24 Hours of Great Glen

[taudep]

I don't really have a report at this moment, but I do have a few photos.

Chris on The Plunge


Chris showing max pain face:


and Lowry descending The Plunge.


Sorry, I don't have more photos of all 8 of us that raced there, but 24 hour racing isn't conducive to having energy to take photos.

[rusto]

Fantastic shots!

[Rob]

Nice Freaking shots! you had your Game ON

Here is a few more:
http://doublehop.blogspot.com/2010/08/2 ... glenn.html

[michael todisco]

Great fun! I have photos, but don't know how to share on this board, can someone help?

A quick recap of our team's performance:
Doug “The Hammer” Kennedy - Throwing down an impressive lap time of 40:56 and completing 9 laps
Bill “45” Turner – gets the Mr. Consistency award, wet or dry, light or dark, lap times always near the 45min mark and an impressive 41:48 lap….
Chris “The Strategist” Pare – sorting out the rotation and keeping us organized. Also breaking a chain and giving up only 8 minutes, nice recovery!
ME…. The fastest 70 year old guy at the race!

The hardest part of this event was driving home, that hurt more than the race.
Congrats to my fantastic teammates!
See you on the trail soon (not to soon, I’m still dragging ass today)

[taudep]

@Michael, sharing photos on this forum is a pain. It's probably easiest to upload to your photo service of choice: Flickr, Picassa Web, Moblie.Me (apple), etc. and then just share the link here.

To embed pictures in the actual forum post, you need to copy the URL of the uploaded photo that's hosted on some site, and then use the [img] tag in the forum posting. See, you don't wanna do this...

[rusto]

Just above where you type in your post is a row of buttons, one of them looks like this:



When you click it you get a pair of "tags" that look like this:

Code: Select all

[img][/img]

Just paste the URL (web address) of the image you want to post in between the tags so it looks like this:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.russcam.com/temp/100811-0749.jpg[/img]

That's it!

[pace21]

Nice capture of the the moment on that second photo, Todd. So if all you saw was my face, out of context with the bike, would you think I was:

A) A mountain bike racer, or
B) An axe murderer

Nice shots, but if you really wanted to see pain face you needed to take a picture near the uphill past the house – exponential pain .

Almost 48 hours after the finish cannon went off, and my legs are still shredded. Huge, huge expenditure of energy by all who raced, and unlike anything I’ve done before. I did a 24 hour race 11 years ago, but we never made it past about 1am because a teammate broke his collarbone and scapula and we bailed and drove him off to the hospital. So those extra 11 hours this time were where the proverbial men were separated from the boys.

Doug “Animal” Kennedy and I headed up Friday afternoon to meet up with Team A (Prekaski, Lowry, Bauer, Hernandez). We also had Bill “consistent lap time” Turner and last minute addition Michael “sure I’ll do it, sounds like fun” Todisco joining us on Team B. We raced Expert 4-man and lined up against 6 teams in our division (there were something like 190 or so teams overall). To start the race, Doug had a midpack LeMans run but then nailed the first lap, so we were in 3rd place at the start of the second lap, I held our position with a non-spectacular lap, and then Bill nailed back 2nd place on his first time through the rotation. At this point we were feeling great and thought we would be in a protracted battle for 2nd place (1st place had already checked out by close to 10 minutes, running darn near Pro lap times).

By the second time through our rotation, things started to go slightly downhill. I had a broken chain that added 7 or 8 minutes to my lap time (lap times for us were in the 45 minute plus or minus range), and also all of our lap times were gradually approaching their steady state values – meaning we were all now running 1 tick below max effort, as opposed to the first time through the rotation where we were all running (at least) 1 tick above max effort. Unfortunately our 2nd place competition didn’t seem to slow down much and kept putting down consistent (but hardly spectacular) lap times. This is where the slow, grinding process of losing contact with 2nd place began. The good news is that 4th place was beginning the slow, grinding process of losing contact with 3rd place (us).

