I was on the road at 3:30 am and reached the reservoir at just after 6am. It was pretty windy but the temps were in the low 50's. I put on a couple of reflective bands on my legs and a vest and also wore a headlamp to help see the road. It was still pretty dark when I got rolling.
The first 1.5 from the reservoir to the park gate wasn't all that tough but the road surface was pretty rough. It took me 11:23 to cover that first part. Then the real steep began but it never seemed all that bad, I'd climb then it'd flatten out. I had some memory of the road having raced it once before and also did a training run with Morse and Murdoch. About 1/2 way up it got light enough that I could see what I was doing.
As I approached the summit the sun came up and peeked out below the low level clouds. When I rolled to the war memorial on the top it was back in the clouds. I hit the top in 1:01:32 and spent the next 4:23 taking a couple of pictures before heading back down.
The descent was a lot of fun. The first 4+ miles I didn't even touch my breaks. The last 2.5 in the park had a lot of leaves and some sharp turns so I had to really clamp on the breaks (my hands got sore). I passed the gate in 17:19 (average 23 mph) and took another 4:24 to cover the 1.5 back to the reservoir.
In all it took me 21:43 for the 8 mile descent which is an average speed of 22 mph (it felt faster!). I'm not sure what State high point I'll go after next but there are 21 that can be reached on a Go!
No comments:
Post a Comment