The 24 Hours of Big Bear

You've probably read WAY too much about logistical stuff. I'll talk about other things. ;)

Both Chris and I had to work on Friday. I really wasn't looking forward to getting home from work, packing up, then driving 3.5 hours to West Virginia, setting up camp in the dark and getting to bed by midnight the night before a 24-hour race. So I didn't. :D

I checked with the team and they were cool about Chris and I getting up early on Saturday and heading up. Chris was a trooper to drag himself out of bed at 0-dark-30 to be on the road. Chicken bisquits at GFC (God-Fearin' Chicken -- our nick name for Chick-fil-A) made the drive up a little better. The only bummer was that we didn't get to hang out with the team, or the other Bike Doctor Kent Island team that we shared a camping area with. We got to hang out a little as the race went on, but I swear, I only saw David for a few moments when I handed off the batton to him each lap.

I was going to write up my whole summary of the weekend, but that would be a bit redundant. Lets skip to the highlights.

Wayne, David and Jason picked out and set up the PERFECT Camp site. You guys ruled! Sorry that We didn't get to hang with you Friday night. I missed that, but needed the extra time at home.

My friend JoeP hit the nail on the head when he said that the best thing about this race was the vibe. People ask my why I'm starting back racing after 13 years off. It is because the people involved in these races are just fantastic. If you ever want to see the best side of someone, go to a 24 hour mountain bike race with them. I was camping with 2 folks that had never raced before. They both commented that the event was great because EVERYONE was really cool.

My laps were great. Lap 1 was fast. I knew the course was rolling and fast for the first 6 miles, then pretty grueling and challenging the last 7 miles. I decided to go fast on the first half, then tough it out on the last half. This was the first lap. I knew it would be my fastest. I wanted to do it right. In the middle of the long double-track climb, I stopped to help a guy who'd broken his chain. He didn't have a power link and was trying to use a chain tool that he'd never worked before. I got the chain set up right for him, then gave him a power link so that he could put it back together agian. I lost a little time, but I managed to stay ahead of the folks that I'd passed earlier in the lap. I honestly don't think it slowed me down because when I started up again, I had renewed energy and I went fast for the next few miles to make up the time I'd lost. The big climb was brutal. I figured early that this would be my kryptonite for the weekend. I rode up to the steep part, hiked a little, then hopped back on. I walked the last half of the big rock garden. It was too slick to ride. I stopped for a second a little after that to move a turtle off the trail. He was trucking along heading for disaster. I moved him further along in the direction he was going and well off the trail. All in all, it was an easy, fast lap. My cycle computer had my time at 1:33. I think the race timing had me a little slower than that... 1:36. I was pretty dogged when I pulled into the tent to hand off to David. I spazzed the hand off. David got me to relax and do what I needed to do. I cleaned up, ate 2 boca burgers, 3 pbj's and 2 bottles of recovery drink. I took a nap.

Laura showed up around 8:30pm. She drove up because she remembered how miserable we all looked at the last race. She remember how great it was to have her moral support there. She is absolutely amazing. It was so great to have her there. She took a nap with me before I went out for my second lap. I got up, changed into cycling clothes and got my lights set for my lap. Laura had a paper due this week that she was working on. I told her that we were doing just fine, and that she should head home to work on her paper. She took off around 11, just before I headed out for lap 2.

Lap 2 was tough. The night laps always are. The course got a lot muddier. The rocks and roots were as slick as snot. It was humid enough that glasses fogged easily. The temperature dropped quite a bit. The winter jersey and leg warmers were just the thing to keep me warm. I backed off a bit to ride safely. The steep downhill was tough, but a lot of fun. I had one easy fall on the back side of the course. There was a rock that I didn't see and I ended up just walking over the handlebars. I was moving too fast for my feet to catch up, so I just tucked and rolled. I got my elbow dirty. That was the only damage. I walked more of the big climb. Everything else went well, though a bit slower. I stopped and helped a guy who'd fallen. He was trying to get back on the bike before he had his whits about him. I made him walk around for a few minutes to let his nerves calm down. He mellowed and said he'd stand there for a few more minutes before riding agian. He encouraged me to go on since some folks were coming up the hill that I'd passed 10 minutes earlier. I saw him at the end of the lap and he was fine. My time was 1:49 by my computer.

