Mt Diablo Challenge Danville, CA (Wave
1)
Start Time: 8:30
am (Finishing time 57:27)
Placed: 81
Field: 520
Miles: 10.9
Average HR: 178 Max
HR: 187
Elevation
Ascent: 3,294 Ft.
Weather: 57.8
degrees avg. Partly Cloudy down below and sunny up top
This was my 3rd time
doing the Mt Diablo Challenge. I wanted
to finish under an hour. Every race that
I did this year was to prepare me to climb Mt Diablo in less than an hour. I was going to give it my all. I was well rested, recovered well, and ate
great the 24 hours prior. I am now
eating an almost fat free diet the day prior to my races. I also stay away from high fiber foods in the
morning before the race. I don’t have
any coffee either. I ate a bagel with
light cream cheese 2.5 hours prior and a performance plus power bar 1.5 hours
prior to race. I had a GU pack as a back
up tucked inside my right leg of the skin suit.
I only needed 1 bottle of Cytomax.
Half for the warm-up and half for the ride up. Of course I took of my second bottle cage! I parked my car 20 minutes from the
registration and with a backpack full of clothes/warm gear I rode easy to the
registration. Thanks to Brian Spears for
pinning my number on. Have you ever
tried pinning a number on a skin suit while wearing it? It would probably look like I am wrestling
myself. J I dropped my bag off at the start line. Thanks to the event promoters they drive
everything for you to the top. The first
10 minutes of my warm up on Blackhawk Rd were cold in just a skin suit. Finished my warm up of about 45 min. Some good efforts, and felt ready. Made it to the start line of Wave 1 with 10
minutes to start time.
I met Stu (Taleo
Racer) at the starting line. We had the
exact same goals and it was a nice chat to calm the nerves. Easy roll out, and felt a little sketchy and
over crowded rolling through the newly paved area. I thought for sure that someone was going to
go down. Made it out of there just fine
and proceeded to South Gate. I found a
good tempo and followed Jeff Botelho’s wheel till a mile maybe before the pay
station. I caught up to Greg Spanier now
and we were with a handful of other guys.
We hit the pay station and I remember thinking to myself….I can’t
believe I am already here. I was so
focused on the wheel in front of me and keeping pace that I had no time to
think where I was. I didn’t have to do
much work at all through Rock City. I
was 2-3rd wheel back of a good sized group. Came out of Rock City behind the guy that led
us through and hit the gas hard up to Curry Point until I caught up with
another group. On the final push through
Curry a large group with Spanier and others came through at the perfect
time. I needed to drafting. It was windy through there. Nice long downhill for the final push to the
junction. I made it to the junction
around 28:30ish. Wow I thought to
myself. You are doing this!!!!! Everyone was pretty spread out now. I don’t really remember much after this
point. I didn’t know any other time
checks. All I knew was that if I could
make it to the wall before the finish at 58 min I could break the hour. I climbed that wall in 1:23 last year, and
subsequently climbed it in 1:23 this! I
was so excited when I made it to the base of the wall with 56 min on the
Garmin. I did it!!! Broke the 1 Hour!
Thanks for reading and
thanks to all my Teammates of Taleo Racing.
It was a nice way to end the Taleo Racing sponsored team.
