ok, MW is open: who's in?

[Climb01742]

just signed up for mt washington 06. registration opened this morning at 6AM. by 6:10, 161 people had signed up. the limit is 600. i'd dig making this a forum-pal thing. anyone? ginger, you up early today? :beer:

http://www.mtwashingtonbicyclehillclimb.org/hillclimb/reg02/index.cfm

[Kevin]

I think my knees would fall off and my heart would come through my chest. I am amazed by the participants. Go get em Climb.

Kevin

[davids]

Godspeed climb! 8/16 is already covered on my calendar, and even if it wasn't...

[Len J]

just signed up for mt washington 06. registration opened this morning at 6AM. by 6:10, 161 people had signed up. the limit is 600. i'd dig making this a forum-pal thing. anyone? ginger, you up early today? :beer:

http://www.mtwashingtonbicyclehillclimb.org/hillclimb/reg02/index.cfm

I started registering when it hit 590....by the time I finished it was closed.

I totally forgot about it.

Oh well.

Len

[TimD]

Those of you trying to recover from the heartbreak of not being able to ride down Mt Washington, assuming you made it to the top in the first place, might consider signing up for the Harpoon Brewery-to-Brewery ride on June 17th.

TimD

[jeffg]

since I am not in the US ...

but you go get 'em!

I am hoping to get a spot in this year's Ötztaler
http://www.soelden.com/main/EN/OR/index,method=main.html

[bluehorseshoe]

Its 930 am and registration is filled!

I am more than a bit bummed.

Anyone have a number they're not planning on using?

[Ginger]

Dang...

Nope, I wasn't up early enough to catch that...

[Climb01742]

this is crazy. last year, i think it took 11 days to fill up. how did MW get so popular? just 2 or 3 years ago it was just a "cult" thing, known mostly only in new england and among climbing geeks. ginger, i'm bummed!!!!!

PS: folks might want to keep an eye on the registration site. just opened my e-mail. there were 10-15 "confirmation" e-mails from either mt wash or bikereg. i wonder if their systems are glitchin'? maybe they're counting each registration multiple times? may explain how fast they've gotten to 600? 600 lunatics in 3 hours seems a tad excessive...even for lunatics. ;)

[Len J]

this is crazy. last year, i think it took 11 days to fill up. how did MW get so popular? just 2 or 3 years ago it was just a "cult" thing, known mostly only in new england and among climbing geeks. ginger, i'm bummed!!!!!

PS: folks might want to keep an eye on the registration site. just opened my e-mail. there were 10-15 "confirmation" e-mails from either mt wash or bikereg. i wonder if their systems are glitchin'? maybe they're counting each registration multiple times? may explain how fast they've gotten to 600? 600 lunatics in 3 hours seems a tad excessive...even for lunatics. ;)

Yea...that site is screwed up......When I went there registration was at 592.....I got all the way through registration and it had an error and told me to start over....when I went to start over individual registration was closed. It was slow as hell too.

Oh well.

Len

[Tailwinds]

Climb, Ginger, and others, my offer is still open if you'd like to come out to CO for some riding.

[Ginger]

Amanda girl, you may see me this year.

I'm hoping that Climb is correct and it's just a ghost in the machine. I'm kicking myself because I *was* awake and on the computer at 4am...so I should have logged on and gotten registered...I've been a bit distracted lately.

I'm still thinking that the 100 mile dirt road randonee with 11000 feet of climbing the following Saturday is something I'm doing. Although that looks like it has day of ride registration and you're pretty much on your own... :)

[Len J]

Amanda girl, you may see me this year.

I'm hoping that Climb is correct and it's just a ghost in the machine. I'm kicking myself because I *was* awake and on the computer at 4am...so I should have logged on and gotten registered...I've been a bit distracted lately.

so if it is screwed up, I should get a spot.

We'll see.

Len

[spiderlake]

Did you get into the Iceman??

Dang...

Nope, I wasn't up early enough to catch that...

