The Flip Side: 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...