This past saturday was the Washington State Hillclimb Championships at Crystal Mountain. The event is put on by the Wheelsport Cycling Team and they do a great job putting on a fun event. The entry fee even includes a post race barbeque lunch. Coming as close as it does to the end of the road racing season in Washington, the event has kind of a relaxed vibe to it as for a lot of racers it is one of their last events of the season.
The course is straightforward. It begins at the bottom of Crystal Mountain Boulevard just off of Highway 410 and climbs for about 6 miles to the finish in the main parking lot at the base of the ski hill. It gains a little over 1600 feet in the six miles. It is run just like any other time trial with riders starting at thirty second intervals. An interesting addition at this race is that you weigh in at the finish and they have a prize based on the rider's time-to-weight ratio as well as the tradtional competition on elapsed time.
I had done this race once before in 2007 and had managed to clock in just under 30 minutes at 29:48. I added a lot of climbing to my training rides in the last month or two and hoped that would help me to improve on my previous time. Other than that, I really didn't have any great hopes as I don't generally consider myself much of a climber.
My turn to start arrived and I eased onto the early pitches of the climb. I maintained a steady but somewhat relaxed pace for the first couple minutes to give my body a chance to settle in and adjust to the effort. I then began to lift my effort to my target heartrate and establish a rhythm. The mantra of "good pain, feeling strong" repeated over and over in my head in sync with my breathing helped me lock in on my pace. Just after the first mile passed, I caught and passed my 30 second man and caught my one minute man maybe a mile later. I was feeling good and staying focused on the task at hand.
At around the 2.5 mile mark a rider came steaming past me. I resisted the temptation to try and lift my pace and instead maintained my own rhythm. He had lifted his pace to get around me as he did not pull away all that quickly. The middle of the course flattens out for a bit and I was able to match his pace across that section. When the steeps returned, he gradually left me behind though.
As the climb continued, it looked like I was going to be very close to my goal of bettering my time and this provided even more motivation. I was able to push harder and stand occasionally as the consequences of blowing up became less as the finish grew closer. The 200m to go sign passed and I dug in and clawed my way up the final rise to the finish to post a time of 29:43, five seconds better than my previous effort.
My wife and I went to the BBQ and waited for the results to be posted. I really wasn't expecting much as in 2007 I was 12th out of 16 in the Masters C field. I was in for a pleasant surprise though. When the results were posted, I had achieved a 9th place out of 23 in the Masters C field. That was quite unexpected and capped off a great day for me. In hindsight, I think that conditions were slightly faster in 2007 with a stronger tailwind up the climb. So this years time was only an improvement of five seconds, but effort and work wise it was a bigger improvement.
The last event for me this season is another "uphill" task. In a few weeks, I'll take on Ride 542, the Mount Baker Hillclimb, for the third time. Hopefully, another surprising improvement is in store.
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