Day: January 4, 2009

On New Year’s Day, I entered the San Bruno Hill Climb for the second time. With more prep in recent weeks, and a year of bicycle racing under my belt, I knocked almost two minutes off my time. Official results are in a PDF file. My time was 18:02.91 for the climb, putting me 72nd overall out of 225 racers, and 9th among Cat 4 men.

The top two finishers in Cat 4? My friends Gregory Coleman and Kenneth Norton. I warmed up with Ken, who provides evidence. Both of them flew up the hill ahead of me. My computer measured the distance at 3.75 miles, despite the advertised 3.5 mile race. I was paying attention because fog swallowed the top of San Bruno, leaving only a few dozen meters of road visible in front of you. I don’t know the course well enough to know the finish section yet, but the fog helped overall: just focus and turn the pedals.

I joined ZteaM Cycling this weekend to provide a bit of extra motivation for this 2nd year of racing. That doesn’t give me more time to train, but fewer excuses, perhaps. Thanks to Gleeco for suggesting I join him in the San Francisco-based chapter.

One more cycling note… had my first crash today, during an Early Bird crit race this morning. Someone went down in front of me, and I went over that rider’s bike. Banged my left side hard enough to sting, but was able to re-join the pack the next lap, and overall I’m fine. One positive note about riding in cold weather: my jersey ripped instead of my skin.

San Bruno Hill Climb photo courtesy of renroublard; view the original or simply click thumbnail for larger.

Doctor Zhivago stretched over two nights’ viewing. At three hours and twenty minutes, even the DVD had to be flipped over to watch the part after the intermission. Loved the scenery and the sweep, though a bit too sappy overall. Also, I’ve never seen such fresh, unlined faces among those supposedly enduring the ravages of a Russian winter.

This was my third David Lean movie. I hardly remember A Passage to India, but I’ll never forget watching Lawrence of Arabia during a Boston snowstorm in my college dorm room. This was before reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and writing a not-so-enlightening paper on said book. I won’t be following up by reading Doctor Zhivago: the film can stand on its own merits, for me.