2010 Wilderness 101

Let me just say that I'm pretty sure there was no way I had enough miles under my legs to finish a 101 mile mountain bike race with any kind of credible strength. I've been saying it for a month. Anyone that I told about the race, I also told that I was expecting at least a 10 hour finishing time.

So we flew down to Coburn, PA in the T-jet, err, drove in Taylor's Saab. We set up camp with the crew of Jake's friends from the Pittsburgh area, and after an adventure to find water we rolled out for a little spin on the bikes to check out the final few miles of the course. I'm glad we did, it rendered handy information during the race.

Upon returning from the ride we stopped by the campsite of some other people Jake knew from CT. After some arm twisting they convinced us to come back and help them finish off the food they'd made, chicken, pasta, and salad. I downed a bit of their food and had a healthy plateful of pasta and sauce that Jake's wife had sent along with us. I have to say, events that combine camping and mountain biking draw the most awesome people.

The Race:
We rolled out of the park and out of Coburn at about 7am and the riders immediately began to string out. We took advantage of space on the road and moved ourselves up, getting quite a bit closer to the front of the race, though not completely at the front. I saw Jake make the left hand turn at the bridge and figured it would the last I'd see him until the finish. Shortly there after, Lee, Chris, Taylor and I began ascending the first climb of the day. We held a comfortable pace over the top and proceeded into a dust cloud of a descent. I think I hit the max speed of the day bombing down that dirt road, my computer told me 38.5 mph. It was like one of those old racing games for Atari or early Nintendo, dodging from side to side of the road to work my way through groups of riders. Did I mention the dust fog?

The course was relatively unexciting for a little while, on the moderately rolling stuff we drafted with other groups of people, though I'm pretty sure our small posse ended up at the front doing most of the pulling in these groups. At one point, this one rider who I initially thought was a girl, but upon seeing them finish, may have actually been a guy, was messing with the feng shui of the group effort. I was a little annoyed with this rider and jumped to the front of the train and dropped some hammers in hopes of dropping them from the group. This wasn't level eight Bowser hammer throwing but enough that I thought shortly there after it may not have been such a good idea. I think we dropped the rider though, there were no more episodes of blasting up the middle of the group on a slight incline only to slow down and get in the way.

Anyhow, I digress. On the climbs we held a quick, but comfortable pace, and on flat to rolling stuff we did the drafting thing. Really groovy stuff, we were passing the miles pretty quickly. Aid station 1 came and went, we barely slowed for it, opting to start right into the climb leading out of the aid station. Then came the first major trail descent. It was an old jeep type road, wide, but the grass was so tall everywhere there was really only one line down the hill; where the trail was beat into the ground. I was ripping down this descent when I flew by Jake standing on the side of the trail, "Jake, WTF!?" I'm not really sure what he yelled back, I was too far gone and there was too much trail noise.

We popped out onto another dirt road climb. I pulled up to a singlespeeder and held pace as I checked back for my compatriots. They weren't too far back so I held my pace with this SS guy and had a little chat with him. Turns out he'd almost given up mountain biking after breaking too many derailleurs, but managed to stick with it after being introduced to the world of single speeds. Crazy. I was happy to make full use of my range of gears. Into another trail and a slow descent to the three bridges before yet another climb. At this point I didn't see the other three guys, but figured they weren't far behind. Following another ripping jeep road descent I latched onto two other guys until aid station 2.

In a short bit, Lee and Chris rolled in, then Taylor shortly after them. I just continued shoving food in my face while the took care of their needs. Once everyone was set we rolled out, 40-ish miles complete, and into possibly the longest climb of the day. We came upon a group of 3 or 4 guys on a small knoll before the real climb and I pulled in front of them as I stood up to stretch the legs, Lee, Chris, and Taylor just staying behind these guys. We got into the climb and I settled into a happy pace, swallowing up a rider from Sid's-NYC. Initially I just followed his wheel, but then he clearly pulled off to let me lead the effort. I obliged and continued on. Then I decided to check for my guys. I figured they were right behind me, but it turns out that the riders I heard behind were not them. I'd opened a gap by accident. After some thinking I decided to keep going with my pace, it was comfortable and I was passing riders, though Sid's-NYC kept hanging on my wheel. I sort pulled to the side once or twice to see if he'd pull through and lead the effort for a little while. No dice. Whatever man, I'm a climbing machine, at least for now. I figured I was going to blow up somewhere between aid station 3 and 4. So I didn't think too much of pulling away from my friends, they'd probably catch up after my implosion.

We finally crested the top of Greenlee Road, and I was thankful, or so I thought I was. It had been nearly 4 miles of constant climbing. I plunged into Croyle Run Trail. It was rougher than a corn cob. When I finally got to the bottom, I felt like I'd been thrown into a dryer for some tumbling action. Rarely is one so happy to be climbing again; at least climbing was smooth. More kidney beating followed down telephone trail. Peeling my fingers off the grips hurt like a son of a...

