iab

Post them here. I'm a bit tired right now and will post mine soon. I am very interested to here about people's rides.

jbmadtown

A great ride for me today on the 100K route! As other BFers predicted I found myself starting out a lot faster than when I did the route solo in training runs- but my legs felt good so I went with the flow. The first climb up Mounds Park Rd was over in a flash and before I knew it we were climbing into the first rest stop. There I looked at my computer and I noticed I was riding much faster than any of my training rides. I thought to myself: "this could be a great ride, or I'm totally going to tank in stage 3."

Stage 2 started out very slowly. My legs felt like lead for the first few miles and I thought I may be headed for a ride in the Sag Wagon. Thankfully I found my legs again as I started the climb up Barlow Rd. Then it was pretty easy going to the second rest stop. I was mindful to drink a lot of water here, but I ate less hoping that I could avoid the lethargy I felt after the first stop.

I had forgotten how tough Pinnacle Road really is- but I remembered that the climb up Lakeview had been cut out so I pushed myself to the top knowing that there were really only 3 big climbs left (climb to Barneveld, Mounds Park Rd, and the final grind to the finish). Again, I started feeling really tired on the flat before Barneveld, but my legs recovered a bit during the next climb and I knew I was really close to the finish at that point. I just got into my drops and tried to focus on spinning and staying loose.

The last few miles were tough but I just kept my cadence up as much as I could- alternating climbing in and out of the saddle quite frequently. I found myself setting my sites on riders in front of me and got motivation from slowly reeling them in (there were also many who passed me and just kept getting further away!). The last climb hurt but the top came sooner than I expected and I gave the photographer a faint smile as I rolled over the finish in 4hrs 48 minutes by the clock. I checked my computer and saw my riding time was 4:15 with an average of 15.1mph- much faster than any of my training rides, and well above my goal of 14! Despite the shortened route I felt good about what I did today. The best part is being in good riding shape so early on in the season- opening up a lot of opportunities for more challenges later on this summer/fall.

Thanks and Props go out to: the volunteers and organizers, the guy who allowed use of his yard for the rest stop on County K, anyone who did the 200K, the guy I saw doing the ride on a fixed-gear, all of you older riders with legs of iron (you give me something to aim for when I'm 60!) and all the triathletes who went for a jog immediately after finishing- you guys are hardcore!

Psimet2001 

jbmadtown

Three pictures- worth three thousand words!

CyLowe97

Short and to the point for now:

• aham23 is da man! The whole 200k route including the addtional 7 miles to do Lakeview road climb.
• RacerX99 -- Sorry I didn't chat it up more with you. I was zoning at that final rest stop just wanting to get the rest of the suffering over.
• Good to see Jose Perez out at the ride. It's quite an accomplishment.
• Psimet, thanks for waiting on those of us with less brains than you.
• 53.6 mph -- New personal best for speed heading down Sutcliffe on the fourth stage.
• 107 miles -- Skipped last 14 miles of stage four and skipped the detour to climb Lakeview, but that is my new personal high for miles in a day (even if about .25 miles of that was walked after cracking on Mounds Park at the end).

More as the stories unfold.

CyLowe97

I just noticed in the background of the pic of aham23 above. The Finish line sign says START on it. WTF?? The ride started hundreds of feet below in the town!

whitesox

great job everyone!!

This was my 3rd race/tour ride ever, so as you could guess I was quite intimidated going in. Prior to this year, I spent most of my time running. At the end of last summer, I just decided I wanted to bike more, and bought myself a 3ring Giant OCR composite... the perfect bike for this kind of ride, so I had to sign up and try out this Giant big dog of mine on this so called Horrible Hilly Hundred ride (100K).

I heard during the Ramble Ride last weekend comments such as "your nuts", "even I don't do that ride and I ride 300 miles a week", etc, etc. Then as I was getting my bike together at the start of the HHH, I heard a gentleman say "yeah most of them don't know what they're getting themselves into" I turned to my boyfriend and before I could get out another word of insecurity, and questioning if I was doing the right thing, LOL!!... he would say "hush... sweets, with your strong legs, you can do this", LOL!! He was right... I did it My unofficial time was 5:50, but I have yet to see the official time.

I did my first century ever last weekend at the Ramble Ride, so that did serve as a good confidence booster going into the HHH However, the first and last climb was to die for!!... and people lied when they said you had to do that first climb twice, you not only had to do it twice, but twice and then some!! I was not expecting that extra climb into the park near the finish, it just about killed me... and brought tears to my eyes when finishing. I had never ever cried after a race, but this one did it... choking back tears as I stood beyond the finish line thinking "wtf kind of ride did I just do", LOL!!

