In twenty-four hours, Jason Kingsbury and I, a.k.a Team 6th Gear, rode two hundred sixty-six miles. That's approximately the same distance Ryan and I rode from Durango to Moab a few years ago on our hut to hut trip. And that took a WEEK!
This is my third trip to America's dairy land for the national 24 Hours of Nine Mile and my first as a duo. Jason was on our 4-person team two years ago and the one who got us to go in the first place. (Thanks, JMK!)
The course at Nine Mile Forest in Wasau, WI. has been the same the past few years. Whomever designed it is a friend of having fun while on two wheels. In the winter it's a cross-country ski area so the terrain isn't too steep. Rocky and rooty single track connect service roads and double track, creating a 14 mile loop that is a blast from the first pedal stroke. All the big climbs are on the service roads and when I say big, it's really cuz a couple are kinda long but not steep. All the single track is windy, twisty, rolling or downhill. So after your triceps get ripped out of your arms, you can easily recover on the open roads. You couldn't ask for more.
We set up home base fifty yards from the start (and more importantly from the potties). Team 6th gear had a numero uno pit crew of Martin Bixby who brought his military outdoor leadership skillz along with his mad wrenching talents. Also on the crew was Jason's main squeeze and camping virgin, Kristin. Being an anethstesiologist, she'd been through some all-nighters in her day, so I felt confident until she screamed upon seeing a daddy long leg spider. But she got into her groove and was a champ! Each had their orders, thanks to Lt. Bixby. JMK and I were treated like Pro's!
JMK took the first lap. Along with 500 other racers, he had to do a quarter mile run to his bike. Talk about running with the bulls. With a cloud of dust they were off and I was back at camp getting ready. After I kitted up and put down some food I did about a 15 minute warm up on a gravel road. Uncertain when JMK would appear, I hung out at the start finish tent at least 15 minutes before we thought he'd be there. Once he was in view, Kristen yelled for me to get ready. We high-fived each other (rules are you have to touch) and I was off. This year, to record our laps in real time, each racer had a card that had to be scanned so as I ran to my bike, I held the card over a scanner. It was kind of a pain but it was what it was.
My first lap was my fastest. I tore off down the open straightaway. Sam from War Axe was wrenching for Enduro Snob and I heard him yell after me. My heart rate went from 85 to 185 in less than a minute. I was standing up the first small incline and hammering to the hole shot. The first single track section was like Platte's roller coaster section. Lots of ups and down, turns, roots, up and overs... Just an ear grinner. But I did get in a traffic jam. There were many on the trail so I had to be patient and pass when I could. Once out of that section it was wide open for a mile at least but the beginning of the course is the hilliest so I had to make sure I didn't blow myself up too soon. Thank goodness for pro pedal and fork lock out. I was sporting hard tail agility going up the hills and it paid off. It seemed each section of single track got progressively more technical. Rocks got bigger, roots got taller and tree stumps popped out of now where. It was like riding in a pin ball game. Boing, boing,boing but then you'd pop out on a service road that went up for a minute or two but then be followed by sweeping downhills before dumping us into the next pain cave. Along the course were check points that were manned by dirt loving folks. They shouted at the top of their lungs for us. Gave out water or Gatorade. Come night time, they were an outdoor version of a night club with peeps dancing around and yelling through orange traffic cones. Christmas lights flashed to musical beats and you couldn't help but turn up the rpm's when passing by. One in particular had a professional DJ mixing music and blasting it out of over sized speakers. Fans in costumes lined the route up to the tent, taunting us to get out of our saddles and get to the top. Once there we were deafened by cheering fans in beer costumes and I even heard, but never saw, someone with a chain saw. I'm telling you, it was a party. So, back to the race. Luckily for me about 4o minutes into it I got caught up in a group of dudes who were hoofing it. I was 2nd in the group and just followed the guy ahead of me. It felt like I was riding a roller coaster. I was skidding turns, bunny hopping logs and just totally in the zone. I waited for the guys behind me to ask to pass but that never happened. Once we hit the final clearing we all popped out of the trees and I sprinted uphill to the start\finish gate with two guys. What a rush. I felt great!
