Mt Tam Hillclimb

This past Saturday I had the chance to do the annual Mt Tam Hillclimb here in Marin County, CA where I am doing some work for a week or so.   The race is a mass-start from Stinson Beach which rolls along a flat 4.4 mile stretch of Hwy 1 before turning right and becoming very tough in short order.  Climbing isn’t really my thing, but I like to challenge myself and improve.  This week, with two hillclimbs in the Bay Area, seems like  good time to do that.

After meeting a couple of friends for a light breakfast in Mill Valley, we rode up and over to Stinson Beach, which was socked in with fog.  It was chilly there, but having come over the hills in cloudless skies, I knew that it would be hot on the climb.  So, I removed my spares kit from my bike and stripped down to just a jersey and bibs, got a bit of help pinning on my number and headed for the line.  The race left at a leisurely pace – clearly no one was trying to break any records – and we took over 10 minutes to get to the climb.

Once the climb started, the race exploded.  I tried to relax into a good rhythm and slowly pick up the pace, knowing that on the rolling top section I could take back some time.  This didn’t exactly work out as the wind and my own lack of training conspired to make it a tough fight all the way home.  See how I suffer for sport:

My goal was to arrive in under 50 minutes, and I went about 27 seconds over that.  I suspect that had we rolled out a bit faster on the way to the climb it may have made the difference, but that's how it goes.  In any case, it gives me something to shoot for next year!  In the meantime, I will get more climbing practice this Sunday at the Mt Diablo Challenge.  If I am in any condition to write after that, I will let you all know how it went!