24hrs of Old Pueblo

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. A lot has been going on since, here’s my 24Hrs of Old Pueblo race report.

After getting everything packed, my friend Brian Lee and I headed down to Oracle to the race site to set up camp early. We left on Wednesday morning (Feb. 16, 2011); we got there around noon and looked for a good camp site. My parents and a couple of other friends where going to catch up on Friday so we had to stake out a good chunk of land.

Once we found a good site we went about setting up our camp. My truck tent was awesome. The weather wasn’t too bad, slightly chilly but very very windy. 24hr town was pretty empty and KONA was still setting things up for the race. We took advantage of the day and went out for a lap around the course. Legs felt good and bike was working beautifully. 

That night Brian and I made the great decision to polish off 3 bottles of red wine, not a good idea in hindsight.  Next morning I woke up to more wind although the sun was peeking out behind the clouds. The morning dew had settled on my tent and to my surprise leaked thru the tent….not good.

Peter, Brian’s friend, showed up late morning. Peter, Brian and I were all doing the race solo. By this time a steady stream of people started showing up and 24hr town started to take shape. Luckily we picked a good spot where not many campers could get to which meant less noisy generators. Another pre ride lap was in order. Managed to find a tarp to set up over my tent.

The Sunday Cycles team had shown up and I headed to their camp to hang out a bit. Tim was the resident cook there and he grilled up some delicious chicken with asparagus.

Friday morning came around and the weather had not improved. Paul, Chris and Jeff showed up and they joined our growing camp. They were in a 4 person team with big Pat. At this point 24hr town was in full swing; we headed down to downtown and checked in. I ran into JP, Bob Laroche, Travis, Mike, and a bunch of other good people. Night started to creep in and still my pit crew, which was made up by my parents and my good friend Adam hadn’t arrived yet. To pass the time we sat around the fire having a good time. It wasn’t till around 11pm that they arrived.

Saturday morning came around and the wind had picked up even more. I got a good breakfast in and got my bike set up and got my strategy all worked out. Chris (who was doing the first lap for his team) and I headed out to the Le Mans start.

Le Mans start is where racers set up their bikes on racks walk about 400yards and when the run goes off run, grab their bikes and head out on the course.

The first lap is always crazy congested and inevitably a couple of riders go down. This was no different, through the first twisty section one lady crashed head first into a cholla (ouch). Luckily I made it ok through the lap. Did I mention the wind was terrible…?

The second and third lap went well, legs felt good and the nutrition was good. For the fourth lap I grabbed my headlamp (it was around 5pm), leg warmers and my rain jacket. The fog had some in and the temperature had come down a bit. The fog turned into some light rain and I got soaked. Finishing up my fourth lap I decided it was better to keep going since I was warm. Bad idea the temperature took a major dive and the rain increased. 10min into my lap I knew this wasn’t a good idea; I tried figuring out how to get back to my camp with no avail.  I decided to HTFU and finish the lap. Rolled into camp and could not feel my toes or fingers…..borderline hypothermic. Time 9pm, after warming up I decided to sleep a bit. My dad said he’d wake up at 3:30am to head back out. Crawled into my warm sleeping bag and passed out.

3:30am I woke up and got ready to head out, some of my clothes had managed to dry from the night before. Adam had also gotten my bike ready; I threw on all my long sleeved base layers (4 of them). It was cold. Fortunately the rain had ceased and the course was in great condition, sticky and tacky. It was awesome and I was cranking at a good pace. The sun started to come up and my head light ran out of batteries just as it wasn’t necessary anymore (lucked out there). I got a good 4 laps in before the end of the race.

9 laps total, my goal was 10 but considering the conditions I was very satisfied and happy with the result. Each lap was 16.1 laps so I got just over 145 total laps in. I managed to place 27^th out of more than 90 solo men.

Thanks to my awesome coach (my mom), my awesome crew chief (my dad), my good friend and mechanic Adam. Thanks to my friends, Jeff, Paul, and Chris and everyone else that cheered me on out there. Next year I’m shooting for 12+ laps J

Till next time…..stay fast my friends

Till next time…..stay fast my friends