Sawnee & Burnt Mountain Century Challenge

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Sawnee & Burnt Mountain Century Challenge - Cycle

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Cumming, Georgia
United States
Cumming Kiwania
28F / -2C
Overcast

Total Time = 5h 45m 34s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/

Pre-race routine:

Remembering how frustrating it was to arrive late to the last Century, I actually got to the race early enough to drink some coffee and eat a doughnut or two.

Most of the pre-race was spent getting geared up for the cold. I had century shorts, thermafleece tights with wind panels on the front on top of those, a cool-max t-shirt, long sleeve jersey, fleece shirt + wind jacket on top of that. Used fleece-type gloves. Forgot to bring ear warmers + could have used a toe covers.

Key piece of clothing? The two hankerchiefs I bought for the continuous runny nose

Event warmup:

Waiting at the start like everyone else - amazing how many people forget to unclip when they stop at the starting line and fall over (could have been me!). Made an effort to pedal the first 4 miles with a high cadence to get the blood circulating.

Bike

5h 45m 34s
75.59 miles
13.12 mile/hr

Comments:

VENI, ESCENDI, VICI

I came. I climbed. I conquered.

Post race

Warm down:

The Kiwanis were kind enough to provide a spagetti + salad lunch afterwards ... I ate a huge plateful of each + what appeared to half a bagette w/butter.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Previous volume + strength training on hills, especially those with a prolonged steep gradient.

Event comments:

This is the Kiwanis first year of hosting this race and am truly impressed. Whatever snafu's presented themselves, the Kiwanis were right on it to fix.

The course was well laid out and off the main highways. The locals were very pleasant and, for the most part accomodating. The passing pick-up truck to cyclist distance ratio was better here than in the suburbs.

I did not hear of Cartersville-esque horror stories of tack in the road, cursing grandmothers or wild, rabid dogs.

Given the proximity to north Fulton and Atlanta, I suspect this event will gain in participation as a popular end-of-season capper.

Profile Album

Last updated: 2005-11-20 12:00 AM

Biking
05:45:34 \| 75.59 miles \| 13.12 mile/hr
Age Group:	0/
Overall:	0/
Performance:
Remembered the advice received and started off slowly so that I would have the option of being able to taper off later. I seeded myself towards the mid-to-back of the pack so as to let the others who knew the area better to lead the way through the myriad of turns to start off the course. Also was keen to keep hydrating throughout the race - went through 3+ @ 22 fl oz bottles of Gatorade + 2 bladders of water via the Camelback. While this meant that I had to stop 3-4 times to relieve myself, I was not going to let myself blow-up from dehydration again. Liberal use of the rest stops to take in nutrients - PB&J, Accerate gels, fruit leather + refill water bottles/Gatorade + Camelback/water - was also a welcome change from the last Century. Outside of nutrients, allowed for the legs to rest + heartrate to get to normal ... but it made it difficult to get back the legs back into motion. Next race = quicker pit stops.
Wind:	Some with gusts
Course:	The Metric Century was out and back ... meaning you rode 25-28 miles through the rolling country side to the base of the mountain and then climbed for 5+ miles to the top, turned around and circled back. (The full Century was over the top and then around the base.) The climb of the mountain alone was 3500' over 5 miles. Harking back to the days of geometric formula calculations, the average slope comes out to be ~7.5% ... note that this is the average. There were two relatively flat spots where you could climb down from total anareobic to catch your breath. As a consequence, though, you were punished by a steeper grade to make up for the lack of elevation climb for that distance. I rode up the mountain with a peloton including 3-4 recent IMFL finishers - all in their 50's. (I pretended to be panting over their Cervelo P3's instead of the gasping for breath.) Their strength on the climb was absolutely impressive. While I was able to hang with the bulk of them, my perceived effort was more strenuous. When we reached the turn-around point, I was disappointed to find that we were short of the pinnacle by a mile and a half. Knowing that I had climbed that far, I knew I wanted to complete the climb in order to being able to fully say that climbed the top. A fellow cyclist had the same sentiment. We told the race director, who happened to be at the rest stop, and took off for the additional climb. Not sure how much more elevation we gained, but the last hill up was incredibly STEEP. (It was here that I learned to tack back and forth along the road in order to take the grade escalation in smaller increments.)
Road:	Smooth Dry	Cadence:	80
Turns:	Good	Cornering:	Good
Gear changes:	Average	Hills:	Average
Race pace:	Comfortable	Drinks:	Too much

Post race
Weight change:	%
Overall:	Good
Mental exertion [1-5]	4
Physical exertion [1-5]	5
Good race?	Yes

Evaluation
Course challenge	Too hard
Organized?	Yes
Events on-time?	Yes
Lots of volunteers?	Yes
Plenty of drinks?	Yes
Post race activities:	Good
Race evaluation [1-5]	4