Well, 24 Hours of 9 Mile is history and it was an awesome time for all involved. Team Psycowpath Nebraska, was Ryan and Roxy of Bike Masters, Hot Pepper Harlan (Larry Kintner) - Omaha Cycling Community, and John Homey Holmes. More important were the team's support crew, Mrs. Homey and their two sons, Mikah and Jessy. Two words for Donna - ROCK STAR!
We entered the co-ed open division so to defend and hopefully move up from third place last year. If you aren't familiar, last year the race was canceled after only 19 hours due to white-out rain conditions and tornados. This year we were greeted with pristine dirt and mild temps. With a cloudless sky and a moon you could read by, a positive vibe had been set for the whole weekend. The good weather put people in great moods and the excitement was contagious.
The Holme's got up there two days before the race and hooked us up with primo camping, complete with enough room to park my now dead Trooper and the trailer that hauled all the gear and bikes. After setting up camp, we did some gravel road rides to get the heart rate up and then dumped into a few miles of single track to check our bikes' vitals. Dialed! Again, thanks to the camping quisine diva, we had pasta, TOASTED garlic bread and fruit for dinner. A great way to end the day.
This event is so tight, dudes. They have a coffee vendor serving lattes all day and night as well as a food vendor serving everything from pancakes to chicken sandwiches all day and night. A men's and women's shower house, porta potties, bike wash, drinking water source, first aid tent, industry vendors, wrenches, support stations on trail complete with professional tunes and flashing lights. Oh and twinkies. One could come here with nothing but their bike and tent and be able to compete, no problem. So breakfast consisted of coffee, three pancakes and sausage. Oh yeah, while eating, we watched the Tour on a large TV under the circus tent. Life was only about biking at that point. After the mandatory riders meeting, RF started shadow boxing in preparation for elbowing his way through the le mon start. The roll up of this race was cool. They announced the super men and women and sang the National Anthem. Then like a heard of buffalo, racers of all sorts and sizes ran rediculously down an open field and back up to their bikes while the crowd cheered like mad. Heaven.
The order of things was Ryan, Larry, Roxy and John. RF busted out a first lap just a bit over an hour. Larry answered it plus a few extra minutes (which is studly considering two weeks ago he was nursing pulled ligaments around his ribs from a crash.) My lap was longer by a few more minutes but John righted things by cruising in about the same time as Ryan. (To put that in context, the winner of the men's solo did his opening lap around 57 min.) After lap one, Larry discovered that we were the only team in our division. Seemed there was a rule change we didn't know about that made our category somewhat bogus and nobody else signed up. Well, crappers. So, we changed our strategy; race the open men teams and make it into the top 20 overall. After each of us completed a lap we were in 35th place. We had some work to do. (Side note: this event requires racers to wear a chip on their ankle and then as one passes under the finish banner, their time is instantly recorded.) Here's the sweet part. There are lap tops right at the start/finish tent so we could track our progress in real time. Tight!
The 14.4 mile race course at 9Mile is really fun. It's a cross-country skiing area, so there's little elevation. It's not Manawa flat. It's more like Swanson with some challenging rock sections in spots and twisty turny stuff w/ double-wide, rolling service roads in between, that either propelled you forward or wheel sucked the life out of you. Needless to say, we were always engaged while on the single. Roots, rocks, twists and turns and always pedaling. Dreamy!
All went well in the opening laps. After my 2nd lap, I came back to a very flushed and tired Ryan. He was not recovering very well and we were concerned he was dehydrated more so than usual due to his work travels. He decided to chill and not go out so hard next time. That seemed to be the ticket. Sometimes, you just gotta adjust things knowing you have many more hours ahead of riding.
As dusk approached Mrs. Homey took care of things. She made chicken and rice for all of us and I can't tell you how yummy it was to chow it down. I couldn't eat it while it was hot as I was getting ready to head out but even cold, it was so good. Power fuel. Now John's got an iron gut. His power fuel was sardines and some other fishy thing. GROSS! But he was rockin it, so I should probably take some notes. My routine was Accelerade, a bagel and p-butter, followed by some chips or crackers, followed then by a coke and ibuprofen. During the race I used Hydralight. Seemed to work for me.
My first night lap was was my slowest as I made some adjustments to my suspension that turned out to be the wrong ones. I got kicked around like a pin ball in the rock gardens. Lucky for me I stayed upright. I got stuck behind some peeps in the trees at the start. For the most part people are super cool about getting over, many times calling out what side they are going to before I got to them. We had a huge full moon so coming out of the trees with moonlight to show the way was spectacular. It really added to the experience. There was one time when I came out into a clearing hot and hit a patch of gravel. I pulled a Troy Nelson and layed the bike flat but managed to stay clipped in and right the bike. I had no idea how but I pulled it off and the guy behind me gave me some props. I gave props to the Almighty!
Night lap two wasn't too bad. 3 a.m. is such an interesting time in these events. Solos are shot beyond comprehension. I came upon Mark Hendershot (Santa Cruz Syndicate) who placed 3rd in Pro Men solo. He had one leg out of his pedal on an open road climb. He's a rock star and I felt bad riding by. I gave him props and he did the same. I wished later I woulda at least pushed him up the hill. These laps are tough because your legs feel like lead weights for the first few miles and you think, "I'm so done. Let's just take a nap." As long as I didn't stand up I was fine and as the lap went on things loosened up. Thanks to some of my co-rider buddies back here, I was hooked up with lights that lit up the night. Made for pretty fun night riding. As did two of the support tents that were on trail. People were up all night yelling and cheering. One of them had a small mound to jump. I took it on just to give them something to cheer about and I about nose dived on the other side. Needless to say, I didn't do that again.
