So here it is two weeks later and I am finally sitting down to break this all out. Bare with me and I will lead into all of the good stuff. First and foremost thanks to all those who support K-Blue Racing and especially my wife for letting me go and putting up with me during training and when I come home dirty and smelly. Also thanks to all of our sponsors who really helped support me with product and gear to get me there this year nuun, XTC cameras, Kenda Tires, Stans NoTubes, Geigerrig, Gargoyles Eyewear, Bondiband, Gutr', POC, Polar water bottles, Yankz, Feed The Machine, Pro Gold and H2O Overdrive.
So the adventure started out on Thursday the 16th. I headed up to Airpark Cycles to pick up the Santa Cruz Tall Boy that I would be "demo-ing" for the weekend. Later that afternoon I really started packing all my gear into tubs and other bags that would be going down to Tucson with me. I spent about an hour fine tuning the Tall Boy with XTC's RAM camera mount, pedals and the lights for the night riding. Friday morning I got up and took my oldest to school and came home to start packing gear in the car. About 10am or so Emma, my youngest, headed out and toward Old Pueblo.
I got pretty lucky as this being my first year down there to race and then to be a solo racer I teamed up with a few awesome people Cyril, Tiffany, Stella, Kevin and Wes, I'm sure I'm missing a few others in there, but what an awesome group of people. Stella and Tiffany arrived on Thursday and staked out some great area for us to set up right along the course. So about 2 hours after leaving Mesa we got to 24 Hour Town and were able to find the new resting home for a few days. I spent about 1 1/2 hours there dropping my gear and setting up some basic stuff, before Emma and I had to head back to Mesa to get Annie from school.
I ponder it for a while, but at the end I ended up sleeping in my own warm comfy bed on Friday night and just getting up early (5am) Saturday and making the drive down to Old Pueblo again. Made a quick stop along the way in Gold Canyon for some last minute food items, bananas, cup of noodles, Coke and water before making it back to Old Pueblo about 8am or so.
Went ahead and got the last little things set up: tent, generator, bike tuned-in, water bottles and other misc. items. Spent a little time chatting with Kevin and Cyril and then off to the pre-race meeting. I was kind of aware of what I had gotten into, but the pre-race meeting with 4000 plus other races and spectators really put it into perspective. After the meeting I got a chance to meet up with Bruce from Pro Gold for a few minutes. Pro Gold is giving K-Blue Racing some product to try out over this year and see if we can help each other out, kind of a trial sponsorship. So far their products rock.
Breaking up from the pre-race meeting I went ahead and took my bike over to stage for the Le Man's start. For those not familiar with this we start about 1/4 mile away from our bikes and run to the bike staging. This is in an effort to break up the start and when you have 400-600 racers starting at once its about the only way to do this kind of start. After staging my bike I headed back up to the camp site to make sure all of my transition gear was 100% or what I would assume to be 100% was there.
About 11:40am I headed down and checked-in at the transition / timing tent. Checked in and started walking to the start line. And walking and walking. Finally a bunch of people were stopped and said that this was the spot. Okay I thought. The crowd got bigger and bigger. Finally 12pm came around and we are all packed tightly together and waiting to hear the start. Boom. And your off and running in a huge pack of bikers in clip shoes down a rocky dirt road. Trying to make sure you don't run into the ones in front of you as well as not falling. No more than 10 inches on either side of you are you make your way into the bike staging area. Frantically looking for your bike. Hoping someone else didn't grab it.
Next thing you know your grabbing your bike off the bike stands and your trying to climb on and pedal out of there with the other 400 plus people. Elbow to elbow and front tire to some one's back you patiently get out of there and onto the fire-road to try and stretch out the spacing a little more. Quickly you have gone from the elbow to elbow a bike length or two in spacing and then come "The Bitches". "The Bitches" are a series of 5 or 6 hills that drop down about 100-200 yards and then immediately climb back up. The first 1 or 2 don't get you to much, but the 5th or 6th one are starting to wear on you. Additionally the down hill part of "The Bitches" are fast and a rut or a bump in the middle can really catch some good air or a good crash. I saw at least one good one on these over the weekend.
