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1st time in a 24 hour race. Anyone who has ridden with me knows that I am a mediocre mountain biker on my best day. The following thoughts occurred to me as I completed my first foray into 24 hour racing:if you don’t feel like reading, here’s a video of the lemans style start from my helmet cam. I wanted to record my first lap, but I forgot to delete old footage so I ran out of memory pretty quick.Friday evening:

• Well Joe and Julie of Single Speed Outlaw say that it’s not so bad. Julie warned me about a tricky descent and how I need to just let go of the brakes and trust it. I met internet celebrity Joel Gwadz, and he said that it’s an easier course to race than to ride because you want to keep your momentum up on it. I guess that makes sense.
  

1st lap:

• this is horrible. really really horrible. I never want to do this again. In fact, I don’t even know if I want to do another lap after this. This is ridiculous. That mud is entirely too deep, and there is way too much of it. This descent is terrifying, I’ve been getting better at descending but this steep loose rock business is for the birds. I don’t know what’s worse, steep descent or crazy long climb? How am I going to do this for another 6 miles? Oh, the course is 12.8 not 17? (I guess I should have double checked that one) That’s much more reasonable.

Rest 1

• Apparently Zach’s not coming. We decide that the best plan of attack is to have a “Zach Lap” figured in. The rotation goes me, Kevin, Ben, Rest for 2 hours when imaginary Zach is riding, then back to me. This makes my lap times look really long, but they already looked long so it doesn’t really matter. Lowered my tires to 40 psi (I don’t know what they were at, but it was too high) and had Wes soften up my fork a bit. Hour long nap in the hammock made a big difference. As I waited for Ben to come in from his lap to tell him the plan, I ran into Dr. Stacy, an old rock climbing acquaintaince who has done this race a lot of times now. The only other amusing moment is Wes’s infatuation with the Granny, the race mascot (a young lady dressed up as a grandmother rolling around giving everyone temporary tattoos). We couldn’t tell if she found him charming on slightly disturbing.

Lap 2

• Ran into Karen from Dirt Rag at the bike rack. I was going to stop to chat about the Aydin track on the Ride Like Hell Comp, but it turns out that she is on a 2 person team so I’ll save the chit chat for later. No time for chatting when you are a badass. I went out at 8 and it was going to go from day to night during my lap. Best case scenario, I would make it to the steep rocky descent before that happened. She came from out of nowhere and whipped past me at the first muddy section. I was by myself again for a while and then I hit the pine trees. This was clearly the best part of this course, smooth singletrack with really nice bermed turns. It was really just beautiful, then it opens up on this awesome ridge. I really didn’t appreciate it as much on the first lap, but the second time around
  I realized how cool it was. Dr. Stacy flew past and then it was on to the descent. Didn’t make it in time to avoid using the lights, so it was a little dicey. I went down a few times but nothing dramatic. The last half was covered with toads. It was pretty surreal. Finished my lap at about 10:45.

Rest 2

• If we all pulled 2 hour laps and accounted for a 2 hour “Ghost Lap” I wouldn’t be up again until 5. Ate a little food and then fell asleep. I set my alarm for 5. Promptly proceeded to sleep right through it. At 7, I woke up and realized that I had absolutely no desire to do my next lap. Kevin blew rear brake line and rode 9 miles on a rigid SS with only a front brake. Ben was still asleep. We came to the conclusion that we could quit right there and have had a fulfilling trip. Then I saw a few guys roll by that had just finished their laps and remembered that plenty of people were doing far much more than we were, so I couldn’t go out after 2 laps even if my 3rd would take a really long time.

Lap 3

• I went out at 8 AM, 12 hours after I started my 2nd. I thought I would be cool, but the first mile suggested otherwise. I was picking bad lines and not rolling over things as smoothly as I should have been. I was pretty much toast and thought about taking the early exit option at mile 2. I fought the temptation and then really started to enjoy my lap. It was by no means a fast lap, but it was enjoyable. I stopped to eat an energy bar as I looked out over that ridge. My last name drop of the day would be when I pulled aside so Tinker Juarez could pass me. I guess I looked pretty beat because he told me to “keep it up, dude”. Then, just to say I did it, I tried to stay on his wheel for as long as I could. That only lasted about 100 yards, but it gave me something to focus on for a bit. Nevermind that he’s 10 years older and was on his 14th lap. If anyone didn’t know who Tinker Juarez was, the announcer should have cleared that up by saying “Tinker Juarez is a 1996 Olympian and veteran racer. Anything you can do on a bike, he has done. Except maybe eating one”. I would now like to see Tinker eat a bike, just to fill out his resume.
• funny moment, trying to clear a logpile, I lifted my rear wheel a bit too much and started to go over the bars, but I didn’t. Instead I unintentionally rode a nose wheelie for about 5 feet. It was pretty cool, it would be way cooler if I did it on purpose or could ever do it again.
• My finish should have been triumphant, Kevin was going to go after me if he could get an Ellsworth as a loaner. I rolled up the ramp as fast as I could, and then didn’t quite turn enough and went straight into the rail. I knocked my bars crooked but didn’t realize it, then as I started to ride again (with my bars straight but wheel crooked) I went right into the rail again. I figured everything out and then ended up running down the ramp. hardly memorable, but better than crashing into the side 3 or 4 more times.

Kevin’s lap was crazy fast, full suspension 29′ers with gears are a bit faster and smoother than rigid single speeds with front brakes only. At the end, I realized it was the hardest +/- 39 miles I had ever ridden. I suspect I will end up riding them again next year.