It was 2:30am now. I was too hopped up to sleep at that point. I cleaned up, put on dry, warm clothes, grabbed my camera and headed for the bridge. I snapped photos for 30 minutes and talked with my friend DT. He was just heading out for another lap. It was nice to hang out and be mellow. I ate 2 more boca burgers and 4 pbjs. I washed them down with two more bottles of recovery drink and at least a liter of water. They were giving away bananas and oranges to racers. I had 2 oranges and 4 bananas. I went back to camp and slept out in the open on Chris' air mattress. I don't sleep well in tents. I like being out in the open. It was a lot colder, but my sleeping back was fine.

Chris woke me up at 7:30am to get ready for my third lap. I ate breakfast, drank a bit and changed into riding clothes. I got up there early to get the hand-off from Jason. Wayne was just getting in for the other Bike Doctor team. Vince, the guy who was supposed to go out after him, wasn't in the starting area. I sent Chris to find him. He ended up being 17 minutes late. OOPS. That is VERY easy to do on these things. Wayne did a great lap. I met him there just as he came in. Here's what a freaking trooper he is. His first thought when he found out that Vince wasn't there, was "Should I go out for another lap?" What a great guy! I told him to hang loose and that Vince would be there soon. He made it in about 6 minutes before Jason did.

I took off on my third lap and chased like hell to catch Vince. He's a fast rider and I worked my tail off to catch him. I took a little time out of the gap between us, but didn't get close to catching him. My fun on the third lap was chasing this guy in a Specialized jersey. I first saw him at the end of mile 1. He was off in the distance. I told myself I wanted to catchup. There were some parts of the course where I was faster. I'd get within 20 meters of him before we'd get to a section that he rode faster. He'd pull away and go out of site. I'd battle back and get close, then he'd go off into the distance again. I finally managed to catch him just before the base of the steep climb. I rode in front of him for 1/2 mile before he managed to pass me again. I stayed close till the last mile, then I lost him. I also had a great ride with a guy named Steve. He was doing much the same thing with me. He'd catch me and pass me, then I'd pass him back. I ended up finishing ahead of him.

The funniest part of my race laps happened before the big climb on my third lap. I'd been riding as hard as I could. I really wanted to get back in time for David to do a good lap and send us out for one more lap at the end of the race. There was a woman who was FLYING along. She passed me and I went with her for a while. We went back and forth like that for a while. We talked a little, but generally were pushing each other to go faster and finish off strong. I know this is kind-of disgusting, but I really had to pass gas in the worst sort of way. It is incredibly rude to do so when someone is following you closely on the bike. It isn't much nicer to do so within earshot, which I would have most definitely been if I was right behind her. Luckily for me, unluckily for her, she slipped on a root and tipped over. I made sure she was okay. She encouraged me to go on, she said she was going to take her time getting back on her bike. She was fine, I took off. I finally got 20 or 30 yards away from her and let loose my fart. It felt good. I then heard her call from way back "I heard that!!!!" and she laughed. I somehow managed to yell back a "Sorry" while I laughed and rode off on the course.

In the end, my third lap wasn't fast enough. My computer had me in in 1:39 and I needed much better than that to get us out for one more lap. David did a KILLER last lap. This was his 4th lap when the rest of us had only done 3. He pulled off a killer lap and managed to pass one of the teams that we'd been battling with the whole race. We'd been as much as 30 minutes down on them. In the end, we beat them by 24 seconds.

We rode hard and had a ton of fun. The best thing was that we had a great team dynamic. We each have our strengths. We all are very different personalities. Somehow we all managed to mesh. Thanks a ton to my team mates and to the guys on the other Bike Doctor team. Thanks goes out to all of the folks I ride with from time to time who were there at the race. Y'all made it a fantastic race.


Thanks to all for a great weekend.

Pete