The Muskoka Half-Ironman is well-known for being hilly. In June, while talking with a few cycling friends about the bike course, the tone suddenly became one of caution. “I didn’t like it at all,” one said. Another added, “My quads were killing me after. I had nothing left for the run.” They described Muskoka’s ride as being tougher than Mont Tremblant’s because there are more rolling hills, but it doesn’t have any really steep climbs. The elevation of the course is 850m over a 90km ride.

I had done a lot of long rides with a fair amount of elevation through the winter and spring so I wasn’t worried about my climbing fitness. I also like rolling hills so, while I was guarded about the level of difficulty of this ride, but I wasn’t overly concerned.

After finishing a good swim, I was ready to tackle what lay ahead. My plan was to chase every cyclist ahead of me – simple. By the time I finished my ride, I had caught up to and passed over 300 hundred cyclists. Each time I passed someone, I felt great, especially if they were younger (let’s face it: almost everyone was younger than I) or had big, strong, cycling calf muscles.

My friends were right. The course was unbelievably hilly. For the first half of the race, I was having a blast rolling up and down and up and down. By the time I got to 70km, though, the excitement of climbing hills was worn out. I had had enough of the ups and downs but I also knew that I could handle them; I reminded myself that every hill that goes up must also go down.

The last 10 – 15 kilometres was mostly downhill and were a great way for me to spin out my legs before heading into the half-marathon. I was really happy to have the bike course behind me and even happier that I still felt strong for the run that lay ahead.