^{PLACE & TIME:}  Troy -Iowa Hill Time Trial -21st- 18:32

Previous PRs or Personal Records:

This local ride used to be known as the World's Toughest Century. www.auburncentury.com.  Robin, Laura & I did this ride last year and had a lot of fun despite the surprising amount of climbing! 

It's 6:30am.  Laura Schuster came up last night from Mtn View and stayed with us.  She's a good rider and makes any ride a lot more fun. My neighbor, David Malicoat, is getting ready.  We join him and his friend, Kevin.  Lance, also from the neighborhood, rides up.  Robin, Ariel and Anna, on her tricycle, are also up to see us off.

It's been hot for weeks but this morning it's cool and we're greeted with the first fog to start the fall season.  All of us bring wind breakers except Lance.

7am: We head for the start 2 miles away and Anna bikes the first 100 yds with us.  She's sad that she can't keep going.

I'm under-trained this year.  My longest ride is 23 mi. so I might not be able to make the full 110 mile loop.  Fortunately there are many places to turn back.  Lance's longest ride is less than 40 mi so he also feels he has no business doing the century.  We register with Victory Velo's, Dan Tebbs, and Brad Kearn's wife, Tracy, and we're off.

David, Kevin, Lance, Laura & I pass the local High School, get on Brad Kearn's "Endurance Capital of the World" bike route, and start tackling some steep grades right off the bat.

Meadow Vista (9mi): The first stretch went great.  We skip this aid station (as usual).  I love the ride down Placer Hills Rd.  I'm really enjoying riding in the group and it feels easier than normal.  The weather is perfectly cool.  Suddenly the course takes us on a surprise drop into Bear Creak Campgrounds.  It's a screaming descent, followed by nice views of campers on the river, and then a steady climb out to Colfax.

Colfax (21mi):  Getting off the bike to enjoy some PB&J sandwiches and fruit, I notice my back is already tight and it's hard to stand straight.  It's warming up but we keep the jackets on for the long descent on Iowa Hill to the North Fork American River.  David Malicoat has done this route almost 40 times so I follow his line on the fast drop down the canyon.  Whew, exciting riding.

Iowa Hill Time Trial (25mi):  Laura starts the hill as we register and line up for this opportunity to bench mark our fitness. Go!  It's a 1.8mi, 1200ft stretch.  Last year I gave it everything and got 16:31.  I don't have that in me this time and if I go too hard I might sacrifice the remaining ride.  Laura had told me to shoot for 18:00 instead.  I start off slow and easy. But ½ way I go ahead and give it all I got to see how this strategy pays off.  My left foot starts to hurt a little so I lift up more on the pedals.  And this requires I tighten my shoe.  Now it's too tight… but it doesn't matter... just focus on breathing and turning those pedals.  I hear people cheering...2 ladies in cowboy hats signal the finish line and I hit my watch...

Top of Iowa Hill (27mi): 18:30.  Well, guess Laura was about right, but I thought maybe I'd go faster.  It's a tough hill.  We fuel up again.  The roads up here, like the town itself, are almost deserted.  It's great biking!  Iowa Hill is tiny.  It's never had power or phone lines but today it looks like they're adding phone lines under the road.  I see the generator running outside the general store.  My body is hanging in there and I'm feeling better than expected.  Lance and I tell stories and before we know it we're curving onto the Sugar Pine Reservoir dam and up toward the next aid station.  There's a steep descent before the dam which David had told me you don't need to brake.  You feel like you're going to fly off the corner but you always make it.  It's another thrill to be had along the way.  The water looks great, too!

Sugar Pine Reservoir (38mi):  The Boy Scouts run this station.  One runs up to me, "Can I fill your water bottles?"  I give him my bottles and drink order and ask him what the powder is all over his face and uniform. "Chalk" he says.  They chalked the road... and each other it looks like.  They come up from Davis each year and do a great job.  My bottles are back to me quickly while I scarf down some delicious veggie wraps with sun-dried tomatoes.  Laura is kicking back in a chair she found.  We never caught her since the Iowa Hill climb.  She's doing the 70mi option and says, "Well, have fun, this is where I turn back".  We laugh.  "You've got 6 more miles up first.  If you turn here, you have to do Iowa Hill again!"  Nobody wants to do Iowa Hill again!  We all head for Foresthill.  Laura, David, Kevin, Lance and I stay close together and have a great time telling stories.

