Right at the start the grade went up to 14% then increased to 17%. This was the first 0.6 mile. I just took this easy. Some people went really hard up this section and could never really recover properly. Then the grade eased off a bit. Dropped my chain at about mile 1 but quickly got it back on. The first 2 miles wound thru neighborhoods and had rollers. LOVE those downhills! Got into the park proper and continued up, up, up. The route ascends and cuts across Mt. WIlliams then goes over to Mt. Fitch. Then from Fitch over to Mt. Greylock it actually flattens out. Time to really dig in and power thru to the next ascent! Views up there were amazing! All in all I am happy with my performance. I was passed by a total of 20 people - 2 women 18 men. I pushed so hard at the end that I kinda had tunnel vision. I never saw the big blue banners signifying the end. I just kept riding. I saw Michael and said "where's the finish?" You already passed it!...Doh!

I had decided to do this race only 2 weeks prior so I didn't train on hills as much as I would have liked.

My bike and I had become one during this race and the seperation had to be done in stages. First i sagged over the bike then I got off but I had to lean on the bike to walk, finally relinquishing the bike to Michael.

Walked around the summit, drinking water and eating bananas and oranges


strength in the quads and hams. Just need to keep riding these hills!


Definitely will come back and do this one again. This time with Michael!
Although it is a full 24 hours after the race and I still don't see the results up yet. My time is from my garmin - which is now lost :(