The next lap I was more on my own and came in about a minute slower. By the 3rd lap I was feeling really shitty. My stomach was not cooperating at all and I was worried. So when I came in I ate solid food and drank lots of water. I got a massage by Kristin. By lap 4 I was back in action, so I knew that lack of calories was what was making me feel bad. So each time I came in I ate real food like sandwiches, chicken soup, brats, instant mashed potatoes. Fuel the machine! And it seemed to work well. That and downing a half can of Coke to keep the caffeine buzz alive and well. I did that all night long.
The day went pretty steady. No major issues. I only had one spill. My night laps started around my 8 o'clock hour lap. I had Nite Rider HID's on my head and handle bar. They lit up the sky. I coulda landed a 747 with that set up. But I did have problems. Twice the handle bar light popped out of it's base and I had to pull over to put it back in. One other time my head lamp went out but I managed to ride with the other light just fine. Then on my last lap my handle bar light came unplugged after I crashed but I couldn't tell that was the problem so I just rode with the other light. Not huge issues.I still rode hard. I was able to b/c by then I had memorized the trail enough to know what areas I really needed to pay attention to in the dark. The air had cooled over night but was only an issue when it was time to get ready to head back out. It didn't take long to warm up either, so for a few teeth chattering minutes, all I wanted to do was curl up in my sleeping bag... And speaking of sleep, there was none of it. Not enough time. After getting into dry clothes, eating and stretching, we maybe had 20 minutes to rest. Martin made us "put our toes on the line" each time. I'm glad for that. As the night wore on I got slower and slower in my prep time. One time Jason came in about 5 minutes sooner than we thought and I literally ran out of the porta potty and out of the jacket I had on so I could give him a high five and jump on my bike. No time to think about the cold. The night was lonely but still fun. I never really had a moment where I wanted to quit. Things went pretty well and when the sun finally came up and I could see the trail, boy oh boy, it was all systems go and I was in attack mode. I'm still in awe of how the body responds to what it has to do. Lap after lap when that first hill just burns the legs, it's amazing that I had the energy to continue. I was very glad it was there.
When Jason came in for his final lap, we were down 20 minutes. I had told myself that if he came in and we were down only 10 minutes I'd go out and tear myself apart to catch the 2nd place team. But it wasn't to be so I threw in the towel and Team 6th Gear was done. JMK had 10 laps and I had 9. (To put that in perspective, the winning solo woman Pro did 18!!!) I was really proud of our team. We had minimal problems and an outstanding pit crew. They really took care of us and supported us in any means necessary. I can't thank them enough. We tried. We took them out for Mexican and spent the night getting a jet stream massage in the hotel whirl pool as we drank beers to help us get to sleep. Not that we really needed the help.
My first lap was my fastest. I tore off down the open straightaway. Sam from War Axe was wrenching for Enduro Snob and I heard him yell after me. My heart rate went from 85 to 185 in less than a minute. I was standing up the first small incline and hammering to the hole shot. The first single track section was like Platte's roller coaster section. Lots of ups and down, turns, roots, up and overs... Just an ear grinner. But I did get in a traffic jam. There were many on the trail so I had to be patient and pass when I could. Once out of that section it was wide open for a mile at least but the beginning of the course is the hilliest so I had to make sure I didn't blow myself up too soon. Thank goodness for pro pedal and fork lock out. I was sporting hard tail agility going up the hills and it paid off. It seemed each section of single track got progressively more technical. Rocks got bigger, roots got taller and tree stumps popped out of now where. It was like riding in a pin ball game. Boing, boing,boing but then you'd pop out on a service road that went up for a minute or two but then be followed by sweeping downhills before dumping us into the next pain cave. Along the course were check points that were manned by dirt loving folks. They shouted at the top of their lungs for us. Gave out water or Gatorade. Come night time, they were an outdoor version of a night club with peeps dancing around and yelling through orange traffic cones. Christmas lights flashed to musical beats and you couldn't help but turn up the rpm's when passing by. One in particular had a professional DJ mixing music and blasting it out of over sized speakers. Fans in costumes lined the route up to the tent, taunting us to get out of our saddles and get to the top. Once there we were deafened by cheering fans in beer costumes and I even heard, but never saw, someone with a chain saw. I'm telling you, it was a party. So, back to the race. Luckily for me about 4o minutes into it I got caught up in a group of dudes who were hoofing it. I was 2nd in the group and just followed the guy ahead of me. It felt like I was riding a roller coaster. I was skidding turns, bunny hopping logs and just totally in the zone. I waited for the guys behind me to ask to pass but that never happened. Once we hit the final clearing we all popped out of the trees and I sprinted uphill to the start\finish gate with two guys. What a rush. I felt great!
