Two weeks ago I completed the San Jose LIVESTRONG Challenge. The event was a fundraiser for the Lance Armstrong foundation and thanks to my awesome supporters, I contributed $1050 and the entire San Jose event raised $1.5 million.

All in all the event was really fun and really well organized. I completed the 100 mile century with Scott and Henning. Swelbo did the 100K ride and Jennifer walked for 5K. We arrived at 6:30am and check in was a breeze. While the starting area seemed big and full of pomp and circumstance, it was also efficient. There were almost 3000 participants checking in and it was nice an smooth with pretty short lines. Downtown San Jose was a great host city for the start. It had a nice urban feel which made it seem like an even larger event.

Lance kicked us off and lead us out across the starting line at 7:30am.

From the moment we started rolling until we crossed the fiish line, the support was terrific. The peleton had a police escort for the first 15 miles so we never had to stop at a light. There were plenty of pit stops and each was manned with enthusiastic and friendly volunteers. The pit stops had lots of food and beverage and I used the handy mechanic at one of the stops.

My complaint, and one shared by the rest of my crew, was the hill. At mile 65 the route took a turn up a 1.8 mile climb that gained 800 feet. That’s a 15-20% grade. You can see it captured via Scott’s GPS. Now, I am not one to shun a good climb: I like to spend my weekends climbing the 3000′ mountain next door. The problem is this hill was stuck in the middle of a 100 miler, at mile 65, in an area that’s known to be hot in July, on a charity ride. It’s not cool to throw in something like this when many of your riders are there either to raise funds for the charity or to try something new for the first time. Most people that I saw were either walking their bikes or getting driven to the top via SAG.

Here’s shots of Scott and Swelbo and I on Kreutz Photo (go buy something from them)

And here’s Henning on Flickr