Into aid station 3. I still felt good, despite being roughed up. Coming Out of three was an immediate turn up Lower Sassafrass Trail, the long single track climb of the day. A little bit of a challenge, but really not that bad, at least when things are going well. Coming down the other side of the hill on Upper Sassafrass was steep, my butt was way behind the rear wheel. The rough and tumble was replaced with a dry, dusty, sandy trail which the rear wheel just skidded through with minimal slowing effect. At one point the trail turned right rather hard, followed by a hard left with a large tree in the apex of the left. I got around the right only to deem that I was headed for the tree. I turned hard into the side of the hill so I could stop. Standing there, it was clear that plenty of other people had been in a similar situation and just cut to the left of the tree in order to make the corner. On to the bottom and an extended section of cross country style singletrack, good stuff. I came across a berm in the trail that screamed jump, so I hit it since I was still feeling good and energized with about 60 miles out of the way.

My one and only cramp scare came when I popped out of the trail and turned up yet another hill. My right leg got all sorts of funny in various places in the quad and hamstring. I kind of shook the leg, rubbed it, and changed the gear into an easier cadence along with downing about half of my bottle of Gatorade. Luckily it went away within a minute or two without any need to stop pedaling.

Somewhere around mile 68 I popped out onto something that resembled civilization and some kind of major road. I say major since it had nice 5 or 6 foot shoulders on it. A half mile up that road was aid station 4. More food, a change of gloves, some lube onto the chain, and a little stretch of the hammies. Roll out of aid station 4 and into, wait for it, another long climb! Nearly the last major climb of the day though, so it was all good. Despite what seemed like a decent sized crowd at the aid station things were pretty thin climbing the hill. My stomach had been a little funky since about the same time the cramp scare came. I was still drinking but maybe not taking in the food as much as I'd been. I was still doing good though. Things changed over to rolling to slightly downhill just before mile 80, and this is where things got lonely so to speak. It was the last sighting I'd have of another rider for quite some time. As I worked my way down through yet more of a beating towards aid station 5, I was really starting to get a little annoyed with how many rocks were plastered all over the trail. Then I saw Kristy and Hollis standing off the trail, their cheers provided a little pick-me-up. I figured the aid station was close. I took a few more minutes of jackhammer torture and popped out onto a road. I then realize that aid station 5 was a few more miles down the road. "How the hell did they get that far up the trail," was all I could wonder the rest of the way into the aid station.

I arrived at the aid station, the lone rider for the volunteers to help. Despite a slightly irritated stomach I tried to put some snacks down the hatch. It was at this moment that I experienced a culinary mutant. In my effort to shovel food in my face, even as I jumped back on the bike, I had a bite of Snickers followed by a few wheat Pringles chips. What a flavor combination, I don't necessarily recommend it for your next dessert party. Trying to wash it down with fruit punch Gatorade added to the oddity.

So I'm leaving the final aid station, and the volunteers tell me, "Only 12 miles left." I replied, "Just a drop in the hat at this point." The real torture now began. The trail turned into boooooooooooooooooooring. Straight, flat rail trail nonsense. Easy on the body, but not nearly as entertaining. A couple miles of that finally ended as the road turned up into the final climb. I was doing good until the road turned steeper and kept torturing me with false summits. I was finally starting to crack. On the upside, once I got over this hill there wasn't far to go, I just had to keep the pedals turning. I finally pulled over the real summit, gave thanks and praise, and started down the other side.

I immediately started cursing again. Even though it was a dirt road and not ridiculous trail nonsense, it was still rough enough to really hurt after the beating that had already been handed down. The bottom finally arrived and there was much rejoicing. Angels sang and minstrels danced and played instruments. The short walk of hike-a-bike was less than cool, but I was close to the finish and I'd seen the trail from here on out, so it didn't bother me all that much. A little more rail trail ended with a super narrow foot bridge of which my handlebars barely squeezed between the railings. Despite my feeble state, I managed to not stuff my handlebars into the railing and send myself tumbling over the side. Off the bridge and into an old railroad tunnel. This was the second tunnel, actually. The first was longer and therefore much darker in the middle. I'd nearly come to a stop just because I couldn't see what I was riding, luckily it was smooth through the first tunnel. The second one had huge chunks of rock scattered about. It's a little difficult to see them in the dark with a blinding light coming from the other end of the tunnel. Luckily I managed to avoid any catastrophic collisions and came out of the tunnel unscathed.

I checked my watch. I had 4 to 6 minutes to make about a mile and a half back to town and still be sub-9 hours. If had hammers to throw, I'd have been throwing like Bowser in level 8, but there were none and I kept telling myself, "Pedal, pedal, pedal."

