24hrs of Old Pueblo

 

 

So let's get started... around the beginning of January I started thinking about maybe racing Old Pueblo. I know, I know I left it way too long, but I was getting bored sitting on my trainer and getting a bit tired of riding in the -temps here in Calgary. Plus I knew 2 other racers doing this event (Julie Kelly, and my Coach Shaun Taylor) so that kinda of got me thinkin. Which is dangerous if you ask my lovely wife....

So the hunt was for a spot. You see the official registration for the race was closed way back in December. So it was up to me to possibly purchase a spot from another racer who would sell me their spot.

Sure enough a spot came open from a racer in California wanting to sell his spot as he had a new baby on the way and the race would not work for him. So with a little admin work I was in the race. Now to complete the cycle of doing things backwards I started looking for a flight. I had told Cor at the start of this venture to not worry about cost of flight as I had a ton of airmiles so all I had to cover was the taxes and the extra cost of shipping my bike. On to Airmiles.ca, and discovered no flights available around or near or on the days I needed for travel to and from this event. Are you kidding me? So I started looking at other options, driving to Spokane, Billings, Kalispell, and then flying off to Tucson. None of those options worked as they would have me taking more time off work and in the end cost more than trying to find a flight out of Calgary. Which BTW was becoming more expensive by the minute thanks to the demand of travellers for these dates.

 This is where Marda Loop Vet Centre comes in, I have known Jeff and Laura (the owners for a few yrs now) thanks to Diesel and Zoey. They stepped in were able to secure me a flight to and from Tucson out of Calgary so that I could make this race.  Excellent! Now all I have to worry about is to get some solid training in leading up to the race and off we go.

 Around the middle of January and in the middle of a big training block, I started to get a nagging cough, (here it comes) I get sick and not just sick, I get a bad case of the Flu, and it goes into my lungs and put's me out work and training for 5 days, with the help of antibiotics I was able to finally beat this thing with about 10 days to go before the race. This included me losing my voice for the 2 weeks .

Fast forward with a bit more training and the bike loaded and my gear loaded off to Tucson I go.  "The Plan" was to arrive in Tucson on the Thursday, get settled into our accom's at Oracle and setup our bikes on Friday. Friday afternoon we were going to ride a lap at the race course and get any fine tuning out of the way. Saturday 12 noon sharp start racing for 24+ hrs.

 The Trip:

 

First stop was in Lax to transfer planes, where I am told by the  flight attendant and again once more from the ticket agent that "Yes, your baggage will get transferred to your connecting flight". Ok, great!  I jump on my flight from LAX to Tucson.

 

I'm greeted by all smiles as I see Shaun, Julie, and her husband Steve. We stand around for a few minutes and then head off to the oversize luggage office for bike pick up.
This is where I find out that my bike and luggage did not make the trip with me from LA to Tucson. Delta assured me that I would get my bike delivered to me by Friday afternoon where we were staying in Oracle.
So with some groceries bought at 'Whole Foods' in Tucson (where Shaun was as happy as a kid in a candy store). Around the 9pm mark we make it to our cabin in Oracle. The Triple L Ranch, this was made with a few turnarounds and side stops, but we made it.

                                               The view from our cabin porch

 Friday:

While everyone else is unpacking their race bikes, I am on the phone with Delta's  baggage service on the lookout for my bike and my luggage. This proves to be non confidence inspiring when I get a recording and then I get an attendant telling me my luggage is on its way... but they weren't certain whether it got picked up or not. Really??

1pm my bike and luggage appear at the front gate. I run down and with the help of Shaun and Steve haul my gear back, only to notice a fair size hole has been smashed into my hard rubber maid case. I inspect my gear and no damage. I get my bike together and within an hour we are all loaded up and heading to the race course for a pre lap.

                                                     Heading to the course for a prelap

 

I started my pre lap with Steve and thanks to a close call with a huge boulder (on my part) and taking the easier (by mistake) of the 2 separate routes through an area called the "Bitches", we ended up getting separated from Shaun and Julie. So approx 16 miles per lap and 1200' vert gain later we called it a pre lap and headed back to our cabin for a great dinner and some fine tuning of our bikes (with a pre race IPA of course).  Good music and some great laughs, I turn in for the night.