[Tailwinds]

If MW truly is full, I'm betting there are some other options you might "enjoy" -- in a masochistic sort of way. :cool:

Triple Bypass (http://www.teamevergreen.org/HTML_MAIN_PAGES/triplebypass.html) is July 8 here in Colorado. 120 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing over 3 (technically 4) mountain passes.

Other interesting rides -- Bridge to Bridge in NC and Six-Gap in northern GA -- both in Sep., I think.

Of course, there is always the Mt. Evans Hill Climb. OUCH.

[Ginger]

Yeah, I registered for Iceman ages ago...and my check was cashed, so I'm in. :) How about you?

[Ginger]

I'm throwing myself on the M-W wait list anyhow...just in case.

[Climb01742]

ginger, perhaps get on the MW waitlist, too? it just feels weird that MW could go from 11 days to 3 hours to find 600 riders. and when i signed up, the site was funky, too. i had to begin again twice.

[spiderlake]

Yep. Ore to Shore and Iceman are my two big races this year. In a couple of years Iceman will fill in a day! Sorry to hijack the thread........

Yeah, I registered for Iceman ages ago...and my check was cashed, so I'm in. :) How about you?

[Ginger]

Don't worry, mountain bike hijacks are pretty short around here. :)

I'm contemplating the short version of the Ore to shore. It totally depends on if I get into Mt. Washington or not. If not, I'll do the long version.

[Climb01742]

i just spoke with mary of mt washington (gee, sound kinda like joan of arc) and apparently it really is filled up, no ghosts in the machine. and wait list already has over 100 people. crazy, man, crazy.

[Bud]

Climb, Ginger, and others, my offer is still open if you'd like to come out to CO for some riding.


We could have a forum gathering here in CO- that would be cool. Between those of us who live here we could put together some great rides.

If you really want to climb, we could do Mt. Evans!

[djg]

just signed up for mt washington 06. registration opened this morning at 6AM. by 6:10, 161 people had signed up. the limit is 600. i'd dig making this a forum-pal thing. anyone? ginger, you up early today? :beer:

http://www.mtwashingtonbicyclehillclimb.org/hillclimb/reg02/index.cfm

Registration for the practice hill climb in July is open--or was open as of two minutes ago. I just signed up.

Is anybody doing the July 9 ride?

[Ti Designs]

Doing Mt Washington as a personal challenge has become very popular. I've had 6 people ask me to coach them for this event, three of them had never done it before and don't know what they're getting themselves into. Much of this new popularity comes from articles in magazines and people on internet forums who see it as the ultimate personal challenge - not that we have anyone on this forum like that...

I have mixed feelings on this. One person who asked me to coach him for this just looked at his life thus far and decided that he needed to throw a real challenge in there. Just a few days ago he asked if he should sign up, and I didn't want to get between him and his goal, so I said yes. (if you didn't get in, don't blame me, there were 594 other spots you also didn't get) Is it the best personal challenge? Maybe you should ask Climb, he set his mind to it last year without knowing what it's like, that couldn't have felt good. I give climb high marks for returning to the mountain a year later with renewed hope, I'm not so sure all my clients have that kind of long term drive. If they meet their goals, fine. If they fall short but return to take up the challenge a year later, just as good - maybe better. If they put in the time and effort only to fail because they picked the hardest challenge out there, it was time and money wasted.

I will be running a couple trips out to Ascutney in Vermont this year, anyone is welcome. It's not Mt Washington, but it's a good test. It'll give my riders a chance to evaluate where they are and if this is such a good idea. I expect some will find the climb too hard but they will double their efforts to take up the challenge. I also expect a registration number or two to show up on ebay. Time will tell.

[Argos]

I met Mary after doing the Practice ride 2 summers ago.. Very nice lady. We were sitting by the cars having beers to celebrate the ride after we drove back down. We offered her one, but she said 9am was too early for her for a beer.

Sheesh. :rolleyes:

[manet]

reality to climb-o,
we're goin' need a video feed.

