Mt. Agamenticus Time Trial

The Mount Agamenticus Time Trial is a 7.4-mile-long individual race from South Berwick to the top of Mount A (the hill itself is 1k, 8% grade), the highest point in Maine's York County. I took a pass on this race yesterday, since a significant stretch of it is on a dirt road with gravel and I didn't particularly feel inclined to ride at race/time trial pace over it. However, I did plan on going up to Mount A to cheer on my teammates and everyone else. Also, it's about 20 miles from my house, so at a 40-mile round trip, it's way more effort to not do the race.

The only problem was that I couldn't remember if the race was at 4pm or 6pm. I decided to head up there at three, just in case. So I get up there super early, and there's nothing going on yet. It's just one random guy with a road bike with a mountain cassette and just one 34-tooth chainring. Apparently he was training for the Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, while his kids were on the backside of the hill, mountain biking. He was going up, turning around, going down, and doing it again. Over and over.

But if this gaffer was doing hill repeats then there's no way that I wasn't. I've never done repeats on Mt. A, either. I just go up it once, say "I'm never coming back here, that was horrible" and then go home. I do this once a month or so. But with some recent advice from NorEast Elite Squad captain Josh "Monster Jam" Austin, I was able to stay relaxed and patient and do five hill repeats without any major problem at all.

Eventually I called a friend to double-check the time of the Time Trial for me, and realized that I had missed it by like six hours--it had been at like nine in the morning. Wow. Normally I'd have been annoyed, but I feel really good about the hill work.