 

Raceday:

 We get to the course setup on pit row and find an area to get setup literally a couple of feet off the course. We were really setup barebones, not tables no tent just our premixed bottles on the ground, a box or two setup with spare helmets and shoes, batteries. In essence nothing like I am used to, but very much doable thanks to Steve

,                                                        Our pit site, our tree but not our tents 

I knew that  Steve signed on to help us with support, but I knew he would be super busy the first half of the event, so I  wanted to be as self sufficient as possible and then maybe later in the event when things settle down, maybe he would have a little bit of time for me. Boy was I wrong! Steve took care of each and everyone of us without question or flaw for the whole event. I was impressed and thankful.

 Before you know it, our bikes are racked and Shaun, Julie and I are standing at mid pack of the race group at least 1000 people deep ready to run and race. Countdown and we're off'. Shaun and Julie disappear into the abyss of bodies while I get swallowed up by the fast runners as I trot to my bike in my own mediocre fashion.

A few minutes later I see Steve and he is waving where my bike is as the place is just a maze of bodies and bikes everywhere. The place looks completely different at this stage of the race. You could totally run past your bike if you weren't paying attention.
The first few laps went very well. My laps were very consistent and the course was well groomed and fun to ride except for some really scary cactuses that lined some parts of the course. Very important to keep this is mind and to say focused.

 As the day wore on the winds seemed to pick up especially on the top portion of the course where you ride into a headwind that was sporting 70km/h winds.

Around the 8pm mark I start to get some upper neck pain, I know it has a bit to do with a lot of things; my rushed fit trying to get my bike together, the stress of the event and probably some residual effect of my flu virus that has only subsided 10 days earlier.

 

Anyways, I start working myself through this, knowing that it will get worse before it will gets better. The pain is getting worse... a whole lot worse. So bad that at the 9pm mark I have to stop and do some stretches in the van for 20 minutes. I rode in on this lap in 14th position and went back out in 16th. But I felt better a lot better.

As I go out and in the next few hours I am able to work my way to the  top 10 of the field.  I feel great, the stretching helped and I was in my zone. However,  I was having a hard time keeping my  riding glasses clean. The dust from the wind and the smoke from the campgrounds  was noticeably worse. Several times a lap I would have to give the glasses a quick wipe and it was getting difficult to see in the dark thanks to the shadows and the riders coming up behind me.
When I came in with 17 hours of riding behind me, I was making good time and had worked my way up to the possibility of a podium position. However, with 8 hours to go, anything can happen and in my case it did.

 When I went back out ,I noticed that my eyes were a tad dry but not out of the ordinary.  I made a mental note to  remove my contacts and start wearing my actual glasses when I come back in after this lap. This will be the first time in 3 years that I have needed to do this. Little did I know that I should have turned around at that point and taken care of that right then....

 Within 40 minutes of being out on course on that lap my eyesight started to diminish a little bit every few minutes . I kept thinking to just keep wiping my glasses and all will be good, but I was wiping my glasses and it was not making any difference at all. In fact it was getting to the point that I was starting to lose my way on course. For instance, the detail items, like stones and small ruts I couldn't see at all.  Then it got worse. I even missed a turn and rode off course a couple of feet, because I just couldn't pick out any sort of detail. I kept thinking that my contacts were just plain dirty and dry and so if I just take them out I'll stand a better chance of getting through this lap and go put my glasses on.

Bad idea. I pulled over to the side of the trail and with my dirty fingers pulled my contacts out and my eyesight did not improve at all. At this point I am pretty much riding blind and I'm starting to get a bit concerned that maybe this was permanent. I rode on for another 20 minutes incredibly slow... wandering all over the trail, until I finally came up to a checkpoint where I asked a medic for help.

With the help of 2 medics guiding me into the first aid centre I was pulled from the race by the acting physician. Just like that... my race was over.

After a  few eye washing under my belt, the medic explained that they had had this type of race weather conditions in past years and that it was not uncommon for this type of eye condition to develop from it.  In fact I was not the only one to get pulled from this event for this year thanks to this condition.

 

I meet up with Shaun and find out that between a bad wreck with a cactus (that involved a trip to the medic tent) I told you those cactuses were bad . Throw in a busted fork,  and his race was over  as well.

 

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That left Julie, to get the job done.Which she did, she busted out a 2nd place finish in the largest 24hr MTB event in North America. We were all very proud of her accomplishment and happy to be there to see it.