Anyway, I don't have my finisher pics yet, the bf will be sending those later today... I do have one pic of me and some folks from beginnertriathlete.com that I met up with at the finish. I am 2nd to the left, with the monster legs, LOL!!

I will maybe sign up for next year, but like it was with my running, there are so many races out there, I like to try to do them all... but this one might be a ride that I will come back too, we'll have to see.

... and a congrats to all of you, and especially those who did the 200K, that takes some serious guts , and obviously, some waaaay serious strength

and a special thanks to the volunteers, organizers, and the police patrol on the streets. I thought it was extremely organized and I plan to write to HHH and tell them what a great job they did!!

good job everyone!!

Kat

CyLowe97

because he's smarter than us?

Jose Perez

I'll repost what I typed up in the other thread:

Well,
After months of building this event up in my head it turned out to be every bit as hard as I suspected and then some. I know to some this was just a weekend ride, but to me it was the culmination of a year spent dropping 55 lbs and getting my fat ass back in shape. I finished and more importantly to me, I didn't quit. I was all set to stop about a mile into the final climb up Mounds Road and walk up, but after about 100 yards of pushing the bike something snapped in my pea sized brain and I remounted my bike and pushed on. It took every bit I had but I didn't stop again until I passed under the finish line. Final time was 4:51 and taking away the time spent at the rest stops my actual ride time came in at 4 1/2 hours. I was emotional at the end of it and actually started to cry. It was a brutal way to spend 4 1/2 hours of a beautiful Saturday morning but in its own perverted way it felt real good too.

Good to see the BFNIC guys out there. Sorry I didn't stick around to chat a bit. Maybe at the next ride that doesn't have as many damn hills.

Hipcycler

Wow.
Nice job men.

CyLowe....Jesus I'm tired just LOOKING at that picture.
Hats off.
You're a mileage maniac I tell ya.

....and I'm with botto here....what's up with Psimet being all...mugging to the camera happy???? Was he riding in the sag wagon?

cminter

So my ride went well, not as fast I would like to be but I rode every hill without walking. I cut off the Lakeview climb, and the added 6 miles for a 120 mile ride at an average of 13.5 mph. Total time of about 11.5 hours and on bike for 8:50.

My opinion of the food stops where was the food at # 2,3? I was not at the back of the pack so I don't know what anyone back there was going to eat. Even stop #1 I looked around and thought who wants Chex mix and a few other thing they were serving. Now stop #4 that was nice they had plenty to eat, and more selections. When I finally finished and went to get dinner I was shocked when told it was one sandwich limit. I guess after riding the Bombay Bicycle Club century I'm spoiled but for $70 for the HHH I don't think the food provided was good or enough of it. One last complaint does anyone wear sleeveless t-shirts?

All complaining aside I had a good ride. Early on I stopped to help a rider with a stuck chain, this turned out to be a good thing. She was having a lot of problems, turned out the new chain her shop installed was too long. This was causing the jockey pulley to rub the large cog to the point of skipping off, I adjusted the B screw which helped but not perfect. At rest stop #2 the guys from REI worked on it and ended up giving her a new shorten chain. Section 3 was easy, I was feeling good.

Section 4 was where the lack of food got me. After leaving rest stop 3 the climb up Sutcliffe rd had my left hamstring starting to cramp. I had my own packs of shot blocks so I downed an entire pack and added more elete solution to my bottles. The cramps were on and off the rest of the ride, and without my new ride partner I may have bailed.

The last rest stop was by far the best we recovered for a long time. The rest of our now modified route was not too bad. I was very happy that I survived the final climb into the park, even if I had to stay away from the edge since I could hardly keep going straight at that point.

Sorry I didn't meet anyone else from here, congratulations to all.

CastIron

In a word: OUCH!
I didn't walk a single friggin inch of those hills but don't blame those who did. My wife actually cried watching me slog over the finish line.
Heat was a limiting factor. My trusty SweatVac was overwhelmed my mile 10. Last time I poured that much out was working in an unventilated attic in the summer.
Anyone have links to the photogs working the course? I mugged up pretty good until the end. I'll post the evolution of CastIron melting.

Hats off to the folks putting this thing on! While organization leading up to the event was of significant concern, they delivered in an admirable manner during the event.