Heading out of "The Bitches" you carry about about mile or so of fire-road and then finally hook into the single track. The single track becomes your best-friend as a solo racer for the next 24 hours, because that is where you are spending most of your time. Dodging the cactus and watching for the others on the trail. About the next 11 to 12 miles is pretty flat twisting in and out and up and down before getting on the Highpoint section. The Highpoint section is about a 3-3.5 miles that will test your endurance and your climbing. This section is 80% of the climbing. It is not nearly as steep as "The Bitches", but it is slow and long.
Once you make the final turn toward the west on the trail you know you only have about another 1 1/2 miles till you are back in 24 Hour Town and heading into the transition / timing tent. The last 1/2 mile coming into 24 Hour Town is fast and you better be paying attention. Between the 4 foot wide wash channels and the switch backs you have to be on your game.
Coming in on my first lap I stop and grab a banana and switch out water bottles for a fresh one. Hit the transition at 1:29 for my first lap and I'm off again. Feeling pretty good, but about half way thru this lap I am getting hungry. So as I am coming around I am planning my stop very quickly. Stop grab my water and heat it for a cup of noddles, shove a banana in my mouth while the water is heating and make sure the water bottles are ready on my bike. Grab the cup of noodles and eat that quickly and jump back on my bike and head out. Thru the transition tent and this lap took me 1:55 including my stop to eat. Off again on to lap number 3. I'm starting to feel the burn of the go go go at this point. Again a quick stop as I come in to grab a banana, water bottle and this time I strapped on my lights and changed helmets. Thru the transition tent and lap 3 took 2:04.
Head out on Lap 4 and about 1/4 of the way in I needed to turn on my lights. I wanted to save my helmet light as long as I needed to, so I was just running my MagicShine 1000 lum on the handlebars. About 2/3's of the way thru the lap that light took a crap on me. I stopped and messed with it a few times and couldn't get it back on, so I diverted to my helmet light a Niterider Sol 150 NiMH to get me thru this lap. It did, but not with the best of lights. Headed in to finish this lap and stopped this time for water, banana, change out the lights to a Niterider double light system and arm warmers. Lap 4 took me 2:19 and then I was out for lap 5. This lap really wore on me. Coming up Highpoint I was feeling it.
I came into camp about 10pm and I was done for the night. I dropped my bike and headed down to 24 Hour Town and got a sandwich. Ate that as I headed back to camp. Cranked up the generator and climbed into the tent. Switched on my small electric heater, striped out of some clothes and into my sleeping bag for some rest. No alarm was set. I woke up about 5:40am or so and I could start to see a break in the sky for some of the sun. Slipped on my tights and a long sleeve jersey. Cutter jacket and some warm socks, well the same socks I always wear, but they seemed warm and I climbed out of the tent. Breakfast of champions with another banana and a fresh water bottle. Into the transition tent to clock in lap 5 at 11:04.
Here it was a beautiful Sunday morning. Sun was slowly rising on my back as I headed out and across "The Bitches". The air had a slight bite in it and there was a slight breeze building. Coming around and up Highpoint the wind would work on me a little more. Rounding out lap 6 at about 9am I was ready for another. Mentally at least to say that. Little did I know this would be the toughest one yet.
That slight breeze was climbing into a full breeze and was no help at all no matter what part of the course I happened to be on. Highpoint I thought was going to be the death of my on this lap. Finally I broke the north climb and started west and I know that was it. I came around to finish that lap around 11:30am and I stopped at camp. Several other were there this time that I had not really seen since before the start yesterday.
The rules say that you have to finish your last lap after 12:01pm on Sunday or you will receive a DNF or Did Not Finish. Well being that I got my first DNF last year on a mtb race in Heber City, Utah I was not looking to get another one here and I really wasn't up for another lap. So I stopped and started breaking down my camp and packing things up. Noon rolls around and everyone starts heading for the transition tent to to finish lap 7 at 12:09pm.
To sum it all up here it is. Total riding time of about 14 1/2 hours. 7 laps of 16.5-17 mile loops (depending on the detours you take). Approximately 115.5 to 119 miles. Average speed of 7.31 mph for 14 1/2 hours.
Next year's goals. 10 to 12 laps in the total 24 hours.
Thanks to all those who support K-Blue Racing and especially my wife for letting me go. Thanks nuun, XTC cameras, Kenda Tires, Stans NoTubes, Geigerrig, Gargoyles Eyewear, Bondiband, Gutr', POC, Polar water bottles, Yankz, Feed The Machine, Pro Gold and H2O Overdrive.
-Scott
Video and pictures to be posted later this week.
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