Tuesday 25 February 2014

2014 24hrs of Old Pueblo



Let's get to it:


Back in November I decided to sign up for this epic race. 24+hrs of racing in the middle of the desert sounds like a great idea when winter comes a calling in Calgary, especially this winter as it seemed to start earlier this year and man we had some cold cold days to show for it. Now throw in the fact that I didn't finish the race my last attempt, thanks to some eye sight issues.

So for a quickie update, I'm on a new bike, I hooked up with Carver bikes and Bikeman internet sales, to get me a sweet Ti frame (a full review to follow), with  Ti post and carbon fork.



I was planning on racing this setup at OP as I really didn't see the need for suspension on this course. Not extremely bumpy or choppy, long laps (16 miles) and the vert gain is somewhere between 1000' and 1200' per lap. Everybody's GPS was different so pick a number.
  
Leading up to the race Shaun had me riding outside (when the temps were warmer than -20C) and the balance was spent on the suffer machine in the basement (trainer). I got some great sessions out at Fish Creek on my Giant HT, running SS and Ice spiker tires. Later on I was throwing down some riding with my Carver 420 TI with gears and race setup. A weekend retreat had Julie, I and Shaun getting some great snow riding in at Rossland. Great food and great laughs rounded out the weekend.

Before that, I was able to get a good day of riding in the Tustin, CA  (Sierra mountains) while holidaying in San Diego over Christmas.

Some highlights from this 3 month training block were:
  • A 1" half thickness tear in my right rotater cuff.
  • Full fingertip dislocation 3 weeks prior to race day.
  • An annoying cold like cough that just seemed to hang on.

Gotta throw a big thanks out to AST for sorting my shoulder out, the pain was manageable during waking hours, but as soon as I went to bed the darn thing would wake me 2-3 times a night with a dull aching pain. In the last few weeks leading up to the event my shoulder had normalized quite nicely.

 All thing's aside, Suffice to say, I was in really good form when it was time to load up my gear and head to Oracle, Arizona for this event.

I met up with Julie at the airport, and then we boarded our Alaskan Airlines flight for the roughest flight possible to Seattle. We were supposed to meet up with Shaun in Seattle but that busted out as he was having his own challenges with flights, as we later found out. Off to Phoenix, AZ rent a car and wait for Shaun to arrive from his flight with Delta (ugh) and off we were to Whole Foods and then a drive to Tucson and then over to Oracle, AZ.


Julie booked us in the 3C Ranch and it was perfect. Great accommodations and only 20 minutes or so from the race course at 24hr town.

Here we meet up with 2 more of Shaun's athelete's; Ryan (Jasper, AB) and Tony (Austin, TX) and their wives. We were lucky enough to secure Antonio and Holly for pit support, who were scheduled to arrive Friday evening. They drove 14+ hrs from Austin to helps us out and we were all very thankful they did. It was unfortunate as we were expecting JR, and his girlfriend Laura to head out for the race as well, but their schedules just didn't mesh with the race. Too bad as we all missed them.

Friday early afternoon the 5 of us went out on course for a prelap. It was interesting for me as this would be the very first time I was able to get out on dirt and ride my new bike and setup. It felt great after that first lap, and here's hoping it feels the same after 10+ laps in the middle of the night.

Ok... enough of the prelim, let's get after it.

Race day:

Standing at the lemans start line about 1/2 mile away from my bike in the desert sun was uncomfortable. Hearing the gun go off was a welcoming sound. I start my run and watch Shaun and Julie disappear ahead as I fumble my way through my run. I'm swallowed up by the crowd but that's how these starts go for me.


First lap, it took me almost a full lap to catch up with Julie.  She was riding very, very strong...the strongest I have seen her ride. We literally pull into the pit almost side by side and I notice about half way through that lap my BB is making a grinding noise. A minute on the stand or so with a dab of oil at the crank arm and off I go to start another lap. This doesn't concern me a whole lot as sometimes you can get some noise and it will work itself out or not. It doesn't matter until it matters. What was starting to irritate me was my new jersey. I ordered a medium and normally it fits me quite well. This one, well it fit like a large, and so it was flapping all over the place.  Once I started to sweat it felt like I was wearing a parachute with the zipper bouncing off my nipple. So fun.... I'll be wearing a small before the next event, that's for sure.

2- 4 laps my BB is really starting sound like a squeeze toy my dog has gotten hold of. At this point I really don't care. I am going to keep riding until that damn thing seizes, or whatever sand has gotten itself in there has worked itself free. Around the 5:30 mark I pull into the pit and set about getting my lights on my bike, which was the mandatory time to get your lights on. I was thankful for this as it gave Antonio much needed time to try and get my BB sorted out. Which he did. It turns out it was my left side crank arm that had worked itself loose and was moving around on the crankshaft. Not the BB itself like I had thought.

Interesting time of the race for me.... I'm starting to feel off. My legs and body feel good, but I am really starting to feel thirsty and dehydrated. With desert racing even though it's only in the 90's (which I don't mind) it's the never ending exposure to the sun and no shade, (which I do mind). I grab a couple of sips of water and head out on this lap.

I'm loving my setup. I'm quick on the climbs and hitting the flowy sections nice and smooth. Some of the course is showing signs of chop, so I'm having to choose my line a bit more on the tight downhills, the typical drag your back wheel into the turns by some of the team racers was the cause of the rutting.

