Grasshopper #5-Lake Sonoma

"Back at Car"...Stick communication was key...

Saturday was the final Grasshopper and again, we gathered up the lucky souls who would head out to race/ride the event. Things were going to be interesting for sure as the temps were slated to be around 100 degrees, the course called for lots of climbing and, well, it sounded hard. It was.

The omens were out there early for Otto, my friend I talked into going on his first Grasshopper. He called me at 8PM Friday to say he just remembered, as as he was eating dinner, that his bike which he was going to pick up earlier was indeed at the shop, and the shop had closed at 6:30.

 Nice.

I convinced him to ride his old bike, which he hadn't been on in a year. He agreed. Sucker.

His next call, as he was 30 minutes from my house, was to inform me that he had shoes, but no pedals. Jeezus! Luckily, I had a pair of crank brothers pedals on my fixed gear (I use TIME on other bikes), so no sweat, he could borrow my pedals.

He then gets to my house and has no camelbak and only one water bottle. Did I mention it was calling for temps above 100? I know I had told him that. Luckily, Curtis gave him an extra Camelbak he had. Very nice and Thanks Curtis.

Morning of we head out a bit late and end up getting to the event about 5 minutes before start. 5 naked guys in the Lake Sonoma lot surprised some families, but somehow we made it to the start in time to find all of the maps (maps are CRUCIAL for these events) were handed out. Uh oh...

LIke the blind leading the blind we headed out onto a long road climb before the dirt. I scored a map laying on the side of the road and told Otto we had a map. Too bad he didn't stay with me.

Once in the dirt, I was too excited/scared/nervous to ride too slow and proceeded to keep moving. I saw another map laying in the dirt and hoped Otto had the sense to pick it it (he didn't).

The course called for 25 miles or so with something over 5000' feet of climbing. The trails were incredible, I would say 90% singletrack for the race and really fun. There was a lot of climbing. Also a lot of folks flatting out there. I somehow came upon Curtis, Kathleen and the Crizzler™—they were helping Kathleen fix a broken chain. I pedaled on...

As I rode for about ten minutes, a fantasy came into my head where I finished ahead of Curtis. That bubble was busted about 3 minutes later as he caught me and pedaled on.

My next delusion was that I would finish in front of Kathleen, Curtis' nemesis. That bubble burst about 10 minutes later.

I resolved to at least finish before the Crizzle (he was on a SS by the way, so my feat wasn't exactly equal).

As the race moved on, the temps went up and it became evident that Otto, without a map, was gonna be screwed if he didn't follow someone. Even with my map, I still checked in at a couple of junctions with other riders to make sure we were heading the right way.

On top of the heat, the largest thing looming over my head was the long, steep climb to the finish on a road aptly named "Bummer Hill". I could not shake the thought of it and when I realized 2X that I was farther out and hotter than expected, the race which was always a ride for me, turned in just hoping to survive to the finish.

It was crazy to see how many people were f' ed up by the heat. One really fast woman I came upon had been sitting in a creek for 40 minutes-totally suffering from heat stroke. The crew around her nursed he along to the finish. Me, myself-I settled into a real slow pace and dreaded every descent (as I knew it only meant that much more climbing). Well I came upon ol' Bummer Hill and set to walking. Walking slowly. VERY slowly. I wasn't cramping, I was HOT and done. I had drained 1-70 ounce Camelback and 4 water bottles up to this point. It was a welcome sight to see folks milling around at the finish. I made it in 4:15. curtis smoked me by 20 minutes. Andrew was in the top 10. Jeff was up there too. 

Where was Otto?

2 more water bottles downed at the finish and 30 minutes of waiting and no Otto. Now I was getting worried. There is NO access out there. And it's out there. We heard of a guy in a skeleton jersey sitting on Bummer Hill saying this is "Dangerous". Otto had a skeleton jersey. Curtis and I began the ride back DOWN Bummer only to find it was a different guy. He hadn't seen Otto. Neither had the Helmet-less Euro guy on the Moots walking up the trail in socks (his cleat was stuck in his pedal-we helped him out of it and sent his delirious-ass on the way up).

Farther down Bummer we went when we encountered Heather. She was having a rough day and said she was "last". She had not seen Otto. 

Oh shit. It's now like 1.5 hours since I finished. I'm freaking out inside. I leave broken sticks in the shape of an arrow hoping Otto will see them and head to the finish. Curtis tells me we need to go notify a ranger, as there is nothing we can do. He also says, " I bet Otto went back to the car". I hope he did.

Another walk up Bummer and we see Jefé and Otto! Hot damn! I am so glad he is alright. He had returned to the car after only 5 miles of the race. Thank God he was alright.

To say we were cracked was an understatement. The trip top the post-race BBQ and pool party was kinda a bust as the catered food was gone. The pool felt great though. We decided to head back to Napa and get dinner at Azzurro. A call in about 10 minutes out to have food ready saved the day. We inhaled 4 pizzas and order of Pasta, 2 salads and were gifted with a new chocolate polenta cake Michael was testing and 4 bowls of ice cream. A. Men...

Easily the toughest G-Hopper to date-primarily because of the temps. I am glad to have actually completed the 5 race series though...met a bunch of great folks and found out a little more of what I am capable of... can't wait until next year.

A few pics on Flickr (too hot to shoot on the ride)...