 A day later and some awesome Tex Mex and lots of laughs (not to mention  a small run in with a young Bark Scorpion), I am back on a plane headed home.

 

I got me some sunburn and some chapped lips to show for the race, and most important, my eyesight returned to normal by the following day after the race.  

Conclusion:

I enjoyed the race, I enjoyed the camaraderie with my friends, the great experiences there, but I was glad to be home to see my family.  Rest assured I am totally racing this event next year (just without contacts) and I am hoping that everybody can make it again.

Of course, I want to send out big thanks to my sponsors.  As always they go above and beyond to help me with this endeavour.

 

Active Sports Therapy, Dr Dave and Dr Claire.

Pedalhead Bike/Ski Works

Marda Loop Vet Clinic

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

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Update time

I've been busy , after returning home from OP In Tucson, Az. I started a taping,drywall project for my friend Jeff. My schedule has been pretty hectic with work,family, a side project and throw in some training and you get the idea very quickly. I was able to balance all of it, but it was challenging.

The fam and I were still able to get down to Spokane a few weeks ago and spend the long weekend with Shaun, his family and fellow racers Steve, and Julie Kelly. It was a great time had, with good food and great beer and excellent riding. The weather was in the 20-25C range and it was a welcome relief from the winter in Calgary.

Some important highlights include (me) trying out a Nitrogen charged Beer,
OakShire Esspresso.

Next race is the Salty dog 6hr race in Salmon Arm B.C.
http://www.skookumcycle.com/index.php/2013-salty-dog-enduro/

I have included a link to a vid for the 2011 event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1LOFkzfr0o


Looking forward to an amazing year of riding and racing

Some morning riding at FIshcreek

Yeah, a bit on the cold side. otherwise good test run on ISP's

A little morning ride around my house

Fun but cold -17C...

Christmas 2012

Update time,

Well after the 24hrs of Rockyhill, and the long drive home. I took a few well deserved weeks off of training and racing . I figured it was a good way to get my head back into day to day life of work and raising a family.

*Translation*  complete all of your half finished projects you left, from the start of last year's race season. Yeah, I get it. OK , some painting and electrical, and some more painting. I get all these jobs  finished around the last week of November. Happy house, let's get some more saddle time in.

Normally, the snow doesn't hit Calgary before December , and if it does it certainly doesn't stay until well into the Christmas season. If last year is an indication of our winters here , I was  riding all through to the  beginning of January with a decent shell and some light  layers of wind protection.

It's halfway though  January through to March  that are our cold miserable months here

  Not this year...  literally 2 days after I got home the average temps were dipping into the "below zero range" .

 When Zach and I went out on Halloween evening for some trick and treating action. we ended up cutting the fun short because Zach was getting pretty cold, from the -12C temps.

So, it looked like I would be resigned to riding a month or 2 early this season on the trainer.  Happily,that changed with one  great ride with Julie in the snow (with my narrow studded tires mind you) to convince me to try and get a bit more riding outside  this winter.

Enter  the "Bar mitts"and the Ïce Spiker Pros". Shaun rode on tires like these all last winter in Rossland,   And Julie has a set on her bike . They love the tires and they seem to work pretty darn good.
 So I ordered a set and man, do they look like business.  I;m looking forward to getting out and trying these out.

Now onto more important items:

Pal's

A Birthday,

A Christmas concert (or 2)

Trying to sleep Christmas eve....

Christmas trees and presents

Some fun Coffee experimenting.

Merry Christmas and all the best of the New Year to you and your families

2012 24hrs of RHR

So... while vacationing in Penticton this last August, I learned of the cancellation of the World champs in Canmore that was scheduled for September this year. That left me with an open slot for an ''A'' race to finish off the season. I had pondered the National Champs in Colorado Springs. However that wouldn't work as it was only open to US citizens.

So over some beers with Shaun at the campsite, he and I kept coming back to the 24Hrs of Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville TX. It kinda went like this...

A great grass root event, a chance to hang and chill with John Russell (Another athlete coached by Shaun, and really cool guy). Finally, a great opportunity to fuel up on some of the best Tex Mex and BBQ (and beer) that Austin has to offer.

Then there was that small item of unfinished business. That was for me to improve on my 2nd place finish at this same race in 2011.

