Hills and Valleys - The Columbia Triathlon
Today, I ran the Columbia Triathlon. A friend of mine told me it was “really hilly”, and as it turns out, that was the biggest understatement of 2011.
On one of the downhills on the bike course, I broke the 40 mph barrier, which is a new personal record by about 4 mph. On the run course, I passed someone on an uphill only to realize that they were walking, and I was running, and I was barely going faster than they were.
I have never encountered hills like that on a bicycle. I was alternating between going 30+ mph and 10 mph. On some of the later hills, I learned what I was doing and got up to 12 mph.
To add insult to injury, the race organizers put the finish line festival at the top of the hill above the finish line. I think a number of the athletes probably never made it up that hill… which is sad.
