This past Saturday, I went over to Warner to help out with the Kearsarge Hill Climb which is a uphill bike race from the center of the small town of Warner up the Kearsarge Auto road. All told it is a 8 mile, 1700+ foot climb. I've biked it before and it is brutal. Luckily, I was not there to race but just help out before the start.
Amber decided to show up last minute to the race, getting there just in time for last-minute registration. She had done it a couple years ago, but hadn't planned on doing it until I had mentioned to her that I'd be going out. So she just "shows up". This race is a pretty big deal as many cyclists are competing for the New England Uphill point series so she didn't know how she'd do. She did, however, take a look at what the course record and I could see her calculating just how fast she'd have to ride to beat the record. It was set by a woman has the Mt Washington Road Race record so it wasn't soft. I wished her good luck as she went off to do her last minute warm-up ride.
I then finished helping out at the start then drove up to the gate(4.5 miles into the race) and then "ran" the last 3.5 miles. Ran is in quotes because it was much more like a jog with that first mile similar to that of Mt. Washington. It would be a tough bike ride if you just did that, but the riders had to do another 4.5 miles of ascent before they even got to the gate. Did I mention how glad I was that I didn't race? I barely go to the summit before Sam Evans Brown, another Concord racer, came in as the first male. A few minutes later, Amber comes in. First female and 30 seconds off the course record. Not bad for a couple weeks after Timberman! And she still had enough left to yell how much fun she was having as she quickly zipped by.
She is heading up to Vermont this weekend for the 4 day Killington Stage race and I'm interested to see how she does. I suspect that she may be doing more bike races in the future;) Good luck Amber!
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