Really, kinda off the couch. After the Speedgoat 50k trail race in Alta, UT, I had a couple tradeshows and 11 days in Vegas and only rode a handful of times before the Barnburner 104 I did on the Marin Cortina SSCX bike. After that I rode a couple "no drop" rides with the Bicycle Vibe riders, a handful of 2 hr trainer sessions watching Europtrip and other funny-ass movies. Two weeks ago I rode about 4 hours of BCT (blackcanyontrail.com) with Mike Melley (24hrs of Old Pueblo SS Solo winner). This was the first time in several months that I rode the Marin Team Ti as a singlespeed. You see that's the beauty of the Team Ti, you can put gears on it if you want to spin a couple sessions of singletrack. Then I pre rode the course doing about four laps some of which I walked sections I thought may be challenging and slow me down at night. I wanted to aver age 1:06 per lap.
I solicited David Claffy from Trailhead Bike Cafe to be my pit man. David is 17 but has a good head on his shoulders and a good wrench.
It had rained the day before the race making the Competitive Loops at McDowell Mtn Park tacky and the temps for the race were about 60 degrees during the day down to about 40 degrees at night. With Tinker leading the charge for the geared solo field, I traded spots with 3rd and 4th through the evening.
The only real failure I had was staying down too long. I jumped in the back of the VW wagon about 9pm for no other reason besides I just wanted to stop. I had a strong stomach (thanks Infinit Nutrition), good legs (thanks Xtreme Endurance) and good energy. I just wanted to stop. I had planned on staying down for the amount of time to average out my laps to 1:06. I had David calculate on the white board my average laps and how much time I had to spare. I had been turning sub 1hr laps since 10am so I had banked some serious time. Again, David is a great pit man but the only thing he lacks is knowing how to kick a grown man's ass into gear when the time is right. He opened the car door every 20 min or so and gave me reports but I sent him away each time until finally I asked that he come back at 4am, I was out. Since I had no real problems with riding other than lack of motivation, he should have told me to get my ass out there!
I got up on my own at 2:30 and changed into some warm clothes and wrote David a note on the whiteboard, "out at 3:04am". I was just heading on course when I saw Tinker getting a pit and I said "come on, let's do this." I could see by the light behind me that he had started out with me. The light faded then back on me then back for a while. About halfway though, I let him pass and he asked if I was sure and then politely said "thanks".
If you have ever done a 24hr race, solo or other wise, you KNOW that the Glory Lap is the best. When you are riding and sometime during your lap, the sun rises. It is truly amazing how energizing this can be. It warms you up mentally and physically. When I came in during this lighted lap, David had finally gotten up and back to the camp. We spent some time going over the results and where I was standing. I was in 4th but pretty sure the guys I was chasing were out on laps. It's funny how in a 24hr race you can lose it by not paying attention to the racers around you. I went out and rode a couple more laps finishing up at 9:30am before the 10am cut off.
When the final results were posted, I had slipped back to 6th! WTF! As David and I were checking them out, the guy that passed me for 5th by only 2 min 38sec was over my shoulder and told me how he did it. He said I passed him and his buddy on the last lap and since he was on the lookout for me, #18, his buddy told him "that's your guy to beat". They casually passed me and finished just ahead of me.
The take h0me is...race through the night and race each lap like you mean it.
