Account of the 2009 24 hours of Great Glen

Team Dirt Nuts had its 4th incarnation this year. The roster was yet again, slightly different, but contained alumni of the team. Taylor and I were now in our 4th straight year of the event. For Solin, it would be the 3rd time at the event after a year off. Jake would join us for the 2nd year running.

We jumped from the sport division to expert this year. Speaking for myself, and maybe my teammates, I had really wanted to make it onto the podium in sport. We were so close last year, problems with our lights cost us at least the 10 minutes between us and 3rd place. I knew we could make the podium, however, Jake and I upgraded our regular cross country racing categories to expert and therefore, the entire team would be entered under expert. We would just have to shoot for a podium spot in the expert division, a far more difficult task for certain.

If you followed along in the live updates, you are aware of some of the story. I would like to fill in some of the details at this time.

I would start the race off with the Le Mans style running start. A 1/3 mile lap around the pond would spread riders out a little, making things a little safer upon starting out on the bikes. The course narrows after a short distance and within a mile is a short but very steep hill. I’ve watched this area the last three years, and was quite aware that a significant traffic jam was going to occur there, no question about it. The sprint finish for 4th place, still playing in my mind from last year has me thinking that every second counts. Even over 24 hours of racing. It’s hard to say what kind of time would be lost if I got stuck in rider traffic for the first few miles, I knew I needed to get past that hill near the front of the pack. I took off in the run, holding a steady but quick pace and managed to be 5th to the bikes. I kept my pace up until I made it up and over the steep narrow hill in the clear. I then settled into my pace.

The course this year, was 99% the same as last year. The biggest difference was the course condition. It was far dryer. There was still some significant mud in places, but it was possible to ride the entire course.

Our lap times reflected this, they were a bit faster than we expected. We started the race by rotating through our entire roster of riders, one lap at a time. With the fast laps, we found that there was very little down time back at our camp. Lee, who had ridden the last two years, was our head pit guy. His plan to live in 40 minute increments had been changed to 30 minute increments. By 5 pm, I’d felt as if we’d raced far more than 5 hours by the sheer number of laps we’d gone through compared to previous years.

At this point we were holding steady in 5th place, expert class. Team UNH (University of New Hampshire) was holding steady at 3 to 5 minutes behind. Some of the lead teams had already pulled out of reach, as long as they maintained their speed without any major problems. I went out for my 3rd lap just before 6 pm, as I completed the first small loop on the other side of Rt. 16 and came back through the tunnel under the road I saw a UNH rider coming through in the other direction. Some quick math said I had approximately 4 minutes on him. I decided I’d need to put some distance on him if I could and tried to pick up my pace a little.

As we completed our third round of laps I was getting set for our night shift. The strategy would change here. Jake and I would alternate laps, such that we would each complete two, while Taylor and Solin caught some sleep. They, in turn would do the same. On my way to take over from Solin I noticed my bike handling funny, but contributed it to the bag of clothing swinging from my handlebar. It wasn’t until I was halfway to the timing tent that I realized my front tire was flat. I quickly went back to camp and changed the flat, but I was not quick enough. Solin had come in, shouted for me briefly, then made a quick decision to get back on course and not waste time. Lee and I started to rework the strategy. It would be best to give Solin a longer rest period after pulling the double lap. Jake or I could pull an extra lap during this alternating shift. Reality said that Jake was the best candidate; he was the strongest rider on the team and could handle the extra lap better than any of us.

Solin came in, and I took over. I needed to make up for time that we might have lost if Solin’s 2nd lap in a row had been much slower. Turns out that it wasn’t too bad of a time, but inevitably, the 2nd lap is always slower than the first. I had a great lap for my first dark lap, nearly as fast as I’d done the course in the daylight. Jake went out for a very fast lap, then I headed back out.

I struggled to find my rhythm this time out. I hit the steep hill, almost rode the bike over the side of the bank, and ended up falling backwards down the hill. I started to feel hungry only 3 miles in, not good. Despite putting down food constantly and eating a banana after my last lap, I was apparently running on empty and I could feel it. I took the Cliff bar out of my pocket and shoved it down the hatch. It didn’t take long to feel better, and then I started to find some rhythm. Right as I found some strength and rhythm I took a bad line while overtaking a slower rider and pounded my front wheel off of a root. “Oh no,” I thought, “my tire is surely going to go flat!” Sure enough, just a few meters later I noticed the ill handling of my bike. I pulled over to fix it.

Surprise! My frame pump was not working. I’ve had a few of these model pumps fail between uses, likely due to mud and water getting in the seals. Through some miraculous event, I’d decided to get my spare tube partially inflated before unseating the tire from the rim. When I couldn’t get the spare inflated, my first reaction was that of Ralphie in A Christmas Story when the wheel nuts go flying everywhere when he and his father are changing a flat, “OHHH FUUUUUUDGE!” Except, just as with he, fudge wasn’t exactly the real word. I felt the front tire; some way, somehow, it still had some amount of air in it, enough to suffice for riding, at least for a while. I figured, if I bang the rim off a few rocks too hard, I’ll just buy a new one, I’m riding it. It actually held up quite well, the handling was only a problem on the dirt roads on some high speed turns, where I could feel the tire trying to peel off the rim.

I came in to hand the baton to Jake, and explained very briefly what had happened to me and told him to put down some good laps while running with him to his bike. He was now going to go out for two laps to make up for the two laps Solin had done.

I took a shower and went back to lay down for some brief sleep. At first my stomach was wrenching in knots, but that faded away. The other issue was the two cans of Red Bull at early points in the afternoon and evening, and they’d seemed to help earlier while riding. Now they might be causing me trouble. I don’t normally drink much in the way of caffeinated beverages, so these were possibly affecting me a bit. My mind was racing. Despite feeling tired and ready for sleep, I couldn’t get my mind to settle down. I closed my eyes, but never really fell asleep. At 4:15 am it was time to start getting myself ready and prepared to ride again as well as eat some food. If the laps that Taylor and Solin were doing were as fast as they’d gone during the day, I would need to ride shortly after 5 am.

At 5:26 am I started my 6th lap. My legs were tired, but I was still turning over a pretty good gear on the bike. We were now back to rotating straight through the line-up. When I came back in, Lee informed me of the reworked strategy he had come up with to get us to the finish with as many laps as could fit in. Oh the beauty of technology and real time updates on lap times. This strategy had me going out sooner than I’d expected, but I’d have a normal break after then next lap. As much as I wanted to wake myself up with some Red Bull I decided to hold off in hopes that I might actually get some sleep after the next lap. That next lap I felt tired, it was my slowest lap without any problems. I finished then went back to camp to fall asleep for a little while.

That nap was great, I felt much better. I coupled that with a double dose of Red Bull, and I was ready to go. Just before 11am I headed out for my final lap. It was clear that Jake would take the final lap. As much as we’d hoped to get Taylor out before noon, it simply wasn’t possible. That final lap, I passed several people. A lot of people were out riding again, the course being sparsely populated at night. Unless we encountered a terrible failure of sorts were set to finish 5th in class (of 6) and 6th overall.

The two major goals I had going into the event would be met. I didn’t want to finish last in expert, and I wanted to be in the top 10 overall (we’d been 14th and 11th the previous two years). The goal of making it onto the podium in sport class would have been reached if we’d registered as a sport class team; we beat every team in the sport class. We could have finished first and paid for our entry with the prize money. That is something to feel good about too I guess.

The only remaining question is, next year?


Pictures and Video soon.