7 hills of Kirkland century - Cycle

My impression on the hill climbs:
•Market: First hill that leaves directly from the start It's fun and short and easy, a good warm up with a fun downhill to Juanita.
•Juanita: Long and not terribly steep, but can be intimidating to newer riders. I've ridden it so many times that it isn't a big deal.
•Seminary: First you fly down Holmes Point Drive at breakneck speed, and then climmb back up the other side. I think this is one of the hardest climbs of the route, as it is long and steep and seems to go on forever! It's so nice to see the stoplight at the top of the hill and know it is ending! By this point, everyone is sweating and huffing and puffing.
•Norway: the first part is steep and bumpy but then it's just spin spin spin until reaching the top, pretty long climb but very do-able. Great views at the top, my dream house sits on this route.
•Kingsgate: More rolling with a couple of steep spots. The first food stop is at the top.
•Winery: Super steep--must gear down before turning onto the road or you are screwed. I saw many people on nice bikes who didn't shift having to get off and try to start again. 5 minute from bottom to top, and there is a little breather halfway. At the top is a bagpiper, which is always fun to see.
•Education - outbound: up and over to get out of Kirkland/Redmond and head toward east King county. Not too bad.
•Novelty: Oh, Novelty Hill, I hate you. It is long, it is steep, it is full of traffic, it has messy shoulders. However, I have ridden it so many times that it doesn't get to me mentally......just keep spinning. I even passed a few people! After this hill, eventually there is a food stop at an old school, and then we did a fast pace line for an hour to the next food stop.
•Stillwater: I hadn't ridden this one before, so I didn't know what to expect. If it wasn't in terrible condition--horrible pavement!--I might throw this into my usual ride, but it was bumpy, and we got honked at all the time. It was the only road with mean drivers. The downhill was nice, though.
•High Bridge: I hadn't ridden UP this one before. It was long, it was steep, and there was a high bridge. :) Fun descent! Unfortunately,m my stomach was not responding well to the last food/water stop, so it was mentally really hard to talk myself into continuing at this point.
•Maltby: In my mind it was going to be really hard--I had thought to myself in last week's century that I was glad I didn't have to ride UP that hill. Well, here was my chance to ride UP that hill. My friend gave me some plain water, which helped a lot. It was a lot of rolling hills for many miles at this point.
•Education - return: Two steep sections with the last food stop at the top. I was feeling better by now and happy to know we only had 15 miles to the end!
•Rose: We got into a pace line through Willows Road valley, and then climbed Rose. Again, it is a hill I have climbed so many times, that I knew I just had to spin and spin, and that it would be 12 minutes from bottom to top. That was the last hill!
Nice descent into Kirkland and up along the lake the the finish.


No Gatorade!!!!! It hit my gut and my gut was not happy Next time I will take Nuum and just add to water and also keep one bottle of just plain water. Probably should have resisted the cookies at the food stops--although by the last two I didn't have any desire for them.

Drank chocolate milk, then loaded up the car and headed to my fave pub for a burger and a stout. Felt great then! At home, showered, stretched, put on compression tights which aid in speedy recovery. Then couched it for the evening!


It's hard to be big and tall and muscular and get up the hills as fast as the small, thin youngsters. But...I am who I am and obviously it isn't going to change too much.


A good challenge to see if I am ready for RAMROD! I sort of wish I'd added a couple more hills at the end....but....happy to have finished faster than I did for last week's century and this had 1/3 more hills.