Intense (In Tents)

My experience at 24 hrs of Adrenaline ended well. It was the part in the middle that was hard to deal with. I raced on a 5 woman team, one of whom had raced in 2004, and the rest of us were completely new to mtb racing. The mix made for a great group dynamic, with just enough 'of course you can do it!' to off set the 'oh my god what am I doing?!?' with a little of 'if she can do it, I can do it' thrown in. The plan was to have each rider do three laps, and the rotation would give us about 6 hours between rides to eat, rest and recover. Pretty straight forward, right?

Our first rotation went really well. All of us rode our first lap in daylight and we all had reasonably similar lap times. Eating was a hard thing to balance and I felt a little unsettled while riding my first lap but really, I think it was just nerves. Nerves are something I didn't really give enough credit. I had pre-rode the 14.5 km loop on Wednesday, and the technical part on Monday as well, but stick me on a course with dozens of other riders and time me, and I seem to loose perspective. I rested as much as I could before my night lap (scheduled midnight to 1:30 am). Unfortunately I am not an experienced night rider, and I think I just pushed myself too hard. At around 6km I had a bit of a bike accident and lost my meager dinner onto the trail from a hit to the stomach. Not so nice. I sat out at the checkpoint for a short while, but the unhappy prospect of getting back on and riding seemed to greatly outweigh any benefit I would feel at finishing my lap; or so it seemed at the time. So, I quit. Yes, I quit. I got a ride back to the campsite in a pickup truck and we were down a lap.

Back at the tent ranch the few women who were awake made the instant decision that we were just going to keep up with the rotation and not try to send out someone for a 4th lap to gain our place back. I think trying to decide at 1:30 am if you want to ride even harder is a pretty quick process; riding vs. sleep, sleep wins. To keep perspective, I have to remember that the fast racers who are doing 6 or more laps each are much fitter and faster and therefore are probably not necessarily putting out much more effort than us novices. After I was able to keep a bit of easy food in my stomach (5 corn ships) I climbed in my tent and defiantly (selfishly) did not set my alarm for my last lap.

I woke up when I was ready and the woman riding right before me was just getting ready to leave, so I had about an hour and a half to get ready to ride. I was grumpy! But, I knew I at least had to try. Because of my night ride mishap, my team had taken a break just before dawn so that no one would have to do more than one night lap. With this offset, I did not start my morning lap until 9:30. The trick with 24 hr races is that if your rider gets back before 11 am, you have to send one last person out. In light of this, I was tasked with taking at least 1 hr and 30 minutes for my lap as everyone was either overtired or injured and I was the last one of us is any reasonable condition to ride. (yeah, no dinner, no breakfast, twitchy stomach = best shape to ride) I had to stay out longer than 11 am.

Racing with a 'must stay out as long as I can' attitude is really great! I was chatting with the solo racers, not stressing out about the rooty bits, stopping to catch my breath, and having a great old time! With noting in my stomach but a banana, I had 1/2 a clif shot at the top of the first long hill and I think the sugar and caffeine were critical in keeping my mood so great. I finished my lap in 1 hr and 36 minutes, just 5 minutes slower than my first lap and way happier. All 5 of us ended the race happy and accompished.

Jeff was racing too and came in third. He prides himself on having no stories; no technical issues, no injuries, no illness, just great consistent lap times. He was between 50 min and 63 min for all 6 of his laps.

Overall I learned that racing is strange and I'm not a big fan, but it makes you feel awesome when you finish. Even if you come in last! I'm sure I will be convinced to race again sometime, but at the moment I am not registering for anything. Fresh air and friends are what I want when I ride. This weekend I had the fresh air and the great friends and apparently my 6 month rotation on bike injury. Good times.