The climb up to Hamilton and back is 40 miles, so I figure if I ride from home, that will add another 25 miles or so ... so that should get me a metric century in.
I always seem to get to the ride start early. I guess I have this paranoia about being late ... so I looked at a previous ride that I did with the same route, and saw that it took me 1:12 to get to the base of Hamilton. What I didn't take into account, was that I stopped off at Starbucks on the way, and it only really took me < 1 hour to get there .. so I actually got there 1/2 hour early. At least it gave me time to go to Jack in the Box for a quick breakfast snack.
We had a nice turnout ... around 7 people. James led the ride ... he's a great ride leader. He made sure no one was abandoned or lost. We had 2 regroups before the actual climb to the summit. That's 2 more regroups than I normally have on a ride like this, so this felt kinda weird.
The first regroup was at Grant Ranch Park, where we re-fueled on water, and an actual bathroom (instead of a big porter potty). It was a little more civilized. I was feeling really energized for the beginning of the climb, but as my pattern usually goes, I start suffering after reaching Grant Park, and today was no exception.
I decided to take it a little easy at this point up, as we were regrouping just before the bridge. I never realized Calfire had a station there, and they have a big jug of iced water there for all the cyclist. That's a great jesture ... I'll have to remember that next time.
I was the last one in the group to leave the bridge, and I just could not reel them in. I think my fatigue was starting to settle in. I was able to pass one rider, but he eventually passed me near the top of the climb. It was just one of those days.
The sun was beating down pretty hard, and it was a lot warmer than I thought it was going to be. It was around 92 F out there, and that's pretty tough when you are doing a 20 mile continuous climb.
Made it to the top and all I wanted was to get indoors and just absorb the coolness. I think everyone was a bit exhausted, and no one had any inkling of going down the backside. I originally entertained the idea, but like most times, I would make my decision based on how I felt ... I felt tired enough where I just want to go back down.
Before going down, I wanted to take yet another panorama picture. It seems like every time I go to the summit of Mt. Hamilton, I take a panorama picture ... but that just seems like the thing to do.
We all split off coming down the mountain. I went back through downtown San Jose. One thing that sucks about that commute is going on the overpass that crosses 680, 101, and 880.
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