The Porcupine Hill Climb

I was really starting to question my sanity when I signed up for this race. I had never been to Big Cottonwood Canyon in my life, so I was going into this race totally blind to what it would be like. All I knew about it was that it was going to be nasty hard.

The race started at the Porcupine Grill located at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon. They sent the licensed riders out in three groups: The Men 1/2/3, the Men 4/5 & Masters, and the Women & Juniors. Here is a shot of the last group:
The climb started from the start line. Mild at first, which meant that everyone started off like someone had lit a match under their rear end. The pace was higher than I had anticipated, and the group got strung out pretty quickly. My legs started protesting right away. I considered turning back and going home. I knew it was only going to get worse.

After about two miles the road steepened, significantly. By this time, my legs had accepted the fact that they were going to work for me, and I started to settle into the climb. I started passing some of the others in front of me, while at the same time telling myself not to get too hot headed and wear myself out too soon. I had no idea how long this steepness was going to last.

After a couple of miles of suffering pain, the road started leveling out a bit. It felt really good. I was surprised to think I was on a descent and look down at my computer and see that I was still climbing a road grade of 2-4 percent. One of the girls I had passed re-passed me. I caught onto her wheel and told myself that under no circumstances was I to let go of it. I held her wheel for several miles, and we caught another girl who also grabbed a wheel. The three of us worked together for a while before I noticed that we had lost one of us. I continued to focus on holding the wheel in front of me. I knew she was a Cat 3, but I wasn't going to let that worry me.

As you can see from the above picture, I was starting to hurt. I can always tell when my back is hurting when my form goes to pot.

The last couple of miles were hard. The road had started to get steeper again. The wheel I had been holding slowly pulled away from me. I worked to catch the next girl up ahead. When I caught her, we rode together and chatted for a while before I slowly dropped off again. The last two miles were hard! For some reason I couldn't hold the same speed I had been holding on some of the steeper sections anymore. I was getting tired. My body was protesting hard. I kept fighting.

Brighton Ski Resort: I came across the finish line so relieved that it was over! I got off my bike and the pain set in. I hadn't really felt the pain while I was riding, but now that it was over, it hurt-- a lot! My lower back had cramped on me and now it was locking up. Even a day later, it is still really sore. I've never experienced that before. I usually recover quickly.

14.7 miles of climbing an average grade of 7.8 percent
1 hour 37 minutes of suffering
8th place