So as we were sitting around the pre-race dinner before the ADK 540 the discussion of course revolved around, you guessed it, riding bikes insane distances. We talked about Mark's '05 RAAM experience, BMB, other 12/24's, and something called Quadzilla. I sort of thought I'd heard of Quadzilla before but I was probably thinking of Gwadzilla, a blog by rider named Joel Gwadz that I regularly stumble across and read. I remember Rick saying once or twice "So you're doing Quadzilla with us then!" I just shrugged my shoulders in a non-commital "huh?"

Mark told us of how he had a bad case of really painful "hot feet" at Quadzilla that made it a real struggle to even finish under the time limit. I'd never had hot feet (but I would!, more on that later), nor did I know what the REAL Quadzilla was. I do think the thought stuck with me and the whole "quad" thing was one of the reasons I decided to switch to 3 laps (408 mile) as I lay in bed later that night. Heck, how could I attempt the unknown Quadzilla beast without knowing I could actually survive a regular quad? I of course learned that the next day that 408 miles of the ADK was anything but "regular".

The real Quadzilla is a bike race held 2 out of every 3 years in western New York with a route that totally encompasses all 11 of the Finger Lakes. It's run in conjunction with the Finger Lake 350 (FL350) and basically adds on another 50 miles and 5000 feet of climbing to an already insane amount of riding. Click to enlarge---->

From what I can gather it isn't just the AMOUNT of the climbing (around 28,000 feet) but the fact that the pitches are steep (10-14%), not short, and VERY (as you can see from the profile) frequent. It isn't like just 3 or 4 major climbs, its 18-22 steepies to summit, and countless "choppy rollers". Now I learned about rollers that don't really "roll" in the Adirondacks. Heh. I can only imagine what a CHOPPY roller is, or maybe I really don't want to. So if you dream of slaying monsters like Quadzilla, give this one some thought. I will. I'm not committing just yet.............

I guess my recovery is near complete. I've come full circle since the ADK. At first when I was having trouble just walking, I swore that I'd never try something like that again. As the pain and soreness went away I looked at the event more objectively and figured I might be able to cut 5-6 hours off my time. Now I'm dreaming of slaying bigger monsters. Like that line in some Bruce Willis movie. Someone tells him "Man you must be insane!" He looks back at them with glazed eyes and says "Yeaaaaa isn't it GREAT!" Name that movie for a prize.

RideOn monster slayers

JB