Catchin' up - Mount Diablo Challenge 2008

Last year, my pal Bob talked me into a "nice, easy ride up Mount Diablo". With me on my heavy MTB and Bob on his svelte road-bike, it was a nice easy ride - for Bob. It took me over 2 hours to make the climb, but one thing led to another, and four months later I was one of 1000 riders participating in the 2007 Mount Diablo Challenge race, finishing the 11-mile, 3300' climb in 77 minutes.

This year's challenge proved to be a little more challenging - I managed to lose my timing chip before the start, so I did not get an official time, however, I finished directly behind a friend in 73 minutes, 2 second, precisely 4 minutes faster than last year. Looking at the log of the ride, I see that I kept my heart rate below anaerobic threshold for almost the entire ride - not as high as last year. On the downside, I did start to feel sharp little pre-cramps on the final very steep climb at the finish line.

Fortunately, I had generous sponsors for my ride, and I was able to raise $250 for Save Mount Diablo and score one of the very spiffy jerseys.

I'll be back next year, and this time I might even train before the event :-)