The Horribly Hilly (Almost) Hundred - Blue Mounds, WI

Iowa is NOT flat. RAGBRAI is not flat. This year Day 2 has over 5,000 feet of climb in store for its riders (ughh...). So... this past January I registered for a day ride called the "Horribly Hilly Hundreds" in Wisconsin thinking it would force me to be better prepared to tackle those Iowa hills come July. That said, most anyone reading this blog has probably heard about the fear and trepidation I felt regarding the HHH event. I gave serious consideration to simply backing out. Ultimately I knew I had to give it a try. If I finished last, well, then I’d have a funny story about the time I hiked through Wisconsin in biking shoes while pushing my bike and came in #1000 out of 1000 in a bike ride.

(Note: My fears of a last place finish were partially alleviated when I received an email the day before the race stating approximately half of the riders had signed up for the 200K distance. I’d only signed up for the 100K distance so immediately thought “Yay! Maybe I won’t be last since half of the people have to go twice as far!” I’d also like to note that the email stated only 18% of the race registrants were women. One other female rider believes this is further evidence that most women are smarter than men and, therefore, wouldn’t ever sign up for something like this. Not sure what exactly her comment infers about the two of us…)

Anyway... the ride. It lived up to its name. It is Horrible. And it is Hilly. They probably could have added a few other adjectives to the name, including Hot. Humid. Harsh. And a few others I’ll leave out for PG-rating purposes and/or cuz they don’t start with “H”. But I guess that was to be expected as I received plenty of warnings about the grueling route. My only true complaint of the whole event involved the very start of the ride… the signage/direction was a lacking – there was a loop in the very beginning that my group of riders missed as we got mixed in with riders who had started earlier and were completing the loop… as a result we were about 7 miles short on the ride (I swear we didn’t mean to cheat!). It may sound weird but I was actually a little disappointed that we missed that loop – my legs did NOT mind missing a few hills. Below is the elevation of the route (I excluded the loop that we missed):

Despite the above picture, I surprised myself by actually enjoying the experience. Thankfully my riding group treated it as a ride and not a race… Kiran even made an exception to his rule of never stopping for more than 7 minutes at a time (he cited to an exception to the rule that involved significant elevation changes combined with heat and humidity... and possibly the fact that no one would have followed him after only a 7 minute break anyway). I even managed to laugh a few times when…

• I made it to what I THOUGHT was the crest of a long sloooow (as in 4-5 mph) climb (I’d passed several people walking) and was looking forward to the downhill only to find a short “almost flat but still uphill” area followed by 2nd portion of the hill that was even STEEPER than the first. Without thinking, I dejectedly said rather loudly “Oh Sh*t.” The rider next to me replied “At least I don’t have to say it now.”
• One rider said to me as I passed him “There’s Speedy!”… um, I was going 4.6 mph…
• At the same time I was thinking in my head “This race should be called the Hot and Horribly Hellaciously Hilly Hundreds”, a rider next to me says out loud “Whoever designed this course is a sadist!”

Not only did I laugh a few times, but I also learned (and/or remembered) a few things along the way that could help me in RAGBRAI and future rides…

1. Apparently I have a compact crank on my bike. This is a good thing. (A fellow rider asked me at dinner the night before if I had a compact crank and I stared blankly in response as Kiran answered for me.) More importantly, the low low gear provided by my compact crank is a very very good thing. Shifting down = Good. (But I seemed to keep running out of gears... I’m wondering if they make a double compact crank that I could use next year...)
2. I get scared traveling at 39 MPH down steep hills... I almost wet my pants (I figure my chamois in my bike shorts could have doubled as a diaper?)
3. My bike can stay upright even when I’m traveling at only 4.2 mph uphill. And it’s even possible for that to feel like I am keeping a decent pace. However, at 2.5 mph it’s most efficient, and faster, to just get off my bike and walk (I’ll admit to doing this once). (This counts as cross training, right?)
4. After surviving those big spikes on the elevation map, all those little “bumps” on the elevation map that on the Chicago lakefront would look like MOUNTAINS can feel like FLAT LAND and even be a time for my legs to “rest”.
5. Flush toilets are a blessing. I hate kybos. Gonna have to mentally prepare for a week of them on RAGBRAI.

Despite the starting loop snafu, the race was well organized with well-stocked rest stops (watermelon is my new favorite ride snack – hydration and yumminess - but I stil haven't figured out how to carry one along to munch on in lieu of gatorade, sport beans or granola bars..), a challenging steep up-hill finish with awesome people cheering riders on as we literally inched our way to the end, and a great finish line party with Viking Goulash (it’s good!) and Culver's custard (yum!!). We cranked out just over 59 miles... and 100K is 62 miles so technically we were only 3 miles short. Here are a couple pics from our group at the finish line party:

I'm glad I decided to make the trip to Wisconsin and I feel marginally better regarding my preparation for Day 2 of RAGBRAI. I definitely plan to take on the HHH next year. Only next time I'll be sure to go straight at the start instead of following the crowd left so I can call it the Horribly Hilly Hundred instead of the Horribly Hilly (Almost) Hundred.

Cheers,

Kris