24 Hours of Rocky Hill

 

This year was different than last year, as in... instead of just me heading down, it was actually going to be three of us racers heading down from Canada to partake in this. A real fast solo racer named, Julie Kelly ( also coached by Shaun) Shaun himself, and me.

As I planned to drive down, I could take all of our bikes, and equipment in one fail swoop, stopping in Butte, Montana long enough to pickup Shaun, his bikes and gear. Then blast off for the balance of the drive to Austin, approx 36hrs all toll.

On the morning of Wednesday Oct 17, with a full tank of diesel, and a full cooler of food, I hit the road.

8hrs later, I pull into the Best Western parking lot in Butte, Montana, hook up with Shaun, load up his gear and bikes, and 30mins later we hit the highway, Austin bound.

The GPS in the truck sent us out of our way around 170kms, (WTH?) and with a 1 hr forced detour, (thanks to a sandstorm)... add in various pull-overs for resecuring bikes due to the high wind and for fuel, we arrive in Austin around 2am Friday morning.

With  36+ hrs of driving under our belts, we finally get to  John Russell's house. John is also a racer and Shaun coaches him as well. He is super fast and has won 2 titles at this event in the past . So even though he wasn't able to compete in this race with us he was available to run our pits.

We all wake up at around 9am Friday morning, grab a small breakfast and chat for awhile, we load up and make the drive out to Rocky Hill Ranch for pit setup and a preride.

The preride was fun with me leading, and my bud John behind me, with Shaun after him and Julie picking up the rear. Around 52 minutes later and the preride under our belts, we setup our pit. We then pick up our race kits, visit with the promoters, and fellow racers and call it done, as we all jump in the truck and head off to Freebird wraps for an early dinner.

I ordered the "monster wrap" I would summize that it was in the 3-4 lb range, and yeah... I ate it all. It was a great night before meal for me. Back to John's and early to bed so we could get an early start for the morning drive back to RHR.

8:30 am all of us are up and on the road to RHR. By 11am we all have our kits on, and are ready to get this event going. Another athlete of Shaun's is competing as well (Antonio) he is also a very capable endurance athelete and I had raced at Gallup, NM earlier this year with him. Thad W and Shaun H also show up and and start helping us with our pit as they had volunteered to help John manage all of us in the pits. I was super happy with this as they both had previous race experience at this event as well and Thad just pulled off a very impressive 5th place finish at the Reveille's Peak a few weeks earlier.

THE RACE

11:55am Shaun, Julie and I are standing on the start line... 12pm and we are off for the Lemans start, Shaun and Julie are off ahead of me by a mile as I do my best to keep pace the best I can.
I round the corner and see John holding my bike for me as I hop on it for the start of this 24hr race.

The weather... it was overcast all morning, but by now that has all but burned off and we have a pretty sunny day with the highs expected in the 34's, (which it did BTW).

First Lap:
So, for the first 10 minutes I start to work my way up the field of riders ahead, just so I can settle into my rhythm without a bunch of traffic. It was a great idea until halfway up a punchy blind corner climb, a rider ahead of me rolled backwards and into me. I fell down the side of the bank, wrapping up in my bike like a pretzel as I couldn't unclip  my shoes in time. Not fun watching the balance of the race field ride away from me while I spend the next few minutes trying to get untangled from my bike.

So back on the bike, I start to ride a bunch harder to 'rework my way through the crowd, and pretty much on the start of my second lap, I get back to where I think I should be.

The balance of the day was pretty much uneventful... I was settled into my pace and riding fairly smooth, no stops in the pits, just tossing a bottle and grabbing a fistful of bottle on my way by. The day was getting hotter, and I was seriously looking forward to the night laps so that I could have some cooler laps. I figured this would be the time to start making a move to the front if I could.

Night time:
I was hoping that the evening would bring some relief from the heat and humidity... the clearings are all that felt cooler (and not by much) but as soon as you would head into the woods, it was like riding into a wall of hot humidity. So much so, that around my 10th lap I started to feel some discomfort in my legs with slight cramping. I knew this was brought on from losing so much fluid from perspiring. In fact, if I would say I had a painful lap, it was my 10th lap. I started to really get into the electrolytes and by the end of the race I was racing on nothing but on that.

