I have a friend who's a masochist. He's a PE teacher, so it makes sense.
Now, I've been riding with him for years and years. He has always been faster than me up the hills, still is. But, we both ride singlespeeds now, and rather than being 200m behind him on any climb, I'm maybe 2m behind him. I think the reason is that on a singlespeed, you can't go slow. If you do, you walk, and walking's rubbish, I'm not a rambler. So I beast it, get strong and go fast, and now I love climbs.
The only problem is, I would quite like a full sus now and am terrified that I buy it, and, lacking the mental fortitude to just hammer the climbs like now, suddenly end up 200m behind my mate and winching slowly and pathetically up the hills!