I pulled across the line, official finishing time, 8 hours, 57 minutes, 44 seconds. Way ahead of where I really thought I'd be. Granted, I walked around about as fast as the living dead and sat down like a rag doll for a solid two hours before I started to feel right, but I was happy to have held off cracking until 40 or 50 miles after I thought it would happen.

So to all those of whom I informed of my doubt, apparently less was more in this case. I'm pretty damn surprised myself to be honest. What'll happen next year? Eight and a half hours? Maybe I'll just quit while I'm ahead. Though, the thought of hanging out with some really great people again certainly has its draw. Who else would feed you food, ride some absurd distance in the woods with you, then party following the race with keg stands and all. Okay, I didn't witness the keg stands, and I only had about a half glass of the beer from the local brewery, I was somewhere close to passing out in my chair with most of the other people at our campsite.

The Condensed Version

A lot has happened in the two months since my last post, I should really keep on top of this blogging thing, but I often find myself forgetting to get things written down. I'll try to bring it all up to speed with the condensed version of June and July.

Early June saw me out riding and starting to get stronger, only to take a significant hiatus with a trip to the Cancun region of Mexico with two of my friends. The trip was not the best for my training considering the swaths of all inclusive food and alcoholic beverages surrounding me. Regardless, it was rather nice to get out of the country for the second time this year, and it was quite relaxing. In true nature to my inability to sit still for very long, I essentially forced Mike and Derek into spending a day on an excursion. The highlight of the excursion, and likely of the trip, at least for me, was visiting the Mayan ruins at Coba and climbing the 40 meter tall pyramid. Pictures of the trip can be found here.

Back in the states I got back to riding, though not as ferociously as past summers have seen from me. I'm really trying to chill out and not have a mental burn out before the middle of cyclocross season. This closes June and brings in July.

Just as I was getting back on track, it was time for another trip. This time I headed for Newport News, VA to celebrate the marriage of my long time friend Todd and his now wife Kate. Congrats to the newly weds, two people certainly made for each other. It was a very enjoyable weekend with a great opportunity to see some people I had not seen in some time.

Back in Connecticut, I began to realize that I'd signed up for a ridiculously long race and it was sitting around 3 weeks away. My mileage was certainly not where it should be. I might note, that with the impending doom of the Wilderness 101 approaching this weekend, I'm pretty sure I still have not put in the hours required to survive this race without entering the initial stages of rhabdomyolysis.

With two weeks to go a few of us riding the 101 headed for an area just North of Poughkeepsie, NY for a 12 hour race. I had no intentions of racing for a full 12 hours, only to put in several hours of riding and call it a day when I felt I'd had enough. That's about what I did too; I rode for nearly 5 hours took a nice break, then put another lap in and called it a day.

So here I am, contemplating my life decisions and whether I'll actually be able to finish the 101. I should have a real good story after the coming weekend.

'Singlespeed-a-palooza' or 'maybe racing singlespeed isn't so bad'

Short story; Jake and I were to race at Singlespeed-a-palooza, Jake broke the end of his collarbone, Lee says, "I'll be 'Jake'." Lee rides Jake's bike at Singlespeed-a-palooza, Jake drinks beer and chats people up at the event venue.

Considering my torturous ride the week before, I planned on simply hanging out for a ride in the trails at Stuart State Forest just West of Newburgh, NY. It was cold, it was wet, and 25 miles of trails on top that was going to equal a long ride.

Amidst a light rain, the race started and yet again I was somewhere near the back of the field. It didn't take long to get up to speed and wind out my one gear on the dirt road. Soon we were in the trails though, and my gear was just right for these trails. I felt fluid and fast. A brief feeling of 'whooped' in the legs passed and I was passing people. The only problem was the watery dirt kept flying into my eyes and with my contacts, it was a painfully lethal impact on my ability to see. Every time I finally worked the dirt out of my eye, another piece flew in. At one point, I had just passed Lee in the first lap and a piece of dirt was so bad I had to stop and take my contact out. I lost 20 seconds on him that took 20 minutes to make up.

When I finally caught Lee ('Jake'), we spent some time riding together along with one other guy. Then we got into the second lap. The rain had stopped, but the mud had gotten thick, especially after 200 riders in the other classes behind us went through the trails. I learned very quickly that thick mud and the Surly singleator don't mix. My chain kept 'popping' every time I tried to put pressure on the pedals. I was stuck with one basic cadence of the pedals and that was it. Every time I tried to build momentum for a little up pitch in the trails, the pressure made my chain skip. My second lap was one of extreme frustration. Frustration that I had the physical ability to go a lot faster, but my mechanical devices would not cooperate.

In the dry, the singleator works wonders. My formerly geared hardtail mountain bike works well as an alternative riding style with one gear. The mud just does not agree with it though. Perhaps a true singlespeed bike is in my future because I would certainly like to race the trails of Singlespeed-a-palooza and Stuart State Forest again. They were so much fun that the race hardly seemed like a two and a half hour ride in the cold, wet mud with one gear.