So getting back to this lap.... I am out on course and about 1/3 of the lap in I start getting a dry mouth, my first real concrete symptoms of dehydration. So I make a big mistake and start hitting my nutrition harder, like gulping it. This was really getting difficult for me as I didn't even have enough moisture in my mouth to swallow my own spit. Between the intense sun and the neverending wind, I was hitting a wall. 

It was around this time that Shaun rode up to me and asks how I'm doing. But I can't even answer... my mouth is that dry.  A few minutes later he passes me with a 3 riders on his wheel and starts pulling all of them up the series of climbs and as I am watching, he is even gapping the dude off the back. It was cool to see but I couldn't do any of that action (which I wanted to) as now I am dehydrated and I have a protein gut from gulping my nutrition.

My race has turned side ways in the matter of a lap, I'm out of nutrition and fluid and I am so dang thirsty it's not even funny.

I make it through this lap and I get back into the pits. I grab an extra bottle of water for the lap, and my regular bottle of nutrition and off I go.

For the next series of laps it goes like this:
Ride until I get super hungry, take a small sip of nutrition, a few seconds later get stomach cramps, sip some water as I am dying of thirst, have another bout of stomach cramps. Repeat until this crap sorts itself out. Absolutely rubbish, my legs are great, I just can't initiate cause I have no power to drive them and my stomach hurts like no other time in recent memory.

Some highlights in this stage of the race for me:
  • Pulling long cactus needles out of my forearm with my teeth as I ride
  • Pulling short cactus needles out of my legs as I ride (no teeth)
  • Dreaming of an ice cold slurpee
On some parts of the course the cactus lined both sides of the trail and were  daring you  to screw up or even brush up against . Not "if "but "when " you did, you paid the price.

3 am I come in on my 10th lap and I'm starting to get cold (as the temps really drop in the desert at night). I'm fighting the cramps and I am still thirsty beyond belief. I get some warm clothes on and chat with Amber and Antonio for a few minutes. I take a few minutes off the bike hoping I can at least burp and feel better but it's not happening. I do something I never do and ask Antonio if I can drink his coke so that maybe I can clear my stomach. The look on Antonio's face was priceless as I drank his Mexican coke. I felt a little bad about it really, but I got over it as soon as my stomach started feeling better :)  Now I have been sitting in the pit for at least 20 mins, the top ten place I was sitting at when I came in, now had me down to 14 or so.


Back out on course and yeah, the caff is working on my brain and the sugar is helping me get some power back. But that feeling is short lived as the cramps come back again because I am drinking my nutrition and water again, I don't have a choice.  I can't race on Cokes, that would be worse. So I'm just pounding out the miles knowing that my dream of a top 5 finish is diminishing.

I can honestly say that it's not about that anymore for me now. It's about digging myself out of this hole and finishing the best I can with no regrets. I know and accept that this is the hardest event I have had to race and now it's all about that.

The witching hour...I roll in and see Shaun, Julie, Ryan and the rest of the crew at the pit. Everyone has had their own challenge and they are all knee deep into it the same as I am. I pull off my helmet and my helmet light and decide it's time to go back out with just my bar light as we all figured that it was maybe 30 mins or so before sunrise. This felt awesome on my head and I decide that I am going to ride a hard lap as my stomach is starting to sort itself out a bit and I am feeling a bit better.

A 1:14 lap and I make up 2 placings in the race and now I am just interested in as many placings I can make up as possible. Next lap I do about the same time, a bit slower maybe and I'm feeling so much better.

So out I go and the sun is sitting higher in the sky. After a sip off my bottle I notice that my drink tastes weird, like... warm water.

It's starting to get really hot by now, (for me anyhow) and I know that I may be in trouble with just water in my bottle with these temps and my current effort. As the miles tick off I start bonking, I mean hard, I am super hungry and now I am seeing stars.

I start thinking about when Shaun went out on a lap without a bottle at this event (by mistake) a couple years past and how he says he scoured the ground for used gels or bottles or anything that can help him get through this lap and start doing the same. My head is all over the map and I am having a hard time focusing on this new task until I come upon a bottle that's lying in the middle of the trail. I stop to pick it up and see if it has anything in it besides water, and dang it's bone dry.  It was bad enough that the bottle was empty it was even worse trying to get back on my bike and try and ride  again.  It was then I decided I wasn't stopping again unless I was interested in walking...

I make it back in to the pit. I don't know how long it took to finish this lap, and to be honest I haven't even looked at my lap times since the race. But I do know this, I threw my bike down and almost fell on my head. Shaun, Ryan and everyone else got me cooled down with ice and water as I was seriously overheated and dehydrated again. I was glad they were there to help me. Holly ran and got me an RC Cola and with a couple of handfuls of ice in my jersey pockets I'm going back out.


This lap went much better.

16 laps at 16 miles a lap and a whole lotta stuff in between means I get it done, with an 8th place finish. 

As for nutrition, I usually get 20-23 bottles of nutrition down in a typical 24hr event. I would think that with the temps I should've been up around 25 bottles.  All toll I was told it was more like 10 bottles, and 2-3 bottles of water, with 2 cokes.....  messed up. 



Next year... 3 times a charm!

A big shout out to those who support me:
Pedalhead ski works, AST, Nite Rider, Forrest Carver/Carver bikes, Shaun Taylor.



 Shaun, Julie, Antonio, Holly, Amber and Ryan, Tony and Patty. All people I consider my friends, thanks for your help.

 a special thanks to  my wife Coralee and Zachary, my son.