Our strategy was basically to rotate through the order for the first 10 hours, then come nighttime we would start skipping laps and moving to a “rolling” 3 man rotation. Unfortunately the cognitive abilities start to fade after midnight, and somehow our order got a little convoluted, and what should have been a very symmetric distribution of rest time turned out to be not so. At one point I was scheduled to go out for a 3rd lap out of 7 at about 2:30am, and Doug (who had just woken up from a 3 hour “nap”) realized I was about to die a thousand deaths if I went out again, he said he felt great and volunteered to take my lap (I obliged), and then his lap, and then another lap with only 1 skip. So for those counting at home, that’s 3 out of 4 laps from 2:30am-5:30am or so, and throwing down lap times that were 3-5 minutes faster than the 2nd place team. Hence the “Animal” moniker 2 paragraphs ago….

By dawn we realized that we were pretty much guaranteed 3rd place, barring something catastrophic. We all headed out for our first daylight lap invigorated by the great course and better weather, and we actually had lap times approaching our individual bests from the previous day. Then for the last time through the rotation we all cruised, partially because we weren’t fighting for a position and partially because we were dead men riding.

So in the end we did 30 laps, with Doug doing 2 more than the rest of us (hey, gotta get that extra ‘cross training in, right?), we finished 3rd place in the 4 man Expert class, 11th place overall, and even got a neat podium shot with the four of us in MRC jerseys with some hardware around our necks. For me it was an incredibly satisfying experience, the atmosphere at the event was great, having 7 other MRC teammates there was awesome, no (serious) injuries, and with the exception of 1 broken chain, 1 lost baton (5 minute penalty), and a little confusion and mismanagement during the night rotation, I think we did about as well as we could have.

[taudep]

Our team did 25 laps, which is impressive if you consider that there was a lot going on in everyone's lives that prevented training together like we did last year. Last year, we finished 8th in Sport class, this year, we slid to 20th. It seemed like a lot of work to get 20th, though. (Nevermind that the top 3 teams in Sport class would have been top 3ish in Expert). Regardless in how we finished, it was still a blast, and we're already committing to doing it again next year. It's so easy to forget how crappy you feel getting up at 3 a.m. to mount your bike and ride up the blueberry patch while still waking up.

El Presidente returned from India with some form of 3rd-World-I'll-Eat-anything sickness that made him weak. But he toughed it out and put in his 6 laps, FOUR of them at night in the dark. El Presidente also ran the loop around the pond at the start of the race. At one point, he told me that he was so weak and tired that he closed his eyes while riding the bike.

Bauer, formerly the hour-of-power, spent his spring training for 24Hogg by hitting up the BMX track doing lots of 40 second BMX sprints. Nonetheless, he showed up with his singlespeed, pre-rode the course on Friday, and then promptly went to the bike shop to purchase a smaller chain ring. It was a good move, because for someone who hasn't been mountain biking, he still cranked out 6 laps, most only a few minutes slower than last year. He looked uber-fast, however, for those first 40 seconds of the lap!

Lowry showed up in good spirits with his belt-driven singlespeed. He was secretly hoping for mud, just so he could say "Hey guys, how's the chain lubing coming along?" Anyway, ML put in 6 solid laps on the singlespeed, very steady during the day and night with lap times not much slower than last year, despite not getting in the riding he wanted, nor having gears.

I had a good 24Hogg. I've actually have been riding a bunch, getting stronger. I rode both my new 29r Singlespeed and my 26r 4" travel bike. Funny thing, two of my three fastest laps were on my SS 29r. And to make it fair, one of those laps was my 7th lap to finish off the race when I was obviously much more tired. Gears and suspension are over-rated.

It's nice to have a team that with minimal training (except for me) can show up and still grunt out 24 to 25 laps, enjoy a few beers and not want to kill each other.

You don't need fancy, expensive bikes to come have fun at this event. Hopefully next year, we can get THREE MRC teams involved.

So, what's it like to do a lap, you might be wondering....

You’re cold waiting in the tent. Your teammate was supposed to arrive three minutes ago. Is he coming any second, did he have a mechanical? Oh, there he is, whew. You spring up and run to the check-in table and your teammate hands you that baton. You tap your RFID card on the timing sensor and sprint for your bike.