The next lap I was more on my own and came in about a minute slower. By the 3rd lap I was feeling really shitty. My stomach was not cooperating at all and I was worried. So when I came in I ate solid food and drank lots of water. I got a massage by Kristin. By lap 4 I was back in action, so I knew that lack of calories was what was making me feel bad. So each time I came in I ate real food like sandwiches, chicken soup, brats, instant mashed potatoes. Fuel the machine! And it seemed to work well. That and downing a half can of Coke to keep the caffeine buzz alive and well. I did that all night long.
The day went pretty steady. No major issues. I only had one spill. My night laps started around my 8 o'clock hour lap. I had Nite Rider HID's on my head and handle bar. They lit up the sky. I coulda landed a 747 with that set up. But I did have problems. Twice the handle bar light popped out of it's base and I had to pull over to put it back in. One other time my head lamp went out but I managed to ride with the other light just fine. Then on my last lap my handle bar light came unplugged after I crashed but I couldn't tell that was the problem so I just rode with the other light. Not huge issues.I still rode hard. I was able to b/c by then I had memorized the trail enough to know what areas I really needed to pay attention to in the dark. The air had cooled over night but was only an issue when it was time to get ready to head back out. It didn't take long to warm up either, so for a few teeth chattering minutes, all I wanted to do was curl up in my sleeping bag... And speaking of sleep, there was none of it. Not enough time. After getting into dry clothes, eating and stretching, we maybe had 20 minutes to rest. Martin made us "put our toes on the line" each time. I'm glad for that. As the night wore on I got slower and slower in my prep time. One time Jason came in about 5 minutes sooner than we thought and I literally ran out of the porta potty and out of the jacket I had on so I could give him a high five and jump on my bike. No time to think about the cold. The night was lonely but still fun. I never really had a moment where I wanted to quit. Things went pretty well and when the sun finally came up and I could see the trail, boy oh boy, it was all systems go and I was in attack mode. I'm still in awe of how the body responds to what it has to do. Lap after lap when that first hill just burns the legs, it's amazing that I had the energy to continue. I was very glad it was there.
When Jason came in for his final lap, we were down 20 minutes. I had told myself that if he came in and we were down only 10 minutes I'd go out and tear myself apart to catch the 2nd place team. But it wasn't to be so I threw in the towel and Team 6th Gear was done. JMK had 10 laps and I had 9. (To put that in perspective, the winning solo woman Pro did 18!!!) I was really proud of our team. We had minimal problems and an outstanding pit crew. They really took care of us and supported us in any means necessary. I can't thank them enough. We tried. We took them out for Mexican and spent the night getting a jet stream massage in the hotel whirl pool as we drank beers to help us get to sleep. Not that we really needed the help.
3 comments:
Awesome story Roxz! Really brought me into the race and gets me envisioning myself on a duo team - maybe I can convince someone else to become a fix gear nut? 8-)
No sleep - Wow! Excellent pit crew, getting your food and stretching down, no big mechanicals - you had a tremendous race!
All those hours of training over the last few seasons and coaching by JMK have put you in your best biking shape ever!
Tranquility will seem so short in time and trail length - maybe you should ride the optional 3 hr race there to help keep your form for the Dakota 5-o?
Congratulations on a great race and what sounds like a great experience. Thanks for the super writeup - totally cool to get that level of detail and perspective. You guys rock!
Thanks for the kind words,Dale. I have to say that anyone can do that race but to go hard every time was the result of putting in many long training hours and Jason doesn't like whiners so he pushes me and it has paid off these last few seasons. But I can put in the time because I don't have children (well, Ryan's pretty close), have an immaculate lawn or even a pet. So I train in my spare time. I think things would be different if I didn't put in the kind of time I have been nor had JMK to push me along. He's been a great coach.
There's going to be an optional 3hr at Tranq? Right on. Yeah, might just hafta take you up on that.
For more details and results on 24/9 go to http://www.dirtragmag.com/blogarific/24-hour-nationals-2009 or http://www.24-9.com/news.html. For your rigid freaks, see Enduro Snob's report http://www.endurosnob.blogspot.com/
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