1st Place - Mt. Hamilton Century

"What's the Mt. Hamilton Century," you ask? Why haven't you heard of it? And don't I mean "Mt. Hamilton Challenge?"

One question at a time please. I'm quite tired because I won.

Well, it took place today, Saturday July 5, 2008. You've never heard of it because their lame-ass marketing team sucks. And no, I don't mean the organized Mt. Hamilton Challenge, though this particular century is quite similar to the Challenge in that you have to bring, buy, steal, kill, or forage for your own food. Yet it is quite dissimilar in that there are no SAG wagons or first aid stations, and it is in fact entirely 100% unsupported, but only because one of the participants (Tracy, the second place finisher! Yay Tracy!) forgot her cell phone in the car, so that even though they were lucky enough to have an emergency private SAG wagon "Plan B" in place, it could never have been called into action, had it been needed. And it felt sorely needed by one participantwhoshallremainanonymous in particular at mile 60, when she was suddenly totally out of water and thought she was going to die of dehydration in the scorching dry valley heat before the f*cking Junction Cafe appeared on the horizon.

All's well that ends well. After 105.27 miles, 8000+ feet of climbing, 4610 calories, 3 PBJ sandwiches, 4 fig newtons, some pretzels, almonds, a mojo bar (yum! my new fave!), a snack pack of fritos (had to slam my body as hard as I could several times into the vending machine in the planetarium on the top of Mt. Hamilton immediately after climbing 4,000 feet in the mid-day heat to shake that one loose! It got stuck on the spiral thingy! I earned those f*cking fritos and they were good!) 3 bottles of gatorade, 1 bottle of water, 2 bottles of cytomax, 3 cokes, and a big gulp iced caramel latte (so much for the 4610 calories!), I reached the car first (in the interest of full disclosure, I may have told Tracy that I needed to reach the car first and she may have pulled practically to the end and then let me go in front of her). So I won. Despite realizing about a mile into the ride that I'd left both of my water bottles in the car, and having to turn back and get them. (Here's the Bikely.com route; it says 95 miles, but we changed it a bit at the end after talking with a pair of riders that we kept running into.)

Thanks to Tracy for doing all the research, all the driving, and the lion's share of the pulling. And for almost having a Plan B, which was more than I'd come up with.

This was also the day after July 4, when I rode 50+ miles and did 5,453 feet of climbing (here's the Bikely.com profile), and then went to a BBQ with Scott, who got scolded for spending the whole time inside the house, which he only did to keep me company while I was stretching and resting my sore back, and then I had to go to sleep at 9 pm instead of seeing fireworks, or getting a drink at the tiki bar. Sorry Scott. Winner/loser. 2 sides of the same coin.

And now, finally, I rest. Nothing strenuous until the Death Ride.