Your ride for a couple hundred yards on a fire road, take a right and start your climb. You cross some foot-wide bridges through a traditionally wet march, though this year it’s dry, and up into the blueberry patch you climb on smooth single track. The blue berry patch isn’t long, just a punchy climb with a couple switch backs. Then you punch up a loose section of dirt, or you might be walking it because it’s not worth the effort to spin the granny gear at a walking pace just to stay on the bike. You come out by a house and you still have 100 meters to go up this steep driveway. You can’t believe how much the 100 meters hurts. You hammer anyway, though, because you want to get in front of the slower people before you hit the single track.

Ahh, the top of the climb, sit back in the saddle for a few seconds, a few strokes, roll over some roots. Stand back up, bike balanced under you as you hit some bigger roots and rocks that lead you right over a bridge. Then the flowy descent starts. It feels like skiing powder when you hit the turns right, even bumping over the roots aren’t bad until you mis-calculate your line. The bike works for you, your legs extend, your arms compress, the ground and your body work as one accelerating you down the hill. When you hit a turn wrong, you immediately know because you lose speed and you’re forced to take a couple pedal strokes to get your momentum back up.

You come out of the single track and back onto a fire road. Time to drink some water. Time to shift it into the big chain ring – if you’ve got one – otherwise, just spin your singlespeed like Fred Flinstone, or just coast, taking advantage of the rest.

Back to some climbs, and some descents on the fireroads. Through the corkscrew, where you’re going so fast at the bottom that you barely hold your line on the loose gravel. Ahh, Mile marker 4. It’s about to get interesting again. Back into the woods for one of the more technical sections. You’ve picked out which rocks you roll over, which lines to take. You get your front end light to roll over stuff. Did I just clear that? Ooops, there’s those big roots again that killed all momentum. Off the bike, sprint up over some rocks and roots, mount the bike and race back down toward the river bed. Suffer. Pedal. Suffer. Relief is almost here. And then you’re at the top of the little technical punchy climb that had 9 inch rocks to get up and over. You’re about 50-50 for clearing this section, and decide to hike it future laps to save energy.

Descend. Flow. Normally you don’t enjoy fireroad, but here you’re making exceptions since it means a little rest and fluids. Boom back to the woods and into another singletrack climb, this one is relentless and plays mind games with you. But you’ve broken it down into three sections: three crux moves that you’ve got to be focused on because the energy it takes to get off and on your bike isn’t worth the moment of rest your legs get. Ahhhhhh….the top, that’s the last of the brutal stuff. Enjoy the descent.

Mile marker 7. Almost there. Back into the woods one last time, accelerate up some more punchy dirt rolls. You maneuver through a few tricky roots that want to guide you straight into some big trees blocking the trail. Then you hit the plunge. People line up here to watch you descend the stairs and accelerate back into the woods for one last flowy section.

Finish line. Dismount your bike and hope your teammate is waiting for you. Look down at your time, another one right on target. Hand the baton off. Calculate how much time you have to rest until your next lap.

Rinse and Repeat six more times at cyclocross intensity, throw in a broken chain here and there, a few crashes, and there you have it.

[michaelcole]

Taud, very well written. I want in next year.
Brad, Me and you? I can find us one or two more for sure.

[michael todisco]

Wow! I was there and I want to go again after reading that last post! I didn't know we finished 11th overall out of 190 teams , not too bad. Next year we'll break the top ten for sure.

Remember that guy who came over to our campsite on his bike smoking a cigar, that was the 2nd place men's expert team guy checking us out. He's on my list for next year, we got to be able to beat a team with a cigar smoker

[michael todisco]

The experience for me was a shocker. I had no idea what a 24 hour race was like, and I was unsure of my fitness level since I have not been battled tested this year due to injuries. My results at Hodges Dam a few weeks back were frightful. That was only race I did this year.

So when I showed up at GG I was a little nervous. I was doing my normal pre-race warm-up before the first lap not knowing that this was not necessary. Found out later that my team mates were wondering what the hell I was doing.

