Low Gap Grass Hopper 2019

[Waily Fung]

After some internet surveying, I felt that the Low Gap course was going to be fast.

Even though it was 43 miles with 5.6k of climbing, I felt there was going to be some really fast times.

I had originally planned on riding it on my XC hard tail, but I was doing some drive train changes and I could not get it done in time. And after surveying the course, my gravel bike seemed like a better choice anyway.

The weather was good, slight clouds, probably about 50*F at the start. There was a lot of people, like Old Caz Hopper, and I was looking forward to seeing who fast peeps of the were.

Mark Ingwersen, Paul Birich, and I left Marin Saturday morning for Ukiah high school for the suffer fest.

I was estimating Mark to finish about 3:00 hours flat or right under it, Paul seemed to be riding really strong this year, but he also rode a lot the week of the race, I was estimating he finish about 10 - 15 minutes behind Mark.

I was undertrained, I was hoping for 3:30 finish time, with just some consistent good climbing.

The race starts of with a long road climb, and not before long, Mark and Paul were out of sight.

I went out too hard on the climb and started to fade. Some east bay friends caught up to me at the top of the climb before the long road descend back down. I rode with some of my east bay friends at a pace slightly harder than I wanted.

At the aid station, at about mile 22, I got some fluids but my east bay friends kept going, and that was the last time I would see them until the finish. 

I burned some matches from the hard effort on the first climb and staying with my east bay friends until the aid station.

Combine this with the lack of training, I was really suffering on the second half of the race.

I was suffering so bad on the last long climb that I was at walking pace and actually had to stop a few times.

Luckily, the last 9 miles is all downhill, but it is still hard on the legs because you have to squat for 9 long and rough miles.

I got done and looked at my Strava, 3 hours, 30 minutes, but a felt like I could have done better. I really need to learn how to pace myself at these events. Results page  = 3:35:23, 204th place of 420 participants.

The men's overall winner was Sandy Floren, 2:2315.

The women's overall winner was Katie Hall, 2:42:39.

Lots of fast peeps out there!

Mark thought he finished just over 3 hours, but results showed he finished in 2:58:20, sub 3 hours! 57th of 420.

Really strong performance.

Paul pulled a really impressive ride, beating Mark by over 5 minutes with a 2:52:32. 37th of 420.

Wow!

Substantial performance gain from last year. Mark and I agree, he wins for most improved.

Overall it was a hard fun day for us. Just like Grass Hoppers usually are.

Waily