[jeffg]

Doing Mt Washington as a personal challenge has become very popular. I've had 6 people ask me to coach them for this event, three of them had never done it before and don't know what they're getting themselves into. Much of this new popularity comes from articles in magazines and people on internet forums who see it as the ultimate personal challenge - not that we have anyone on this forum like that...

I have mixed feelings on this. One person who asked me to coach him for this just looked at his life thus far and decided that he needed to throw a real challenge in there. Just a few days ago he asked if he should sign up, and I didn't want to get between him and his goal, so I said yes. (if you didn't get in, don't blame me, there were 594 other spots you also didn't get) Is it the best personal challenge? Maybe you should ask Climb, he set his mind to it last year without knowing what it's like, that couldn't have felt good. I give climb high marks for returning to the mountain a year later with renewed hope, I'm not so sure all my clients have that kind of long term drive. If they meet their goals, fine. If they fall short but return to take up the challenge a year later, just as good - maybe better. If they put in the time and effort only to fail because they picked the hardest challenge out there, it was time and money wasted.

I will be running a couple trips out to Ascutney in Vermont this year, anyone is welcome. It's not Mt Washington, but it's a good test. It'll give my riders a chance to evaluate where they are and if this is such a good idea. I expect some will find the climb too hard but they will double their efforts to take up the challenge. I also expect a registration number or two to show up on ebay. Time will tell.

I don't know about that. One sees a similar development with events like the Dolomite Marathon which used to be easy to get into and now is just a lottery even though there are 8500 spots. I don't know if mucho Europeans suddenly got a crisis of meaning only the Dolomites could fill ...

I wonder if serious cyclists view this as the ultimate personal challenge. No matter how much it hurts, it's over 1-2 hours, no? This isn't the race across the alps, after all ... The record for MW is 51 minutes, Ventoux, for example, is 56+

Don't get me wrong: MW is a great challenge, and any true challenge teaches you about yourself and your physical and mental limits.

More importantly, this an event Climb and others really care about and well they should. I cannot explain my dedication to the Devil Mountain Double and other events that people think I am a bit loony for participating in, but there you have it. I rode my first DMD (206 miles and over 18,000 feet of climbing) not having ridden a century in over ten years and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Climb might feel the same about MW ... maybe it felt great?!

[geezohwiz]

...with this one particular sentiment:

If they put in the time and effort only to fail because they picked the hardest challenge out there, it was time and money wasted.


The key being "if they put the time and effort." I have coached youth sports for many years. I constantly tell my players that if you give your best effort, you have nothing to regret, regardless of the outcome. I think the same holds true for your "players." They may develop something (discipline, fitness, persistence, ...) in training for this parcticular challenge, even if it ends in "failure," that helps them to overcome some other challenge. Then again, the may simply not finish the climb, but will not have failed.

As the founder of "Success" magazine said, "No man fails who does his best."

Geez

[Len J]

Doing Mt Washington as a personal challenge has become very popular. I've had 6 people ask me to coach them for this event, three of them had never done it before and don't know what they're getting themselves into. Much of this new popularity comes from articles in magazines and people on internet forums who see it as the ultimate personal challenge - not that we have anyone on this forum like that...

I have mixed feelings on this. One person who asked me to coach him for this just looked at his life thus far and decided that he needed to throw a real challenge in there. Just a few days ago he asked if he should sign up, and I didn't want to get between him and his goal, so I said yes. (if you didn't get in, don't blame me, there were 594 other spots you also didn't get) Is it the best personal challenge? Maybe you should ask Climb, he set his mind to it last year without knowing what it's like, that couldn't have felt good. I give climb high marks for returning to the mountain a year later with renewed hope, I'm not so sure all my clients have that kind of long term drive. If they meet their goals, fine. If they fall short but return to take up the challenge a year later, just as good - maybe better. If they put in the time and effort only to fail because they picked the hardest challenge out there, it was time and money wasted.



you seem to be saying (or certainly implying) that if you don't have a chance to win, don't compete. I don't buy that.