Right before I start, either Doug or Chris tell me that be careful coming off the small wooden bridge right before the blueberry hill climb, because he hit a big ditch and burped his tire almost flat. Well I came off the bridge, forgot there was ditch until the last second, tried pull out and just clipped the edge enough to send me forward onto the bar for nut-busting experience. FUN! 24 more hours of this, I was elated...

Most laps go as expected, suffer like a bastard, recover and suffer some more. The funny thing was once I got through the blueberry hill climb and crossed back, I was excited and pumped to put in the effort and finish strong. Although I did have to tell my legs to "shut up" from time to time. Night racing was surreal at moments, eerie and challenging. Since I am under strict orders from my dentist, oral surgeon, plastic surgeon, wife and primary care Dr not to "F" myself up anymore, my night laps were a tad apprehensive. I think if came home seriously injured they would have all teamed up me and took my bike way.

Happy to report, no injuries were sustained and other then jamming my nads into the top tube, it was a relatively painless weekend.

Best distraction of the weekend were the blond pig-tailed barmaids dressed up with bike shorts, riding on mountain bikes with a bottle of beer. Every MTB guy's fantasy

[michaelcole]

Now I'm definitely in for next year.

[BTurner]

No doubt 24 hour racing is hard but a lot of fun. I never thought of it as 7, or 8 in Doug’s case, little races in 24 hour period but that’s what it is. Dress, warm up, race, undress, clean bike, eat, relax a bit and do it again.

I was lucky enough to draw both a.m. and p.m. twilight rides. The p.m. was going fine as I was following the advise from many to keep your lights off until the last possible moment. Well, I guess I past that moment when I hit the technical section after mile 4 with lights off and quickly super manned myself to the tundra. It was funny that when I gathered myself and bike my bar mount headlight had turned on in the crash. After a couple of peaceful night laps and a nap it was time for the for the a.m. twilight. With lights on, body and mind still waking up, I quickly slammed myself again by riding off one of the early bridge sections. With no harm done and the course split up mentally in my mind I continued on. I was just about spent at mile 7, when the sky started to lighten up and the sound of bagpipes could be heard in the distance. This was inspiration not to just finish the lap going hard but to finish the race going hard.

Having 8 MRC’rs all camped out was a blast. Everyone help each other out to make the 24 hours as painless as possible. Three days of beautiful weather, no injuries and everyone finishing strong is a plus. I’ll be back next year, changing a few things like diet as acid reflex was killing me the second half of the race. Hopefully we can add a team or two to this event. Go MRC.

[pace21]

I never thought of it as 7, or 8 in Doug’s case,

Actually it was 9 for the Animal and 7 each for the Humans

[BTurner]

Ooops, I should of noted that one of his 8 races was a two lapper. As far as the second place team I had to do some looking because evertime I saw them there were two youngins handing off. I now see that the team was made up of two youngins and two elders. One of the elders must of been the cigar guy. Michael, at 70 you still had 20 years on both the elders so I wouldn't spark up a pre race stoggie just yet.

[Rob]

The race hadn't ended yet, and I was asking my team mates:
"we are coming back next year right?"

If I only do one race all year, this is the one!

[Rob]

Disco,
the beer girl was Heidi, she is Coley's wife. Coley the owner of harborside cycles.
she always wears some sort of custom at every event, watch for her at cross races this fall!
either way, Coley and Heidi are 2 of the coolest/nicest peeps you'll ever meet!

[michaelcole]

For those of you who may be confused, Coley Bryan is (I think) 1 year younger than I am and has been racing cross almost as long but we both still get a little mixed up hearing strangers yell "go Coley" at races. For about a year we actually raced neck and neck quite a bit in the B-races. That was weird hearing cheers for Coley coming from the same crowd, 15 seconds apart.
Dick Ring used to have a little fun with that one back before Richard took over the mic.

[michael todisco]

Coley thanks for the clarification, I thought for a moment you had a second wife or for some undisclosed reason your real wife has a another persona that shows up at these races with a different name sporting a biker-beer maid outfit.

[michaelcole]

Coley thanks for the clarification, I thought for a moment you had a second wife or for some undisclosed reason your real wife has a another persona that shows up at these races with a different name sporting a biker-beer maid outfit.