The wee hours:
Around this time I start to lose my eye for detail and just focus on pounding out laps and keeping my nutrition in check. I thought at the time that Shaun was ahead of me, and that an ex 3 time winner and current 3rd place US Nats champ was ahead of me. I just didn't know how much. I just kept thinking that I will turn it up when I need to and that I felt really good for being this deep in the race. In fact it was somewhere before midnight that I was fortunate to ride a few laps with Ray Porter. Ray is a legend in Texas, he rides a SS and he is super strong. He and I raced together last year at this event (right after he completed the Tour de Divide race). I have a ton of respect for Ray and his previous accomplishments and it was super great to race with and against him at this time. A great guy!

So, it starts to get interesting around this time of night and I'm positive I wasn't hallucinating. Tree frogs... hundreds of tree frogs all over the trail, some even got the squish from bikes. Then of course there were the snakes that sauntered out onto the course. I had seen 2 coral snakes and ran over one. Then I ran over a big black and green snake, which know one knows what it is... the last one may have been in my head. But,...you couldn't miss seeing the Coral snakes. Man they are super pretty and dangerous... I can only hypothesize that they were there for the frogs.

I came into the pits somewhere after midnight ( I think l or could be later) and saw Shaun and Julie chillin out. It was only then that I found out from Shaun that I was in 1st position and that I had a lap on the 2nd place contender. He suggested that I take a small breather, which I did quite happily. It was a pretty special time as the 5 of us (John and Thad as well) talked about the event and the little things we experienced up to now. We had some serious laughs and jokes flying around and man it felt pretty cool to experience this with these guys. I will remember this for a long time.... So fun!

After about 10 mins of chillin, Julie headed out followed by Shaun, (btw he had just found out that his lead over his nearest competitor had shrunk, due to some timing delays). I was concerned about this as well, so I was out of the pits maybe a minute or so behind Shaun.

Around the 4am mark while out on course, I notice that my back wheel is actually bottoming out on the roots. I pull off the trail real quick and feel that my tire is quite low in air. I was concerned about this, but at the time I thought I would just add some air from my "big air"canister and finish off my lap. Uhm yeah, NOT! who would have thought that when I tried to add air to the tire that it actually let more out because I had a faulty "Big Air".  Are you kidding me?? So now I probably have 10-15 lbs pressure in the rear tire and no way to fill it up. I literally spent the next few minutes with the majority of my body weight over the front wheel so as to not pop or roll my rear tire.

I did this for about15 minutes when a fellow racer came up and I asked him if he had a pump. He stopped and gave me his Big Air and I was able to get enough air in my tire to get me back to the pit. I totally thanked this gentleman, then and after the race... that right there is why I love the people of Texas.

I limp back into the pits and my tire was pretty close to flat again. After a few minutes inspection from Thad, he noticed that I had a tire that was separating from itself.  Maxxis had this problem for a little while last season and it seems like I bought one of the last ones that have this problem...lucky me.

Thad and John hook me up with my spare bike, and off I go to ride my last night lap. When I came back into the pits after the lap, John and Thad had me sorted out with a spare wheel and tire, and I finished the balance of the race with this combo. It was John's wheel and tire from his personal bike and I can't say enough thanks for him for that.

Now I'm just riding defensively and enjoying my race. I feel really good, (even though it's starting to get pretty warm again)... especially with the sun coming up. It gave me renewed energy.

I complete my 21st lap and pull into the pits. Here I see Julie, Shaun, John and Thad. We discuss whether I need to keep racing or call it a day. At this time I seriously do not care either way... I still feel pretty good, and I know I am good for another lap if I need to. John ran to the tent and then back and said that there was a rider still on course riding his 21st lap and that they were expecting him back within 15 minutes or so.

There it is... Shaun hooks me up with some techno, Thad hooks me up with some nutrition and I ride out with some purpose of putting in a fast lap. Which I think I do... I pull off a 1:02 lap including some 3-5 minutes chatting and having a seat while we decide if I need to go out again.... I was happy to finish like that.

I pull into the transition area 24hrs and 34mins and somewhere in the area of 350kms completed. I come across the finish line in  1st place. I'm greeted by my friends and I feel great to be a part of this and all of our good results.

After the awards ceremony we drive back into Austin and hit up Rudy's BBQ, and then back to John's for some laughs and beers and good times for the next 2 days.... Then there was the 40hr drive home, but it felt like coming full circle.

