Pegasus

Alisha says: This past weekend Dave and I competed in the Arizona State Hillclimb Championships up Mt. Graham. We enjoyed great company for the trip as we carpooled with Doug and Roberta. The 20 mile climb with 6000 vertical feet was awesome. We started out in the hot valley with the mountain looming in the backgroud. It was really hot for the first half of the race, I even took a couple of waterbottles from spectators and dumped them on me. After about halfway we went into the clouds and the wind picked up which really cooled things down. It was actually really cold at the finish and we were thankful for Roberta driving to the top so that we didn't have to ride down.

My version of the race went something like this. It was a mass start so we all started at the same time. After a couple of miles there was a split in the field with the fastest guys up front. I just missed it and ended up leading the second group for a little bit. Eventually we started to catch and pass the guys who had gone too deep and blew up. I got with a good group of four guys and was happy to sit on for as long as I could. At one point I passed Dave (he decided to go big at the start and was paying for it) and was in front of him for a couple of miles, then he and one other guy caught back up to me. This was awesome because I knew there was some flat/downhill sections towards the end that I wanted to have a wheel to follow through.

I was the top female finisher in 1:43.55. Dave was fourth in his category and Doug came within a minute of his goal to break two hours. The trophy I received was one of the more unique ones; a winged horse named Silver Lining. If we had a mantel Dave says that he would keep it on the mantel to remind us of our good time at Mt. Graham.