10:30 a.m. (+3 hour, 20 minutes) mile 27
(Are we finally going to hear about this 13-mile climb that you have been fearing since you realized what you signed up for?)
Yes! It was time to face my fears….& then my speed dropped from 18 mph to zero. “Audentes Fortuna Iuvat” is what Virgil wrote in the Aeneid & it’s what Pliny the Elder said when he led ships to investigate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
It means, “fortune favors the bold.” I had worked hard to physically overcome obstacles at Ironman UK, & I had taken bold steps to get to the Ironman World Championships Nice with the 6 weeks of prep I had available to me. I had 10 Ironman triathlon finishes under my belt. I was 10 for 10. I had never failed, even at Ironman UK, with its 12,000 feet of climbing. But this bike course was a monster. This was 10,000 feet of climbing, 8,000 right in front of me. According to the official map, mile 29 to 42 was 13 miles, straight up hill. (What was the percentage?) It varied from 4 to 9 percent. (How hard is that?) If you live in Teaneck & you drive up DeGraw to Fort Lee, you are on 9%…for 3/4 of a mile. When I first realized that I might have 13 miles of this I stayed up all night drawing graphs & charts. (What did you come up with?)
mile 1-29: 3 hours
mile 29-41: 2 hours-straight up hill
mile 41-97:?
mile 97-112: 45 minutes because it’s downhill
(Credit: David Roher)
If mile 1-29 of the bike course takes me 3 hours, & mile 29-41 of the climb takes me 2 hours straight uphill, & mile 97-112 takes 45 minutes because it’s downhill, then I only have 3 hours to ride the middle section from mile 97-112. (Can you ride 56 miles in 3 hours?) I did that once, at “IMAC,” but that was a flat course & a half Ironman. This was not flat & I would be trying to go fast after a 13 mile slog up a mountain. (…& now that you are starting that climb?) Yup & I was 20 minutes behind schedule… but, “Audentes Fortuna Iuvat.” I pressed the shift button on my handlebars. I felt the derailleur move the chain to the biggest cog, the easiest gear I had. I stole a glance back at my gears. The lubed chain was in the large cog, with its “teeth” protruding through the gaps in the chai links. The metal teeth fit the chain like fingers in a glove. The whole assembly gleamed in the Autumn sunlight. The beginning of the climb registered as 4% on the screen of my bike computer. A bike computer is a 1 x 2-inch device mounted on the handlebars. I realized three weeks before at Half Ironman Mont Tremblant that the best way for me to “attack” a hill when I was in my easiest gear was not to watch the data, but to focus on the climb. (But you are receiving all this data from the bike sensors) I had no more gears to shift into. Now it was up to me to manage my own energy output & pedal accordingly. (How was the climb?) Challenging, but I wasn’t worried. I was racing with the sun shining down. I was happy.
11:00 a.m. (+3 hour, 40 minutes) mile 31
On paper, the bike course was a straight line. In reality, the climb snaked up the mountain. Pedaling in my easiest gears felt manageable. The September sun felt good on my face as I followed the riders in front of me up the mountain road. Portions of the landscape reminded me of the hills outside Jerusalem. It was late in the morning, but the heat of the day was not yet radiating off the asphalt roads. “I’m cycling in the South of France, in Autumn & the sun is shining…” (HEY IDIOT, REMEMBER TO HYDRATE!) Oh, right. I was so happy that I was managing the climb that I forgot to drink. (We know!)
11:30 a.m. (+4 hour, 10 minutes) mile 35
I was now halfway up the hill that seemed to go on forever. The 4% incline from 4 miles earlier had been replaced with a 9% incline & I was suffering. I needed to stop. I needed to get off my Bike.
David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].