This is not the first time I've read this into one of your posts......maybe I'm wrong, but what's wrong with reaching and failing? Personally, I've learned much more in my life from failing than I ever have by succeeding.

Not everyone is a Cat 1 racer, no do they want to be. Sometimes it's just about testing your own limits and seeing how far you can stretch them.

Len

[bcm119]

I think I agree with what TiD is saying. There is a component of goal setting called "being realistic" that is often overlooked. It is great to set goals, and you can be successful while falling a bit short of them in the end, but... Mt Washington is not for everyone. I imagine it is hard to explain this to some people, and I wouldn't have the heart to try, so I understand Ti D's dilemma. We aren't dealing with children here...we aren't telling a 2nd grader she could never be president... we're dealing with adults who simply don't have the facts or experience to set realistic goals. I still believe in setting goals and reaching high and all that, but there has to be some reality mixed in or else many people will be discouraged.... imho.

[Ti Designs]

you seem to be saying (or certainly implying) that if you don't have a chance to win, don't compete. I don't buy that.


Not sure where that came from, I didn't say anything about winning, I was talking about the down sides of failure. For most of the riders on that mountain it's a personal contest, there's no winning, just success or failure against your own expectations. I know that mountain well, my concern is the level of expectations of the riders I coach, and their understanding of just where that level is. Many people say "I just want to finish on my bike", which sounds reasonable. When they find they can't they often take that as failure. Just to put it in perspective, Aimee Vassee was blown off her bike last year - and she won! But in the end that doesn't matter to most, they come with expectations of their performance, if they don't live up to them they feel they have failed.


This is not the first time I've read this into one of your posts......maybe I'm wrong, but what's wrong with reaching and failing? Personally, I've learned much more in my life from failing than I ever have by succeeding.


Perhaps it's just the elitest bike snob showing... It's funny that people on this forum think I only work with elite level riders. On group rides I often get asked why I'm wasting my time coaching the slowest riders out there. The truth is that I like working with riders who have the drive to become the best. In races you always see riders who fall off the back. Some are happy to ride at their own pace to say they did the race. Others want to do better and are willing to put in the long term effort to become so. Those are the people I work with. There's more "reaching and failing" than you know with them, but the end result almost always lives up to expectations.


Getting back to Mt Washington, nobody thinks that's a fun ride, so let's take the idea of doing if for the fun of it off the table. Everybody who shows up has expectations of themselves. There are some who will meet thos expectations, those who woun't but are OK with it, those who will vow to return and do better, and some who will see their attempt as failure and never return. My job is to make sure the riders I coach don't fall into that last catagory, one way or another.

[Len J]

for both your classy response and your last sentance.......I understand where you are coming from better now.....sorry if I projected some of my history onto your words.

I agree with you BTW FWIW

Len

[RABikes2]

If MW truly is full, I'm betting there are some other options you might "enjoy" -- in a masochistic sort of way. :cool:

Triple Bypass (http://www.teamevergreen.org/HTML_MAIN_PAGES/triplebypass.html) is July 8 here in Colorado. 120 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing over 3 (technically 4) mountain passes.
Other interesting rides -- Bridge to Bridge in NC and Six-Gap in northern GA -- both in Sep., I think.
Of course, there is always the Mt. Evans Hill Climb. OUCH.

Well, I guess MW wasn't meant to be on the "to do" list this year...but, Amanda, Ginger, Climb, and all...Six Gap in northern GA (Sept.) is a fabulous 100 mile ride over 6 mountain passes. Lots of great climbs! Would anybody be interested in meeting there for the ride? I usually do 3-Gap by myself the day before (Saturday) and 6-Gap on Sunday. Amanda, your Colorado offer sounds like a blast. What a beautiful state; your rides must be great. ;)
RA

[TimD]

reality to climb-o,
we're goin' need a video feed.

Helmet cam!

TimD

[manet]

Helmet cam!

TimD

nice

[slowgoing]

The race filled up pretty darn quickly. My bet is the price will go up next year.