Foresthill (43.7mi): We hit the main road.  Laura feels good and continues even farther with us.  Lance and I start falling behind a little.  My legs are getting tired.  The weather is perfect.  I call Robin to give a status of the great ride and how I'm planning to go all the way.

China Wall Rest Stop (47mi):  Ah!  The Machado's Pies stop.  The best pies in town.  David quickly has one while I lie on the ground and stretch my back.  The next stretch is the hardest climbing so I opt to have a meat sandwich, on David's suggestion, to store up protein instead of pie crust, and hope there'll be some when I return.  Laura turns back.  We're sad to see her go.  And we head for the 6800' summit in hopes of getting there by 2pm.  Lance surprisingly is still cold even though the rest of us are warm.  He's having a harder time now climbing but we still manage to pull away from the others.  The climbing seems never-ending.  My knees are starting to feel like they're swelling up.  I love watching the data on my Garmin.  I keep telling Lance how many vertical feet and miles we have left… which kills him because he rides without even a speedometer so he won't know those stats.  The views are terrific and the air is so clear.  At the 6800' false summit I stop for Lance.  He asks me, "Are you cold?". "No". "Check my pulse", he says.  170bpm.  I tell him that's strange to be cold with a high heart rate.  I give him my jacket and tell him to go easy.  I go ahead until I hit the summit at 1:45pm.

Robinson Flat, 6800' (62mi):  This is a famous rest stop of the Western States 100miler.  After 10 min our whole group is here and enjoying the view.  I eat some chips for salt and pour a coke into my water bottle... even downhill, I'm going to need a boost to get me through another 3 hrs.  I eat a variety of foods but pass on the ice-cream sandwiches because I don't want to get cold since I don’t have a jacket.  The aid stations on this ride are excellent.  They even pass out Hammer Nutrition plastic bags we can put under our jersey to block the cool mountain air on the descent.  This helps me a lot.  2pm we head down.  Wow, you really accelerate faster with the thinner air.  There are still climbs on the way down.  I push hard, to not risk getting cold, and time-trial the last 5mi to the aid stop.

China Wall Rest Stop (76mi):  I feel pumped up (the Coke helps). I stretch, call Robin, and then find out there's no more pie left for me!  David and Kevin show up.  I say, "Can we get home by 4:30pm?"  They seem game so we decide to paceline it home.  Lance is doing much better and eating more but will stay at the stop a little longer.  At 3pm we take off for home.  This is the best part!  I'm leading David and Kevin in the aero position and feeling so comfortable.  35mph and a steady descent to Foresthill.  I love leading a paceline and feel like I could go forever.  We go through a 25mph speed zone and I see a CHP so I slow the pace down to 30.  Then we pick it back up until Foresthill.

Foresthill Memorial Park (88mi):  We improved our average pace from 9.5mph to 10mph with that last burst!  It was great.  We take a quick break.  At 3:30pm we start up but now realize 4:30pm isn't possible.  I've been dreading this Yankee Jim loop, but also kind of happy about it.  It's a steep down and steep up off the beaten path.  It's crazy because everyone's tired and there's a nice straight road through town.  But they send you on this loop just for more climbing!  That's what makes this ride famous I guess.  The loop isn't as bad this year.  Soon we're back on the main road and quite a bit more tired.  Suddenly, there's Lance and Tom and some other guys we haven't seen in a while.  They missed the turn for Yankee Jim which works out nice because we all get to ride home together.  We tackle the 5 big rollers on our way out of Foresthill.  Finally we cross California's tallest bridge and grunt up the last climb of the day.  8 min of silence as we all dig for energy.

Auburn (106mi):  We cruise through town, back along Brad Kearn's course, by the registration and back to our neighborhood.  Anna comes out and rides the last 200yds with us on her tricycle.  After 10 hrs we're done.  115mi total from our house.  It's surprising to think that I've done Ironmans (2.4mi swim, 112mi bike, 26.2mi run) in under 10 hrs, but I can't do this bike ride in under 10 hrs.  It's a toughie, and I love it, and I love that the Lord allowed me to do the whole thing and gave me friends to spend the whole day with.  I'm definitely blessed.