San Bruno HillClimb

by Cheryl

Jan 01 2007 – no time like the present for sticking to the new year's resolution to get on the road and RACE!!

This morning was the san bruno hillclimb and yet another hill to become acquainted with, or should I say feel the love for!

Step one was to check in (get the free h2o bottle) and get situated with race number etc. On the way to warm up on the road – since I haven’t sunk any cashola for a trainer – ran into liz b and wayne (thanks wayne for the adept placement of my number). Had a quick chit chat there till I realized my teeth were doing the chattering!!

Being my first road race, I decided to test the theory that google-ing warmup protocols for bike racing could actually return something of value and ta-da .. I got something with enough detail but not too much to put me off .. so I proceeded to test it out thru the chilly and deserted, let alone foggy and depressing office park in Brisbane, hoping not to get lost and miss the start of the race! Amazing how quickly you can fill 30 minutes!

Rightio .. back from the warmup and time to strip off a layer and get ready for business!

Definitely a low key very friendly vibe in the pkg lot. Lined up in the cat 4 women’s section and got ready to hit it with my best shot – thanks to pat benatar and my new shuffle! Lots o’velogirl action, an EMC2 girl, bicycle trip and other random folk.

The start is kinda cool to see everyone spread out on the road – albeit ahead of you!! Lotsa frantic folk blasting up the hill and initially quite demoralizing but applying the same logic as cruise control on the freeway at a constant speed, I settled into a fairly good pace and was happy to see the flashing light signifying the intersection to the cow palace.

Why happiness you ask?! With my’undercover brother’ knowledge from driving the course earlier, I knew that a flat section was ahead and a chance to make up some ground .. and that I did! Kept cranking till I had a few surprise interactions from strangers that helped with the motivation all the way to the turn into the park and the realization that I was about half way to the top.I eyed a couple of people ahead of me and used them as motivation to get to the top – a velo girl and a squadra girl.

I started to hear the voices at the top and coming around the corner realized it was time to turn on the juice and I sprinted past a couple of people – including the squadra girl and got 6th out of 16. This was a really fun race and I really look fwd to the honour to wear vbk colours at more races during 2007 and continuing to learn about road racing.