Monday, June 25, 2012

2012 Gran Fondo Garrett County

Gran Fondo The Garrett County Savage Century is truly a no-joke, no-frills, bad ass ride through the mountain sides of western Maryland.  This was by far my hardest road ride I've tackled at 8hours 32mins.  102 miles with exhilarating downhills of up to 51 miles per hour, miles and miles up very difficult climbing, and a little bit of rolling countryside along Savage Creek and Deep Creek Lake.  If the elevation profile below doesn't scare you, then layoff the liquid courage.

Mom has become a frequent participant, camper, sherpa, cook and volunteer on these weekend extravaganza's.  We set off Friday afternoon and had camp set by early evening.  Crab cakes were the meal of choice for my pre-ride meal from Springfield Butcher.  This was the first trip where we really did the camping right.  
 
Wake up call was at 5:30am.  A cream cheese muffin, banana, and OJ served as the "Breakfast of Champions".  A 10 minute drive over to Adventure Sports for packet pickup, then a drive up Wisp Mountain to reach the starting point.  We saw two crazies riding up Wisp mountain, and I can only guess their car must have broken down.

There were around 1300 riders combined for all riding options.  The craziest is the Diabolical Double (125 miles) of pure pain.  We'll have to wait until next year before tackling that.  At the starting line, I ran into Dan Wolfe, my frequent riding buddy on centuries.

The beginning of the ride is a few miles of downhill.  Couldn't go all out due to volume of riders, but after the first few climbs the pack thinned out and then the training wheels came off.  I'm not sure which downhill I reached 51 miles/hour, but I'm guessing I was pretty close to that speed on plenty of them ... pure exhilaration.  
Where's Dan Wolfe?  Lost him at the first decent climb.  Turns out he just needed a jump start to get the blood flowing.  He did fine for the remainder of the ride.

Mile 25 up to Morgan Town Road was long and what exactly were those girls implying by passing me on the way up?
Mile 36 and still climbing.  The combined totals of one hill after another makes one cry for one's Mommy.  Unfortunately, mine was resting at the campsite about now.

I stopped for a panoramic shot of the country side and a good view of an upcoming hill.  I did zoom down that hill, went through the woods, and slogged it up what you can see in the video.  Perhaps I was overcome with delirium, but I could swear a 70 year old lady passed me on the climb.  For the record, I did pass her at the top and never saw her again.  Perhaps she was just a big fan of tanning booths, remember this lady?

Bowman Hill is more sinister than Silent Hill in many ways, minus the demons.  This road doesn't seem to  have been built by educated engineers.  Someone far more sadistic created this ridiculous climb.

Nice of this farmer to let us ride through his property ... NOT!  That climb is longer and steeper than it appears.
Mile 55 is called "Killer Miller" and guess what, "It's hard, really really hard."  There's another little bump to get to the Eastern Continental Divide.  The bonus side is there is a really long descent to Savage Creek after the divide.  
This rolling terrain is the first part of the ride you could truly relax and enjoy the ride.  100 miles of this kind of riding would really be a popular event.  


And here we are at the finishing line, 8 hours and 53 minutes later.  The last hill up Wisp Mountain is cruel.  I was gearing up for a tougher climb, but in the end it was just another bump along the way.  Riding up the hill after 101 miles is an accomplishment that should be shared by all .. who's with me for 2013?


And here comes Dan Wolfe slugging it up the finish line in 9hrs 51mins 36secs.  I agree Dan, this ride really was ridiculously hard.
Back at the campground, here's a post-meal recap.  Rib-eye steak's from the "Springfield Butcher" were incredible over the open fire.  Good thing for GroupOn's, we got a two-for-one for purchasing the steaks and crab cakes.

The best part of this adventure was easily the camping, as usual.  The weather was beautiful, very few bugs, nice facilities, almost makes me think about tackling this ride again next year.  I asked once already, but who's with me for 2013?


Garmin statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192635790

2012 Garrett County Savage Century - Check!  

2 comments:

Vijay G said...

Congrats Ken you've done it again.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Kenny. Sounds like you got this race down with great camping, food and mom time. Thanks for sharing your journey. I think Steve and Chuck should do it with you next year. They have a year to train, right? Cheers ~ Sofia

 
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