Phew; that was a hard one!
At the start line, I joked with the time keepers. Bad move; if you want to do well, you should focus. I started feeling slightly light-headed* with panic. Then came the 15 second call. About this time, I noticed that my front brake block was rubbing. I don't think the time keepers have ever seen such furious screwing as I tried to loosen the gap!
Then it was time to go. I had to power from the start in the saddle as 20 odd members of my club were mocking me about my 'stay in the saddle' comments. Fortunately, by 0.3 miles in, my body had put together a coordinated effort to overcome gravity and I started to go well. This was at fortunate as at 0.4miles, the gradient was over 10% and steadily increasing. Around this time, I became vaguely aware of over 100 supporters on the side of the road. They were cheering and clapping, I think. It's hard to tell when the entire world consists of myself, lactic acid, a bike and a spot of tarmac 1ft in front of my tyre which I was having a stating competition with.
0.6miles. We've hit 16% and I'm out of gears. At this time my body reacted in a quite bizarre way. It conjured up a song I've not heard for about 5 years. Not a helpful high tempo song, but an acoustic one. Oooo, there's a chequered flag in front. Time to sprint. Out of saddle and shifting like crazy. gggg-click-aaaaa-click-RRRRRRRR-click-click-RRRRRR-click-GGGGGHHHH! That flag's not getting nearly close enough nearly quickly enough. Must sit down. That was a bad idea. Stand up again. Ow, ow, ow, ow, finish line, ow, ow, ow. Check time. 3.46. Arms in air!
* but unfortunately, it didn't actually change weight
The winner did a 3.08 which is an average of nearly 15mph up a 12% hill!
