On Cloud 9 from Dino 24

The 2009 24 Hours of Dino was disappointing for me. I took a hard crash and wound up quitting at about the 9-hour mark. So, the 2010 edition was one of revenge and a mission to prove to myself that I could do it. My goal was to focus on proper nutrition during the race and not sleep. Karen and I used to do many 24-36 hour adventure races without sleeping so I know what it takes to stay awake. But with Adventure Racing you’re mixing it up between biking,
running/trekking, and paddling so it’s not as monotonous as just biking the whole time.

I spent a lot of time before the race talking with Coach Mileski about my race nutrition. We developed a loose plan on how much I’d need to eat for an hour of racing and what specific foods would help me meet those nutrition goals as well as, be tasty and easy to eat.

Karen, Greg Ott, Mitch Johnson, Todd Hecht and I all took off work on Friday to make the 6-hour drive over to Versailles , IN. Our goal was to get there early enough to get our tents/TA setup in a prime spot on the course and do some pre-riding of the course. Mission accomplished! We had fantastic weather on Friday. Our TA was setup right next to the start/finish line and we had time for a pre-ride.

Against my better judgment the boys talked me into riding the entire 12-mile course. I was worried it would zap me too much. But that course is so fun it only made me more excited to start the race.

They were predicting rain Friday night and Saturday and it looked eminent that it was coming. Amazingly, we got some rain Sat AM a couple hours before the start, but the weather was absolutely awesome for the next 2 days of racing!

The race started at noon on Saturday. All racers had to run about 100 yards to their bikes with a wheel or seatpost from their bike. They did this to spread out the racers and try to keep the bottleneck down heading into the trail. The race offered a 6, 12, and 24 hour solo category as well as team categories. As usual, most of us 24-solo racers walked that 100 yards since there’s no need to jack the heart rate up and waste the energy with so many hours ahead.

Unfortunately, I probably walked a little too slow at the start as there were many novice riders in front of me for the first – and only – significant climb at about ½ mile into the course. This created a huge traffic jam at the base of the climb. It was a rocky section and I chose to take the opportunity to get around 6/7 riders by passing on the right in loose rock. Sure enough, I got a flat. Yep, not even 1 mile in and I had a flat already. Very quickly every single racer was past me and I was in dead-last changing my flat! But knowing I still had 23 hours and 55 minutes to race I wasn't too concerned except I was wondering how many flats I was going to get in this race.

With the exception of the time lost on the first lap due to the flat, I was turning 1 hour 10 min laps on laps 1 - 5. I'd then take a 15 minute break inbetween each lap to refill my bottle and grab some food. I rode lap 6 with Mitch. That was a blast but I think we both pushed ourselves a bit like guys do. So when he wanted to go out on 6 together again, I told him to go on and I had to do my own race.

That 1:10 pace w/15-20 min breaks continued through the day and into the night. I was remaining consistent. About midnight Mitch stopped to eat some pasta being served by the race director. Greg and Todd were done with their 12 hour races and they both did awesome! Greg got 3rd and Todd got 10th. Karen was still turning her steady laps and I'd only seen her once since the race started. With Mitch stopping to eat I put quite a bit of time into him. But I knew he'd be charging back on me very soon.

I was really testing my lights and pushing them to their limits as far as burn time. It bit me at about 6:30am EST when both my lights were about to die and it was still pretty dark out. I had to run the lights on low just to have light. Towards the end of this lap (#14) I saw a set of lights behind me. I knew it had to be Mitch closing in. That dude is way too strong to let me hang in front of him. So I busted my butt to finish the lap and get back out on lap #15. By this time it was light enough that I didn't need lights.

Lap 15 felt great. I really couldn't believe how good I was still feeling. I'd taken a short 30 minute nap at about 3:00am but that was it. Lap 15 was another 1:10 minute lap. When I came into the finish from lap 15 it was about 8:00am. I saw Mitch standing there at the finish on his bike looking fresh. I wondered if he somehow passed me? Did he get a long nap in and was now going to turn the screws to catch me? Was he going to make us race all the way to noon? Fortunately, he told me he was done. All the guys behind him weren't going to catch him and he thought I was riding too well for him to catch me. As I looked at the times/laps of the guy ahead of me he was too far ahead. He had 2 laps on me, so there was no way I was going to catch him with only 4 hours left. So, I called it quits too and was absolutely blown away by what I'd just done. Not only did I just finish 2nd place in this 24-hour race but I'd done it by beating Mitch - Consider this my retirement from racing because I'll never do that again!!! ;-) Mitch has taught me a lot about racing endurance moutnain bike events and without his advice I could not finished a lot of the long races I've done in the last year.

This 24-hour race I really owe to Coach Mileski. He helped me prepare for this race all season and spent a lot of time with me making sure I was ready!

Karen also did great. She won 1st place in the womens solo category.

There were also a bunch of other St. Lous folks there loving this trail. Here's a cool pic of us all after the race. Missing from the photo is Zach Brace (1st) and Brian Roggeven (6th) who both did the 12-hour.

We all survived the race. We made it through the night without rain and everyone had a blast.
The course in Versailles is absolutely fantastic!! It's one of the most fun trails I've ever been on! All racers must put this race on their race calendar for 2011!