Feb 25
Want to know how to turn a 67 mile Hill Hopper into 83.25? I stumbled upon this by sheer accident. At the start of the race the guy with the bull horn was telling everyone about the route, but you know how those bull horns are it sounds like the teacher from the Peanuts. I was in the upper middle of the start pack, but I was next to the registration desk and the couple next to me were I think arguing who was going to ride upfront on their tandem. So I thought I heard that we had to go through the loop twice for the 67 mile ride. At 8:25 we are off, 25 minutes late due to fog, which was bad getting to Round Top.
The event lives up to it's Hill Hopper name, there weren't too many flats to speak of, just a bunch of rollers. Out of the entire course there weren't any hills I encountered that made me really suffer. At about mile 20 the course turns back, I had been averaging about 19mph up the hills to this point, but on this back stretch it was right into the wind. Compound that with one of the roughest paved roads I've ever encountered. It wasn't like there were potholes or actual road defects, the road was just grooved or something. It wasn't smoothed, it's like they just dropped the asphalt and forgot to run the roller over it. I seriously thought my fillings might fall out or worse something on my bike might come loose and fall off. So once I got through this 5 mile stretch it was back around. At this point I'm wondering if I heard right that we have to do that loop twice, so as I'm passing a ride marshal I ask him if we do it twice and he says if I want the full 67 then yes, but I could turn off at the 67B turn and be about 10 miles short. I want to go the full 67 miles so I tell him thanks and take off for a second loop.
The second loop wasn't as bad as the first, I think the wind died down a bit plus there were more racers on the section this time, my first time through there were only a few people in front of me that I ended up passing and nobody caught me from behind. So I get through the second loop and head down the 67B path. I'm still going strong, I've brought Hammer gel, 2 bottles of Heed and my water pack filled with Perpetuem and 2 Chocolate Chip Hammer Bars. Unbeknownst to me I'd need most of my fuel. I was still going strong and in fact passing riders on the climbs, it was kind of funny having a rider pass me on the down hill portion and then I'd pass them going up the next hill never to be seen from again.
As mile 60 approached I still felt good, so I decided to put the hammer down and not leave anything in the tank. Mile 67 came and went yet no finish line, then mile 70 and then about mile 71 I come to a rest stop. It's at this point I start thinking "What the ...". Of course I can't stop and ask for directions as I start adding up the miles and get the sinking feeling that I was just suppose to do 1 lap. After the urge to throttle the ride marshal for telling me I needed to go around twice I hunkered down for the last 12 miles. At this point the spring was definitely out of my pedals but I had to push on. Like I said I had enough fuel for the extended ride, but I was a bit deflated to realize I had another 12 miles to go.
The last 12 miles took me about an hour to complete, the hills that I was once just powering over were forcing me to shift to my smaller ring. I did get a short second wind but was quickly extinguished when I'd hit a head wind. Onward I went, on this last stretch I was only passed twice. The second group of guys that caught me I caught back up to when I got my third wind. It was funny when I passed them on a hill, they looked surprised as I was getting up it at a good pace eating a Hammer Bar.
In the end I went 83.25 miles in 5:04:02, I did 67 miles in 3:52:02 averaging 17.3 mph. My overall mph was 16.4, the last 15 miles brought my average down. In the end I have a new personal distance record and I know that I'm getting closer to being able to do a century. I'm not even feeling any ill effects from the extended ride either, except for a nice sunburn on my arms and a small portion on my back where my shirt road up a bit and a small sliver of my back was exposed.
Next year I'll bring sunscreen and probably only do the loop 1 time or I might do the loop 3 times to come up with the Hill Hopper 100.
The event lives up to it's Hill Hopper name, there weren't too many flats to speak of, just a bunch of rollers. Out of the entire course there weren't any hills I encountered that made me really suffer. At about mile 20 the course turns back, I had been averaging about 19mph up the hills to this point, but on this back stretch it was right into the wind. Compound that with one of the roughest paved roads I've ever encountered. It wasn't like there were potholes or actual road defects, the road was just grooved or something. It wasn't smoothed, it's like they just dropped the asphalt and forgot to run the roller over it. I seriously thought my fillings might fall out or worse something on my bike might come loose and fall off. So once I got through this 5 mile stretch it was back around. At this point I'm wondering if I heard right that we have to do that loop twice, so as I'm passing a ride marshal I ask him if we do it twice and he says if I want the full 67 then yes, but I could turn off at the 67B turn and be about 10 miles short. I want to go the full 67 miles so I tell him thanks and take off for a second loop.
The second loop wasn't as bad as the first, I think the wind died down a bit plus there were more racers on the section this time, my first time through there were only a few people in front of me that I ended up passing and nobody caught me from behind. So I get through the second loop and head down the 67B path. I'm still going strong, I've brought Hammer gel, 2 bottles of Heed and my water pack filled with Perpetuem and 2 Chocolate Chip Hammer Bars. Unbeknownst to me I'd need most of my fuel. I was still going strong and in fact passing riders on the climbs, it was kind of funny having a rider pass me on the down hill portion and then I'd pass them going up the next hill never to be seen from again.
As mile 60 approached I still felt good, so I decided to put the hammer down and not leave anything in the tank. Mile 67 came and went yet no finish line, then mile 70 and then about mile 71 I come to a rest stop. It's at this point I start thinking "What the ...". Of course I can't stop and ask for directions as I start adding up the miles and get the sinking feeling that I was just suppose to do 1 lap. After the urge to throttle the ride marshal for telling me I needed to go around twice I hunkered down for the last 12 miles. At this point the spring was definitely out of my pedals but I had to push on. Like I said I had enough fuel for the extended ride, but I was a bit deflated to realize I had another 12 miles to go.
The last 12 miles took me about an hour to complete, the hills that I was once just powering over were forcing me to shift to my smaller ring. I did get a short second wind but was quickly extinguished when I'd hit a head wind. Onward I went, on this last stretch I was only passed twice. The second group of guys that caught me I caught back up to when I got my third wind. It was funny when I passed them on a hill, they looked surprised as I was getting up it at a good pace eating a Hammer Bar.
In the end I went 83.25 miles in 5:04:02, I did 67 miles in 3:52:02 averaging 17.3 mph. My overall mph was 16.4, the last 15 miles brought my average down. In the end I have a new personal distance record and I know that I'm getting closer to being able to do a century. I'm not even feeling any ill effects from the extended ride either, except for a nice sunburn on my arms and a small portion on my back where my shirt road up a bit and a small sliver of my back was exposed.
Next year I'll bring sunscreen and probably only do the loop 1 time or I might do the loop 3 times to come up with the Hill Hopper 100.
Feb 27, 2008 at 5:15 PM Mike, sooo sorry to here of you doing an extra loop on the 2008 Tri County Hill Hopper, but glad to hear you were able to achieve a new personal distance record because of it. You are not the first person to do the loop more than intended. We try to make it clear how it works, but the best laid plans..... Honestly, I don't remember talking about the loop on the bullhorn, but maybe soneone else took an opportunity (I was on the PA system, when not using the bullhorn to urge people to the start line from the parking area). That doesn't excuse the ride marshall from leading you astray though. We'll try to be more explicit in the future. If it makes you feel any better, the last person to finish this year also did the loop twice.
Glad to hear you intend to ride it again though. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Mat Barringer
TCHH route coordinator/emcee