More on Monday. Now I have to pay my dues with landscape and yard work. Yippy.

Psimet2001 

That's me trying to remember how many beers I had drank while waiting for CyLowe and Aham to get in.

CyLowe talked me into this ride. I read the site and knew there was climbing, but really didn't give it a second thought. I didn't train for this, and much to no one's surprise I am NOT a climber. Give me the flat sections with a 20-30mph wind over those climbs any day.

(Long Version continued in multiple posts I am sure)....

I commuted into work on Friday to spin out my legs (25 miles in) because I hadn't really ridden much in the last two weeks. Aham picked me up from the plant at noon and we stopped back home to pick up my stuff before hitting CyLowe's house.



The drive up was fun. Almost like a college road trip...except for the fact that we were sober, at least temporarily. On some BF member's advice we headed to New Glarus for some grub...


This is a town that believes that it is really located somewhere in Switzerland....

We stopped into some bar where the bartender promptly yelled at Aham and told him he had to order at the bar (because she wasn't about to walk the 3 feet from the bar to one of the 3 tables there was. I hit the rest room (I'm sure the other will say I had to go every 3 seconds - I was hydrating ), but I was told the conversation went something like,

Bartender(BT):"What do you want?"
Aham:"What do you have?"
BT:"Cold sandwiches."
Aham:"Oh, and Brats, and.."
BT:"Cold sandwiches."
Aham:"OK, I think I'll have a cold sandwich."

We all followed suit (picture taken after short discussion about botto):


Continued.....

Psimet2001 

After dinner we headed over to the High School to pick up our packets. We got there pretty much right after they opened.



We ran into our old friend "the Whippet". I actually got photo evidence this time....when my flash went off...slightly embarassing. BTW - this girl is insanely fast and strong.



Once we got done and were setup to spend the night in the gym e realized it was way to early to pack it in for the night, and there wasn't an strong sentiment to go on a short ride. Only thing left to do was drink...err...find a place to sit down and have a conversation.



We went "into town" and started looking for a place to set up shop. After a brief discussion about Dick's Meats ...



...we settled on what seemed to be a nice establishment.

Psimet2001 

Well...we had one or two of their local beverages. CyLowe decided it might be bad for if anyone actually saw him hanging around with two baboons:





botto - no comments about the fruit in my beer. It came that way.

After a while we decided that we would be better off if we didn't sit around there the whole night. Restraint was going to be difficult to keep fore very long. So we decided there was still enough sunlight to take a look around the course for the ride.

What ensued was a sesssion that included a lot of ear popping, brake burning, downshifting, and laughing - strike that - cackling from CyLowe. This was quickly followed by my need for some antacid. I needed something to settle my stomach. I knew enough to know that I was way outmatched on this one.

I tried to look happy, but I was kind of PO'd at myself for not ever looking into the ride, or ever taking it seriously enough to train for it. I had signed up for the 100K and knew that wouldn't be a problem, but I had gotten the wild hair up my bum in the last 2 weeks to try the 200K. I wanted to make sure that I had a hard enough ride to justify driving all the way up there and spending all that money....


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

whitesox

hey jose... what did your total mileage come out to? I was at 62 or so when I finished, but my friend emailed me and said she was at 55 miles at the end. Just curious what you showed? Also, did you go through the gravel area where you walked your bike, or did you take a detour? I'm thinking and hoping she took a detour otherwise my cyclocomputer needs adjusting

Psimet2001 

From there it was back to the gym for some shuteye...or as much shuteye as you can get sleeping on the floor of a un-airconditioned high school gym.




The next morning we geared up and got up to the start. While I am not a specimen of physical fitness I usually find that I am in at least the top half of the riders on any given ride. I quickly found out that I was probably in the bottom 10% on this ride. There were more triathletes there then there is at a triathalon. The gear that came out was sick. Absolutely sick. I really didn't get much of a chance to enjoy looking at it though.

I was still kicking around the idea of what route to take. We headed out within the first official pack knowing we wouldn't be there for long. We all knew we had the 3/4 climb back up the mound first thing. Someone who was riding with a super computer will post the stats, but this was approximately a 2-2.5 mile climb with grades I haven't seen outside of a 3-4 hour flight by airplane.

