porcupine hill climb

H signed up for the 2011 Porcupine Hill Climb two days before the actual event.  The Hill Climb is a race up Big Cottonwood Canyon, from the Porcupine to Brighton Ski Resort, to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.  Despite not having trained, he wanted to do the race in honor of a friend of his who was a cyclist, who was with H on a MTBing trip in Moab years ago (H's first trip to Utah) and who recently died from skin cancer.  The climb is 14.7 miles with an elevation of about 3,800 feet.*  That's a dang long hill to ride up.

Pre-start

His group ("Citizens," the non-licensed racers) were to start at 7:30 a.m..  We got there early so H could warm up, and he did laps while I wandered around, drinking my coffee and watching all the other cyclists.  Right on time they were off and heading up the canyon.  The start was a little confused - the cyclists started in the Canyon Inn parking lot and had to do an immediate hard right turn onto the road up the canyon; it would have been simpler if they'd been started on the road itself - but once they started, the mass of bicyclists spread out quickly.  I gave them fifteen minutes and then hopped in the car, driving carefully up the canyon past the laboring cyclists.

Unfortunately, the places I chose to stop were right after quite steep stretches and the first time H was so focused on his pedaling that he didn't even see me.  My second stop was at Solitude, right before the road got really steep.  H still looked strong, although he admitted to me afterwards that he was really hating it right about there.

Focused

I leapfrogged the cyclists, stopping a couple of times on the canyon road to applaud and take photos.
The finish was in the Brighton parking lot (and a slight uphill finish after a short flat teaser).  H crossed the line in 1 h. 28 m., finishing 14th out of 30 in his age group and clearly in the top half of the Citizen group (the official results are still not posted anywhere we've been able to find them).  We watched the rest of his group come in and then the first few finishers of the licensed racers before heading back down the canyon.

Back at the Porcupine, there was brunch for everyone (even those of us who didn't race) and the awards ceremony.  When we learned that the top three finishers each got a free growler from the Porcupine, filled with whatever beer you want, we realized that if H does this hill climb again next year, he's going to have ride faster and get himself on that podium!

*  H would like to point out that his race was approximately three times longer than my recent Millcreek race, plus all uphill as opposed to my all downhill.  He's clearly way more badass than I am.