My last lap was at 9 am and I felt like it was my first. The sun did something to my chemistry. Or it could have been that I knew I was an hour from being done and layed it all out there. The very end was a riot. The single track is swoopy and tight and I was just ripping through it. I could hear a guy's bike chain banging in the distance, so I used it as a guide to keep me on pace. As I heard it get louder I pushed harder but I wouldn't let up. Finally when we popped out into an open section the guy took off but wished me luck before he disappeared. Later, at the finish he said, "Great job in the single." That was icing on the 24hour cake.
You know, this kind of torture riding is as much mental as it is physical. You gotta really love riding your bike to do this type of racing and even more you gotta be having fun. You take what comes and deal with it. Your attitude effects everyone. There was a moment in the middle of the night. I was waiting for Larry to come in so I just stopped and took it all in. Here were 50 or so riders, helmets on w/ lights strapped to them, legs bouncing up and down in anticipation. As each set of lights approached, everyone would sit up straight, and strain their heads to see if it was their man coming in, hoping it was their turn to head out into the darkness. It was awesome seeing weary folks stroll in with dirty grins on their faces and then high-fiving the next person as if to pass on their energy of being alive in the moment. That, my friends, is the answer to why we do this stuff.
Team Psycowpath ended up 16th overall. Only 15 other teams or solos did better, including Eatough who got 15th overall but won the solo pro open. We did 20 laps each or 72 miles for a total of 288 miles. The same as Eatough. Yes, one man did the same as four and overall probably was faster on average. Scary. (During the awards ceremony, I was able to get him as well as the #2 and #3 pro men, Nat Ross and Mark Hendershot, to sign my number plate. Nice. What other sport has the top athletes milling around amongst the weekend warriors as if they were just one of them? I can't think of one.)
24/Hour of Nine Mile 2007 was a great experience. Good times, great friends, great eats and best of all great riding. It was a test of our ability in every aspect of racing. We each had our own goals but as a team, our success was that much more sweet!
5 comments:
Thanks for sharing a great story with us, Roxz! And congrats to Team Psycowpath on a successful team effort!
There's an old saying that an army runs on its stomach and I think Mrs. Homey & co. greatly aided the cause.
Having never been to a 24hr race myself, what were some of the most challenging things for you to overcome?
Was your physical preparation or mental mindset different for this race compared to a Psycowpath race?
Awesome report Roxz. I almost feel like I was there to watch.
I'd love to do something like this someday. Keep me posted on the next one the local group decides to attend. Maybe it will make a good excuse for a family camping trip. ;-)
Sounds like you all had a super experience, and really great time. Great write-up too, thanks for letting us live vicariously through you!
Dale and all,
Thanks for the props. 24 hour races are super fun, especially when the weather cooperates.
As far as things to overcome mainly for me is to keep the stomach happy. I've never done a solo 24 hour but I have done the Fire Cracker 50 and the second time I did it I used Accelerade/water in my camel back. VERY, VERY BAD. My stomach would not process the liquid b/c of the protein, so it just sat there like an ulcer. I could barely drink anything b/c I was so waterlogged and I ended up bonking and quitting. So for me, I have to drink an electrolyte based solution like Hydralight or those new Camel Back tablets. The only draw back is they are low in calories, so most would have to suppliment with goos and protein drinks.
When doing a team 24 hour, you have a lot of down time between your laps, depending on the length of the lap. In this case I had a solid three hours, so I made sure I ate right away so that my stomach had the maximum time to digest. After the third lap I was making sure to ingest protein for recovery, some fat (from chips, cheese or crackers) as well as carbs from whole wheat bagels and Accelerade drink. The Coke gave me more sugar-laden calories and a little pick me up from the caffeine and sugar.
And also, fighting fatigue is another thing I have to overcome. I don't think it's a good idea to be dead asleep between laps. It's good to have your feet elevated, but staying awake is necessary so that you can get up and go easier. Also, fatigue on the bike, especially at night is really challenging, for obvious reasons. You just gotta take your time and focus so you don't choose bad lines.
As far as preparation differences: physically the training I've been doing for mountain bike racing in general gave me what I needed to have a successful race. Because the laps were so short, typical endurance fitness probably didn't play a huge roll. A consistant power output was probably more of a factor and if one trains for a 2 hours XC race, then 5 one-hour laps doesn't seem out of the realm of doable. The thing you have to remember is, each time you go out, you put out a max effort so each time your legs get worked. The result is tired legs b/c the lactic acid hasn't drained completely but in my case they only seemed to be tired when I tried to stand and sprint. For the most part, I could manage a steady pedal stroke in the seated position the whole time.
The mental game is much different. In an XC event, you generally know where your opponents are the whole time. In 24 hour, you have no idea unless you're checking the live feed results. But I'm sure most races don't have the technology like this event. So, you're kinda flying blind. Again, fatigue can really mess with your mind. You just have to keep telling yourself it's only temporary and to keep going. Lastly, the darkness. We don't ride much at night and so that lap you just busted out during the day becomes a whole new trail at night. So you just need to pay more attention to where you're going.
Lastly, a team 24 hour is all about the team. AT an XC race it's more about the individual. The team needs to work together to help each other out and to acheive the same goals.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Roxy. THat is very helpful. I was wondering about the time between races and wether sleeping would be a good idea. I know our XC coach in college always had us get up at least 3 hours before our races and go for a short run to get the legs woke up. He said that your body needed that long to get up to it's max processing ability after sleeping. It seemed to work for us.
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