 13K I was still feeling alright. I was still pushing 9mph when I cruised past 14,000 feet elevation and was quite shocked to be feeling decent. At this point, and with a few switchbacks still to climb, I upped the pace a bit and actually did a nice little kick at the end. It was a tiny bit discouraging to know I had some gas left in the tank that I could have used - but I just didn't know how my body would respond.

Summary: 27+ miles, almost 7000 feet climbing up to 14,100 in 2:35. Probably enough to get me smack dab in the middle of the 80 or so riders. Final results still pending publication though.
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