Photos here.

Racing Single Speed is Dumb

After only two weeks of what I will loosely call training, I entered the first race of the season. I waffled about which bike I was going to ride, but finally settled on riding single speed. I figured getting a taste of racing single speed would help prepare me for the following week's Singlespeed-a-palooza race. The extremely important knowledge I could gain from this first attempt could show me how to rest at the appropriate times and push at others. (Insert hearty laugh, followed by a slight scoff [pfff])

The race took off, and I was somewhere near the back of the very, very large Cat 1 Singlespeed class. Then it was me and a few other fellas. We traded positions for the better part of the first lap our gearing was better in different places. By the end of the first lap my legs hurt. A lot.

Then the guy I'd been racing closely with got ahead as I eased a little to let a faster (geared) guy through on a narrow piece of trail only to realize four other guys were right behind him and taking advantage of the trail I'd left open. My singlespeed racing companion was now a bit ahead of me and I didn't have the legs to catch him. I settled in for a long ride in the woods with one gear.

As the race went on for three more laps my legs grew very, very tired. Too much gear on the uphills, too little on the flats. Guys just kept passing me. I even got lapped by the lead singlespeed racer. At the end I was cooked, my conclusion; racing singlespeed is dumb.

The following week's race was going to be dreadfully entertaining.

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.

Fin

That's all folks! We are all done. Jake even managed to slide out in a little crash in the final grassy turn. Not as much traction as he thought. Spectacular style points! He finished at 12:24, bringing us to 24 hours and 24 minutes. 6th overall, and not last in our class. Not too bad.

Almost there

Just had a nap with the best sleep i've had in 36 hours. Too bad it was so short. I've got one more to go then Jake will follow up with what will be our final lap. Holding steady in our placing, just have to keep it up. Thank you all for the comments and encouragement. I hope you've had as much fun as we've had. See you at the finish line in a little while.

Getting ready for his bacon lap...

2.5 hours left... We are onto the bacon laps a.k.a. last laps at warp speed!

Time to tick off laps

Well here we are just over 5 hours to go. And go they will, rather fast actually. We will be putting laps down one at a time for each of us. If we hold steady we should stay in 6th over all. It's the final count down.

Welcome to Sunday Morning!

Dark things

Noticed the front tire was flat on the way over to take over from Solin. Despite a quick change I still managed to miss him. Quick thinking on him to go out again. Went out after that and really put down a good lap in the dark. Then Jake went. Then I went and had a less than awesome first half of a lap. Crashed then hit a root way to hard and semi flatten the front. Trouble with my frame pump. But the original tube was still holding some air. Decided to ride it like that and worked pretty well. Time for some brief sleep, expect to be back out about 5 am.

Flat

I was rolling over to start my lap when Solin came in and noticed the bike was handling funny. I stopped about half way to the timing tent and realized my front tire was flat. Even though it was a quick change I missed Solin. Under quick thinking he just went out for another. We'll have to make some slight alterations to the strategy. Going out next, hopefully without further problems.

Woops

I threw down another good lap, even without a pace rider. Time trial as I'd seen the team behind us when the course crossed by itself, figured we were about four minutes ahead. I mentioned that Taylor should with only one light mounted, but he went without a back up so we lost about two minutes when he had to rush back to get his other light. If that is the only problem we have, I'll take it. Solin is heading over to await Taylor coming in. Still feeling pretty strong!

So far to go

That was a good second lap, I had a pace rider for the second half of the lap. He was riding the 12 hour race on a two man team. It was quite a pace to follow but nice to have. As I type we are still 5th in class and tenth overall.

A few laps in...

Solin just left to await Taylor's arrival from lap three. The laps are very fast. I went out and got past the cluster funnel uphill before the crowds then let up just a little to find my groove. I settled in for a quick lap, around 44 minutes. Jake went for a sub 40 and we're just waiting for Taylor to come in.

The start

It has begun! Scott had a great run & was fifth onto the bike.

Checked in and counting down

We have checked in as a team and we are #138. Real time lap results should be available at www.myrealtimescoring.com . In about two hours I will lead off the race with the le mans run and first lap. Jake will follow, then Taylor, and then Solin. Final preparations are in progress.

Sat Morning

Cooking, eating, & relaxing before the start of the race. Everyone made it up okay & slept well last night.

And to all a good night

We got a pre-ride in, only minor changes to the course. The single track is greasy and muddy in places, but the rest is dry and fast. The entire team is here now and the 'compound' is set up. We are just relaxing and thinking about bed soon. See you all in the morning.

Pre-ride

Just got back from food shopping & dinner at a pizza shop. Going for a ride. Hopefully the weather stays nice! It is already cold out...