The race was a very well run and very enjoyable event. I was surprised at what a family atmosphere the event has and promotes. Kids everywhere.
I was the first rider and did the Lemans start, which entailed a 600 m run that had a uphill right in the middle. Rider congestion was pretty bad until about half way through the first lap, then it really dispersed for the remainder of the race.
My second lap was my cleanest one. I threw a chain on that lap, but aside from that I cleaned every uphill on the course and never had to dismount. My night lap was tough. I took off at 0145, and about 3 miles into my lap I went to grab my rear brakes, and ...... nothing. I got off to check it, and discovered that I was missing a rear brake pad. I went ahead and finished my lap on front brakes only, but ended up eating it twice because of brakes and once because of a missed shift. I hit my left knee hard on the IT band and was really feeling it for the remainder of the lap.
I got some sleep after that lap, and got up at 0630 to find someone at a local bike shop tent. They set me up with a new set of pads, and I did my final lap at 0830. I felt pretty good, but on the tough climbs I was lacking the power. I only had to unclip for the last bit of one nasty climb, when I spun out and had no interest in trying to power my way through it at that point.
Our team did relatively well, placing 7th out of 24 in our bracket. We had some great guys on our team, and camped with a couple of other teams of great folks, some of whom were the ones that got this idea into my head in the first place. Right now I am running on about four hours of sleep since Saturday, and feeling the effects of four hard rides. Physically, this is nothing like doing a long mountain bike ride. Envision doing four lactate threshold workouts in 24 hours. I haven't looked at Coach Garmin yet, but I'm guessing an average HR of upper 150s to low 160s on each lap and an average time of 1:15 on four laps.
Some of the solo riders were simply amazing. The solo winner tallied something like 20 laps. I was truly amazed by the talent and abilities of some of the riders.
Any of you mountain bikers should look into doing one of these. They really are a great time.