I was taking it easy knowing that I had a whole day in front of me. Aham, CyLowe and I were all together at the bottom of the climb. Slowly Aham and I moved ahead of CyLowe. I heard him say something like, "I'm going to take it easy." That startled me a little because that's what I thought I was doing and I know CyLowe is a better climber than me. Aham and I were doing pretty good up the first mile or so. Even talked a little - I think. Then the grade pitched up even steeper again.

Aham slowly pulled away and I started moving backwards through the group. Another 1/2 mile or so and CyLowe came past me fast enough to barely realize it was him. I felt like two 300lb Russians had slapped me in the face with big fish.

I got to the top and figured I could probably move back up to the guys on the descent. I tend to fly on descents (yes because I am heavier than these guys). Thing is the street were so friggin packed with nancy triathletes that rode their brakes down the whole thing I never got to even open coast.

From there a series of killer climbs ensued. I was about 10 miles in and wondering why the F I had come up here to do this. It was at this time I realized that I really had little interest in riding 120 miles of this basically alone.

I was depressed because I was thinkning that I was doing well this year, and I despise stepping down from a challenge, but I made up my mind that I was better off only doing the 100K. After that I realized that I needed the keys for the car if I was going to be waiting for 5-7 hours more after I got in.

Luckily I met back up with CyLowe and Aham at the first stop. I came up to Aham and the first words out of my mouth were, "where's your keys!?" Reflecting on it I know I probably came across a little snippy. I was drenched in sweat, still catching my breath, and PO'd at myself. I apologize (aham) if I was an a-hole.

From that stop on it was a pretty easy (relatively) ride. I never really bonked or got in trouble with food or water. The scenery was beautiful and because I wasn't pushing myself I just enjoyed the ride. I figured I had enough time to blow so I might as well take my time. I quickly realized that I climb at the same speed as most of the competetive women who were on that route. It kept my mind occupied, and yes I climb like a girl...thank god.

I still made it in in around 5:30 hours total. Ride time was 4:30.

Then came the waiting....

Psimet2001 

I listened to your friend make the decision to cut over on HH because she wanted to avoid the gravel area that we got the e-mail about. They had already re-routed the course around the section the e-mailed about. There was only that one small patch of gravel. No bike walking for me.

I ended up with 63.3.

whitesox

you did?, you talked to my friend!!

I agree the gravel was so insignifcant... I didn't understand what the big deal was, it was what 40 yards?, but I walked my bike... I wasn't going to risk a flat seeing I don't know how to change one!!

Thanks for the mileage report... my new 8si seems to be working correctly

and congrats to you for a fine race ride. Too bad I didn't see you there waiting, you could have come over and wasted time as we had a few beers ourselves

Psimet2001 

Luckily for me there was beer at the finish and I knew I wasn't driving. I pulled out my iPod and started catching up on my podcasts. At some point I snapped this. I believe I was trying to keep count so I could refer to it later to calculate if I was still sober....



I sat...and waited......and waited.......and waited..............

You know it's a bad sign when you start taking pictures of yourself...





We were pretty sure in the morning that this was coach Jerry of Hip's personal entourage....

Psimet2001 

After a while I finally caught sight of CyLowe coming up the hill...








Turns out he cut some loops out and ended just over an imperial century. He honestly looked as though hea was going to puke at the end.

Psimet2001 

Right as I was taking the shots of CyLowe I got a call from Aham. He was at mile 110. I figured he had about 10-15 miles left. Turns out he had about 20 left. Including the 2.5 mile climb at the end. So CyLowe and I waited.....and waited......and waited.....

My beer count made it up there....



Finally we caught a glimpse of Aham coming up the last bit....



CyLowe ran out to hand aham a beer to help him across the line, but aham refused...





Time says 10:38.

He too felt great after the ride:





The ride home was up to CyLowe...





I think it would be safe to say that we'll be back. I will definitely do the 200K, but I need to actively train for it. At least it gives me something to look forward to. Now....could I do the 200K for the Dairyland Dare.....

botto 

aham23 is working the LA crossed eyed look.

i'm sure he slept VERY well that night.

Psimet2001 

Not at all... Just the botto night before the ride meal shot.

It was a small town. The locals told me everyone does that. How was I supposed to know any better....

Yes, indeed....

Yes, indeed!

He did mention banking some blood for this ride and seemed kind of PO'd when his contact didn't meet us at the bar, but I think it's a combination of my camera and his genetics.

CyLowe97

A combination of genetics and lots of high-numbered SPF applied before going out into the sun for hours on end. Sunburn on a ride is worse than bonking to me.