A Vertical Epic

Yesterday I hit a milestone - well not so much a milestone as a foot-stone. According to my records on Strava, I've climbed 1 million feet this year!

Now I'll be the first to admit that I am quite lucky to have lots of time on my hands, enabling me to go out and do long rides every day. And my ability to clock up this much climbing has a lot more to do with time to ride than anything else. But it's still something I got excited about as I got closer to the big number.

We had a very mild winter in 2012, which allowed me and most of my riding neighbors to do a lot of early season riding. Then Strava had this climbing challenge from mid-March to the end of April. I got a little taste of competition as I flirted with the top spot on the female leaderboard. And by the end, I'd accumulated a lot of feet, and it seemed also a new love of climbing.

I've never considered myself a climber. Fear Rothar is the climber. But he seems to influence me a bit. I started doing the hill-climb races, because he was doing the hill-climb races. And of course when we ride the tandem, I have no choice but to go up and down all the same hills. But I will admit that at some point I developed a real love of the views from the top of these climbs, and eventually found I also really enjoyed the journey.

A suitable brew!

The ride that put me over the top!