Friday, August 22, 2008

Doing the Solo thing....

Since our team is sitting in first place overall for the Michigan Endurance Series we decided to all race the Pando event solo. We figured this race was going to be done as a "fun" event...no pressure. Yeah right.

Well, I was excited because I was able to bring Arlene and the girls out for this one. Being that the race venue is only a couple hour drive from our house I felt it was the perfect race for them to come out and see daddy punish himself, lol.

As we rolled up to the Pando Ski area I was vaugely reminded of last years race. As I started to actually race I was then clearly reminded why I hated doing this race in the first place. For the most part it's a pretty unassuming course. 4.3 miles per lap and a lot of that is actually climbing. It basically equals that of the Boyne course elevation (which I also hate).

But we move on and do what we need to do to win/finish the race. At the end of the day I feel the whole team did a great job in each of the respected classes. I ended up taking a 3rd place with 14 laps. So I did roughly 55-60 miles in 6 hours. I know I could've done better but I always seem to get that dreaded cramping right around the 45-50 mile mark. This is something I need to address and work on somehow. Not sure how but I need to adjust something either in my fluid/food intake or riding style. hmmm.

I should have pictures up soon...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

24 hr Nationals!



Well we did it. The team went to Wausau, Wisconsin for the 24 hr. Nationals on August 2nd.
We raced in the national class and had a respectable finish in 5th place.

The event was very well run. Everything was layed out very well from the camp/Pit sites, the facilities (the showers were a blessing!), to the overall sign in process. Only a slight hiccup in the sign in's because we all had to renew our Norba licences, but not a huge deal.

The course was top notch. Roughly 14.2-14.5 miles per lap with about 1200 ft of climbing per lap. It had everything from fire roads, single track, to downhill sections. The only thing it didn't have was a stream crossing, lol.

This is an awesome race to say the least. It is seriously like a race and a festival all in one. There were spectators cheering people on from 10 am until 6:30 the next morning. I remember one of my last laps...it was 6:15 am in the morning. I had gone out at roughly 5am for one of my night laps and as I was climbing this one section of the course and there was a group of spectators sitting on the hill cheering me on while they were drinking a case of beer....yes 6:am in the morning! Drunk and still drinking and cheering people on. Ohh how I wished I was them at that moment. I was in some pain because at that point we had been racing for about 20 hrs now.

Some things I saw at the aid stations -- cases of beer, a tiki bar, a mobile DJ, a dancing man dressed as a beer bottle, a real live keg of beer, lots of Christmas lights, a jump (which I launched on every lap except my last lap, just wayy to tired at that point), a man with a battle axe, and lots and lots of screaming spectators (who cheered for anyone). There also was a self-serve Twinkie station perched on a card table complete with hard boiled eggs and Schlitz beer way out in the middle of the woods.
The weather was great...if you consider 90+ degrees during the day and damn near freezing temps at night, lol. You could seriously see your breath at night it got that cold.

Kuddos to Kevin who promotes an awesome race. Not to mention Laird Knight who managed the timing system. That was cool.

Despite the pain and suffering I endured as I rode lap after lap, I would go back and do this race again. I say that now but.... :-)

The start of the race was a Le mans style start. It consisted of a 1/4 foot race to you bikes. The start of the pain...


Finishing off a lap...

This was our pit/camping site....
This tent was what we referred to as "The Soul Cycles hotel"...LOL. It was huge. Enough to fit all our gear and 4 sleeping cots.


Getting the lights ready...

It wasn't an Olympic Gold medal but we worked our tails off for it!