Mount Diablo: Peak #7 of 9

Sunday March 28, 8 days after our 4-peaks-in-day sub challenge, we were still actively working on our family Bay Area 9 peaks PCTR challenge. And it's now early May, time flies, late posting and flashback to Mount Diablo then (3,557 feet / 1,084 meters).

My first run on that mountain was in June 2008, 2 years in my ultra running journey: Mount Diablo 50K. Quite a memory of finishing on the 3rd step of the podium after speedster Jasper Halekas and 6 minutes behind Graham Cooper, who won Western States 3 weeks later. What great memories, this seems like a century ago nowadays!

Mount Diablo was also the PCTR race where we had a pouch of Vespa Power in our goodie bags. I tried it that day and never looked back since, calling it my magic potion, in reference to Asterix' comic book.

Since then, I drove by quite a few times on my way to Sacramento and Tahoe, but it's way too long of a drive for a training run, for my sustainable running taste. At least for a solo run. This time, we had a good excuse as we are doing the Bay Area 9 Peaks Challenge as a family. Worth packing a car, especially as Greg decided to do the climb on his bike. New configuration then: Greg on his bike, Agnès Nordic walking and Max and I running. Well, running and walking.

We parked at the Summit trailhead which is already quite high from the mountain base. Just 3.5 miles to the top remained to be climbed, but a few good steep hills on the way. Actually, mid way, I passed a guy carrying a huge back pack and gave some encouragements to which he replies with: "Are you French?" It was Victor Berchet whom I had met at our super wet and muddy Ohlone 50K in 2019. It's not a small world out there, it's a connected one!

Max had reached the top in the same time as Greg on his bike, although about twice as many miles by the road. We were still chatting and enjoying the 360-degree views when Agnès showed up, showing the power of... power hiking!

The classic summit selfies:

The downhill was much faster, this time Greg did beat us easily on his bike, although he covered 6 miles instead of our 3! And, while waiting for Agnès to come back to the car, I even gave a try to road cycling to see how that felt. It had been so long since I got on a bike! And it felt good actually, I was surprised how this engaged completely different groups of leg muscles. I know, everybody knows that, that's why it's call cross-training!

As usual, a 3D flyover, courtesy of Relive (click on this link or image below).

That was peak #7, 2 more to go, Mount Saint Helena and Mount Vaca. I was hoping we could do them over the Easter weekend but Greg had a prior engagement. One extra week can still allow us to complete the challenge over 30 days!