2008 24 hours of Great Glen - part 1

It's rather difficult to understand without experiencing it first hand. It's a bit like a card game. Friends can explain the rules, but until a few practice hands are played all you can do is blink your eyes and shake your head in confusion. Only by living through a 24 hour race can one truly understand the event and its complexities. Some racing fans are familiar with Le Mans, Daytona, or Sebring, courses famous among endurance automobile races. The idea behind endurance mountain bike racing is very similar, the person or team that can cover the most distance in the given period of time wins. The distance, is measure in laps completed.

Perhaps two competitors are vying for position out on course, in the middle of a lap, when the clock turns signifying 24 hours are complete, who wins? Well, nobody, at least not right then. Instead, the race is now pressing into the 25^th hour as the winner is determined by the racer that makes it back to the finish line first. Essentially, a lap counts as long as it was started before the end of the 24^th hour. At the 24 Hours of Great Glen, there is actually a rule ensuring that no one can finish until 24 hours have passed, a rule that states a racer must be on course at 12:00pm Sunday, marking the end of the 24 hours that started at 12:00pm Saturday. For some competitors, especially some solos, this means slowing down or even stopping on course, sometimes just feet shy of the finish line in order to be 'on course' and not have to pedal yet another lap. For if they crossed the line at 11:59:59, they would have to continue around the course and come back to the finish line.

For our 4-man team, the rush was on Sunday morning to be able to get in as many laps as we could and hopefully start a final lap just before noon. This meant that the four laps we knew we could get started before noon would have to be at a 55 minute pace or better if we were going get 5 more laps completed. The 'day' had started about 25 hours prior though, around 7:30am on Saturday.

Awaking to a beautiful sky about 5:40am I made a quick trip to the local row of port-a-potties, then found myself crawling back to the comfort of my sleeping bag. A few hours later the team was moving about our site and it was time to get up. After a busy morning of checking in with registration, going to the pre-race briefing, and prepping our equipment, noon was upon us. The cannon fired and Taylor got to his bike after the Le Mans style start and headed out for the first lap. Jake and I had taken a look at the first few sections and watched Taylor complete the small initial loop. Jake went out for the next lap, leaving a smoking hot lap for me to follow up with. Lee then rounded out our first set of laps. We each went out for another set of single laps, bringing us to 8 laps completed around 6:30 pm. We were sitting in a close battle for 3^rd place in our category, while 1^st and 2^nd weren't far ahead. But we all knew, all too well, that there was a lot of time left and troubles seem to come at night.

For the third round of turns we would begin to run 2 laps at a time, allowing each team member to rest longer between turns. This would become important during the graveyard shift hours when we would be fighting to stay awake, let alone eat and prep for our next ride. The longer break would actually allow each of us a chance to lie down and rest. After Taylor and Jake each faded a little bit in their 2^nd lap of their first night rides, likely due to a very short rest period after their last single turn, I knew I needed to stay consistent and avoid breaking down myself.

This can be tough in the dark though, your world becomes a cone of solitude, fewer riders are on course and all you can see is what the headlamp lights up. My first lap of the turn went extremely well, mentally I was strong and the legs were good, tired, but good. As I came through to start my next lap I searched the timing tent for our pit helpers, Matt and Kristy.

There was no one to be found. I took another look around. Nothing. "Well, I've got everything I need, plenty of water and a Powerbar, no reason to wait around," I thought to myself. So I headed off for lap 2 of the turn, my 4^th total lap. This lap, the quantity of running through mud and slippery up hills that were forcing everyone off their bikes was taking its toll. It was also nearing midnight. On the last piece of trail I had to dismount the bike, I was doing more of a stumbling shuffle than the run I'd been doing earlier. But, I was holding the average pace I'd hoped to keep over the two laps. After slipping and sliding down a muddy slope on my butt to the entertainment of some kids sitting along the trail, I finished out the lap and handed the baton to Lee. It was time for a shower, some food, and some sleep. Kristy made some great oatmeal for me as I chatted with Taylor, who was preparing to go out after Lee got his 2 laps in. With topped off fuel tanks I crawled into my tent to energize my batteries if only for a few short hours.

I would awake to a bit of drama, which would only continue to grow as the race unfolded; the story of which will develop in the next installment.