6/15/2002 by Ted Ingraham
Nothing like getting up early on a cold, dark, and rainy Saturday morning to rip your legs off and shred your lungs on a time trial up THE BEAST!
Taking full advantage of the last vestige of my recent injury, I unselfishly volunteered to run the time trial. The light to medium drizzle and cold west wind combined with the intimidating BEAST to keep the field to a bare minimum. Looking around at the pre-race faces I thought these are the true dedicated riders. Not only are they willing to endure a time trial, but a time trial up this 3 mile hill is a whole different experience, and the miserable conditions just added to the pain they were about to endure.
Of course, not to extend too much admiration for these hardy characters, a good portion of the field were doing their maiden time trial up the ugly lady. Still, they all looked tough today! There was a little fire in his eyes as Denis O grabbed the sign-up sheet for the right to lead the field up the hill. Meanwhile, Mullins slowly unloaded his bike and got his gear on—determined to take full advantage of the nine minutes before his start time to get in his warm-up. Competitive juices started flowing and Bob Iden, who initially claimed he came to watch, snagged the final start time.
The fire Denis flashed was real as no one touched his pace setting, first place time of 10 minutes, 28 seconds—a great time for this hill. Jim undoubtedly regretted his nine-minute warm-up as he slid across third, just 3 seconds behind Ken Hiller of Lake Effect. You know the leaders banged out some strong times when a goat like Kurt crossed at 11:26, 45 to 60 seconds behind the first four. Apparently at least one person in my family can climb. I thought Tricia's 12:12 was "respectable" until I came home and realized it was better than the one and only time trial I ever did on THE BEAST. Becky and Nathan Blice also put in valiant efforts as they experienced THE BEAST for the first time in an anaerobic haze. (Gee, did they pay a sitter so they could come out and do this?)
You know, as bad as I make it sound, the best part of the time trial was the look of accomplishment on every face at the top of that hill. There was nothing but smiles (and a lot of heavy breathing)! There was even talk of trying it again—well just joking. But I knew there was no one there who regretted conquering THE BEAST this cold wet morning. And the nice thing is that it's what TOP is all about!