Fall in the Southern California is the perfect time to do some 24 hour racin'. Hurkey Creek campground in Idyllwild is the venue for the final stop in this traveling series of endurance marathon racing. This event was one that I had been planning on doing for the majority of the summer. I had tailored my training program mid-way through the summer to help prepare. I was fairly confident that it would go well, and it did, but it was much more difficult than I had anticipated.

 

Kevin, Michelle, and myself went up for the event. Kevin raced the 8 hour solo, while I dove in for the 24 hr solo, which really doesnt make sense because its actually 25 hours. But, the race promoter is Canadian, so...... Just kidding Canada - we love you.

 

Kevin had a great race and took 15th in a field of 38. A great performance, especially for his first solo race like this. He rode strong and consistent lap times. It was nice having a teammate to ride with in the early laps to pace off of. After his race, he joined Michelle to help my race support.

 

I couldnt have had a better 1st 24 solo race. Everything worked perfectly. I had no mechanicals, and the bikes were perfect. So much so that my last 3 laps were 100% fun, and I was still looking for little drops and jumps after 20 hours of riding.

 

Everything I've heard about 24 hour racing is true. This does break you down, and you fight some pretty intense demons to keep going in those early hours. But I never really had the "Why am I doing this?" question. I was completely stoked that I was riding a mountain bike at 3:30 am. I'd catch another rider, ask them where they're from, we'd tell each other what lap we were on (usually adding 1 or 2 to psyche each other out) and then we'd separate and be left to ride our own pace.

 

Sunset was awesome. Sunrise was even better. Everyone told me that when the sun comes up, I would have the rush of energy and its true. My last 3 laps in the morning were my fastest of the race. Maybe I went out too slow. Who knows, but I completed it and learned a lot for the next one. Thats right, I'm hooked on 24 hr racing.

 

I made some mistakes. Like leaving for a lap when I should have gotten on the lights. Luckily I had a Knog mini light and was able to get back into the pits and do a bike change that had my lights all set up. I found that some real food is a good thing. Around 6 pm I had some orange slices that were a total flavor explosion. I need to run on some real foods, and not complete synthetic food-stuffs. However, the Heed I was drinking and the Endurolites I was using kept me 100% leg cramp free. Finally, even though we are in Southern California, it gets damned cold up in the mountains. All the weather reports forecasted mild temps overnight... not the 28 degrees that we had. I had a good assortment of cool weather gear, but nothing for COLD. Live and learn.

 

In the end, I finished 10th. After my final lap, it seemed that I had 9th locked up, but we didn't realize that 10th place was out on the course banking another lap. Had I realized this, I would have pushed for 1 more lap, and could have secured 8th place at least. So.... live and learn.

 

More importantly, I'm even more excited to do more 24 hour solo races, and there are some really good ones close by next year.