I have been promoting the idea of Aimee developing that alter ego. Alas, no luck so far.

[JeremyC]

Nice work everyone. This sounds like a lot of fun, and pain. I'm in for next year, just don't tell my wife I'm buying a new mountain bike.

[onegeardoug]

I'm not sure what I can say about this weekend that hasn't already been said. And, so much happened that it would take too long. But I'll write something anyway:

After nearly bagging the entire event due to Rob F's illness and my own waning motivation, I was surprised at how I was able to do a 180 and get completely excited about it again when Michael "volunteered" on Wednesday night. A million thanks and serious props to Todisco for coming out and playing, with little to no preparation or training. Now that he knows what he got himself into...I think he's completely hooked!

For some stupid reason, I agreed to take the first lap. After running around the lake for the LeMans start, I jumped on the bike full of adrenaline, went about 1/4 mile, overcooked a turn off a bridge and nearly went straight into a ditch. Luckily, instead of just going straight into the ditch, I grabbed 2 fists full of brakes, burped my front tire, went over the bars and then went into the ditch. I lost a dozen or more places as I dusted myself off and got back on. My front tire was really soft, though and I regretted not bringing a pump. I did the next 7+ miles with about 14 psi in my front tire...worrying that if I roll it off the rim, the race is blown. I managed to nurse it around with a respectable time, but...not exactly the start that I wanted.

AND, I hurt my ribs in the crash. They're still hurting as I write this. Probably just bruised, but coughing, sleeping and riding all hurt. Good thing it's only Blunt Park this week...

For lap number 2, I wanted to see how big my thing is and tried to break 40 minutes. I broke 41. I guess it's not that big.

I did my first night lap between 9 and 10PM. It felt like I was in a dream as I was cruising through the woods, railing every turn and flying over every rock and root. I've always loved riding at night, with nothing but the bright trail and darkness all around. The tunnel vision and the quiet darkness somehow heighten my senses and put me into some weird mountain biking euphoric bliss. Passing riders like they're standing still certainly adds to the euphoria, even if they are racing solo. I finished that lap and immediately wanted to go out again. When I rolled into the MRC compound, I was gitty with excitement and was probably bordered on annoying as I proclaimed how much fun I had just had to whoever was sitting around the campfire. I slipped into my tent for a nap thinking "I want more."

Chris woke me up a few hours later and as I was shaking the cobwebs out of my head and stretching, he told me that he had crashed 7 times on his last lap and didn't know how he would survive another without sleep. It was 2:00 AM, and he was toast. I somewhat selfishly took the first sleep break and was feeling pretty good, so I offered to take his lap in addition to mine. He didn't resist or argue. "Ok" was all he said. Yeah, he was toast.

I went out around 2:15AM on what was to be a double lap; mine plus Chris's. About 1 mile in, I saw a root sticking out of the ground and pointing straight at me. I thought "someone is going to get that stuck in their derailleur". Half a second later, that someone was me. "Well, at least no one else will hit it" I thought, as pulled out the now broken root and started riding again. I immediately noticed that something wasn't quite right. It shifted okay, kind of. Maybe the cable just got stretched a little. A few minutes later, I found that I could only use gears 1-5 on the cassette; it wouldn't shift into the lower 4. WTF? I kept riding and hoped for the best, using my little and big rings a lot more. As I finished up this lap, Chris met me at the scoring tent before he went to take his sleep break. We discussed it for about 10 seconds. It was still working and it had functioned ok for the last 7 miles, so I rolled the dice and went back out for my double. Despite this quasi-mechanical, I put in 2 solid laps back-to-back and had a blast. Just like before. Floating through the woods. And passing.

After the double, I found that the root had forced the cable housing out of the ferrel, and the housing was stuck outside the ferrel; which explains the inability to use the full range of the derailleur. I'm shocked that it shifted as well as it did, though. I fixed it, ate a little and headed out for another lap, which turned out to be just as enjoyable at the previous ones.

As I pop out of the trees near finish line, the first signs of daylight are approaching. It's 5:30AM. I'm jealous that I won't be on the course for the sunrise lap. Bill gets that one. Some guys have all the luck.