Alright! I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get back to the blog. Everytime I travel, I get behind in normal life, and then it seems like it’s time to go again once I get caught up!
In short: the event was amazing, fun, and well run with really great people. Thanks a million to my teammates, supporters, race volunteers, and race promoter of Epic Rides, Todd Sadow. See ya next year (maybe I’ll do a solo?!)
ROCK N ROLL!!!
I’ll break down the race instead of fully writing it all out.
1) Epic Rides puts on great events. If you haven’t been to one, you’re missing out!
2) My favorite thing about this race was that everyone was out there. People who had never
raced a bike before (or who don’t normally ride) to pros. It’s an eclectic bunch and it’s cool to see new enthusiasts out there giving it their all amongst the chollas!
3) Stan’s dedication dinner was cool. I got to meet Stan of Stan’s NoTubes… the guy who INVENTED tubeless. Thank you Stan!!!!
That’s him!
There was copious amounts of free beer. I tried the Pipeline Porter by Kona. To be honest, it was WAY too sweet… but I was happy for free beer! 🙂 …and for cool, rusty, painted bike parts!
4) I have the coolest team!
5) My lap rundowns:
Pre-lap 2! Yuki did the first lap for our team which involved running to come get his bike from me!
and he fueled beforehand appropriately…
Lap 1: “Ok, I have only done 1 day of hard intervals this years, I’ll just go out and see what I got.” Turns out I had a lot. I was able to ride in Zone 5 for the whole lap. Score! It was super fun. The wind on the back side of the course was heinous and I was definitely slowed down by it!
Lap 2: The sun was already down, and it turned pitch black about 10 min into my lap. I was riding at almost the same pace as lap 1. My friend, Marty was riding with me and helping to push me. It suddenly felt really hard to go fast. I thought I had blown up, so I told Marty to go ahead. After awhile, I realized it wasn’t ME, but my rear tire had gone almost flat. My CO2 failed… so I had to use my hand pump which I now always bring with me after losing the Dakota 5-0 2 years ago due to a faulty CO2 and no pump (and running for 10 min till someone threw me a pump). I had to baby the tire for the rest of the lap which was a bummer…. Lost about 5 minutes, but still happy with my fitness on the lap
Meanwhile… I was eating in between laps thinking it would digest. I had a food baby and my food was a brick. I drank more water hoping that would help with gastric emptying, but it was still sitting. This also happened to me at 24 Hours of Moab! In retrospect, I now know you still can’t eat a whole lot in between laps and keep it to very simple foods, even with 3+ hours in between.
Lap 3: Night Lap… I was instantly hungry because my food didn’t digest. I went through the 2 gels I brought on the lap in the first 20 minutes and spent the rest of the lap bonking out of my skull. I was looking for food on the side of the trail… the road kill/trail kill mice started to look appetizing. I felt so weak I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to finish the lap, but I told myself one pedal in front of the other. My avg HR dropped 30 beats from the other two laps. Fail.
I managed to sleep 2 hours, and didn’t eat anymore. I think some food finally started to digest.
Lap 4: Night Lap…. the sun came up 2/3 of the way into my lap. I felt reborn with the sun and suddenly was able to put the pedal to the metal again. I was definitely dragging in the beginning, still a bit weak, and unmotivated at the beginning.
6) I got to hang out with a ton of my old NM racing buddies. We were all camped together. That was the best part of being at the race for me! Love you guys 🙂
King Kong Casey!
Pre-ride with my peeps.
Riding with Shannon Gibson
I heart Nina. 🙂
That was it. I only got one day lap! It was good night riding practice. Thanks again to everyone! I love the camaraderie of 24 hour races.
5 person co-ed category
Congrats on the great finish. I also enjoy your website. Your playlist rocks! -Albuquerque Fan.
Good seeing you there. Solo huh? LOL I have heard that is fun at OP!!
haha, I might be lying Lynda. 🙂 I do want to try one solo 24 hour race (I’ll probably hate it) but how can I call myself an endurance racer if I’ve never suffered through the solo!
Sonya,
You just have to do one 24 hour race to experience the moment (I mean – 24 hours). I remember many 24 hour events with Jeff, He use to come in and throw up food, blood, and whatever else was in his system. He would cough up dust balls. His helmet felt tight – head was swelling. He complained he couldn’t do another #@%^&* lap. Would mumble to himself often. Many times it was, “why am I doing this to myself?” “I got to be crazy!” Yes, those were the fun days. Especially when you had a great race. I kinda miss those 24 hours races. Especially staying up all night and then trying to drive back home the next day.
Yes, you need to do a 24 hour race! Sounds fun!
hahahaha! I love that story!
Dang after that story I’m in!!!
Thanks for sharing the write-up. Looks like you did really well given all the suffering you described–but you pushed through the agony. If you find the perfect energy intake formula you will smoke the course next go.
Good luck on the new season.
PS: I’m so sick of the snow here in Boulder, I’m about to jet to ABQ for some dry trail and hot chile. I miss them both.
SL, lmao @ “looking for food on the side of the trail… ” as have had some issues at digesting/starving out on trail/roads and race pace. DO a 2-4 solo, but not w/o fully readying yourself complete as you can to stay up, well.. alert & pacing. It aint chit if it aint moto.. red-hot chili peppers! Checkout trails at Dona Ana’s near Las Cruces and if ya do, go Habaneros in town/LC on S. Solano.
Mavic and Hutchinson invented tubeless. Stan perfected it and improved it with his most excellent booger producing sealant. I don’t see many people using mavic or hutchinson anymore. Anyone with half a brain uses Stan’s!!!