'Hopper 3

woooaahh boy that was a toughie. I thought about bagging it all together as I felt like a cold was coming on- sore throat, snotty, etc. Decided I still want to try to finish each race of the series and I had childcare so off we went with maybe 75 plus others. I counted myself, heather, cathy, shannon, maryanne, gina, and 3 other gals at the start but there may have been more.

We started off in a nice group with cathy, myself, maryanne, gina, and a handful of men. There was a steep climb from the get go and we were cool so it was tough. Then there was a super fun single track descent, then a road descent to some more single track through marshy, grassy, rooty, boggy stuff- lots of up and down. The era rocked and I felt so happy to have this bike overall, but especially on this course. I found myself feeling great on the Bolinas road climb before we got back on the dirt of Bolinas ridge, and I went for it, steadily cranking up the hill. Later I realized I should have locked the shock out but whatever.

Then once on the ridge with 11.5 miles left of this 50 miler, I started having severe cramps in my hams and had to stop to stretch several times, it really stunk. It is such a scary feeling being out of fluid and cramping like crazy. A couple guys from the group caught back up with me and handed me some Clif Blocks, but I dropped them before they got in my mouth. Annoyed and trying to redirect the cramps mentally out of my hams, I spun as much as I could.

We then descended on this amazing single/double track back down to Olema. It was stunning and I want to ride out there again, so pretty. I then came to a fork in the road and was unsure of where to go as I lost the 2 guys when they bombed the hill. Brendan from the shop came up a minute or two later and saw me standing there confused- we decided to go which thankfully was the right way- finish was less than a mile down the hill and I was so thankful to be done. Cathy arrived right on my tail, riding strong as ever. It was a painful ride back to the parking lot but overall a really fun day, great job girls!!

-Sarah P.

I started this race, but very quickly got dropped from the pack and then LOST!  This course is notorious for losing folks, now I can be included on the long list of lost and wandering cyclists…   I got lost after the Inverness Ridge single track, and ended up in a neighborhood. Discouraged and not looking forward to another 40 miles of riding by myself, I asked for directions back to the Visitor’s Center.  Maybe next year!

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004