 

I want to send out some heartfelt thanks to:

First off to my wonderful wife Coralee, she is awesome and supportive, we were both sad she could not make the trip, however there is next year.....   :)

To my coach and friend (and now driving partner) Shaun, it was truly inspiring hearing (while I was racing) how you were swinging that battleaxe! Congrats on your 1st place SS win and fastest lap!

To John, for my motivation, support and the use of your home while in Austin, 'Keep on Keepin on amigo"

John lost his mother to cancer earlier this year and that bracelet really hit home for Coralee and I.

Thank you for the honor John.

 

To Thad for staying up all night and keeping my nutrition and for all things pit related
To Shawn H, for pit support, sorry I wasn't chatting much but I knew you were there for us.. thanks.
To Julie for some ground breaking inspiration. Congrats on your 1st place win for open female!

To Dr Dave Westmacott, and all the staff at AST, thank you for fixing up my body and getting behind me in this sport. Thank you!

To Pedalhead bicycles in Calgary, for servicing my bike and for setting up my bike...I can't say thanks enough guys.

Last and  certainley not least, all the great people of Terra Firma and Rocky Hill Ranch who put on this great event year after year. Thank you

Race report, 2012 24hrs Of adrenaline

 Around 4pm on Friday:

Coralee and I, with our son Zachary were headed out to Canmore so I  could compete in the 2012 24HOA. The conditions when we left Calgary were quite favorable with the weekend forecast for sunny skies for both event days.

However, Friday turned out to be the wild weather day, as we drove straight into a monsoon at Deadmans flats. The rain and wind were so fierce it forced us to slow down to 60km/ph. until the weather subsided and we were able to drive clear of the weather front and arrive safely at the Nordic Centre in Canmore.

After about an hour of pit setup, tent, tables, lights, chairs etc, I head over to pick up my race package. After that was done, we all agree that it would be great to get checked into our hotel and grab a bite to eat. That would leave enough daylight for me to go for a quick lap of the race course before heading off to bed.

Well, finding the hotel and getting checked in was the easy part, getting a restaurant proved not so easy, as reports of  2 mudslides in and around Banff had a lot of the restaurants in Canmore full and not taking any more customers. After being turned away from 2 restaurants, we found a Lounge that would let us bring Zachary in and order dinner.  An hour later with full tummies we head back to the hotel so that I could get out for my 45 min scheduled ride and Zach could get to bed.

Hmm not so easy, another downpour rolled in when we arrived at the hotel, and I decided that I wasn't going to risk riding in that crap, until I absolutely had to. Cor put Zach to bed and I figured it was a good time for a last minute check on my race gear. It gave me something to do as it was too early for me to go to bed.

Race kit...check. Shoes, helmets and lights...check. Charger for lights... Check... err wait, one charger yes, but the plug in adapter for my main set of lights wasn't attached to the charger. I start tearing into my supply boxes, and no luck. I start to think that it's stuck in the wall socket at home in the garage where I have setup a charging station.

I tell Cor, I plan on making the drive back to our home in Calgary and see if I can find the plug-in adapter, then I would head back to the hotel in Canmore. She says she would try and see if she could get Scott (her brother) to check and see if it was there and bring it over to Vince and Laura's house as they were planning on coming out in the morning to support us.

A nervous 45 minutes later I get a picture sent to me via text from Scott showing the plug-in adapter and that he is enroute to Vince and Laura's. Man, was I relieved!

6am Saturday morning:

I wake up, make a phone call to Beamers coffee house. Great! They are open at 6am. Back to our room at 6:30 armed with a couple of latte's, breakfast sandwiches, and orange juice for Zach. I start looking through my Facebook and start seeing reports of a storm at the Nordic Centre the night before, except that there was mention of tents being destroyed and part of the race course damaged. As we are eating and getting ready for our day, Cor and I both are hitting "refresh" on our phones for updates.  8am we arrive at the Nordic Centre, our tent is destroyed and our gear is blown all over the pit lane. A quick phone call to Vince and Laura, " Are you sure you don't mind stopping off at CT and picking us up another tent?" Great ! Ok see you in a few hrs.  Bailed out again.... nice to have support!

While we clean up our mess and start getting setup as best we can, we get a couple of offers of free usage of tents from other participants, as well as the organizers. Very cool, how everyone was willing to pitch in and help. That is the heart and soul of this event, I was proud to be part of it, and because of it I was starting to feel good about my race and that I could start to not worry about our setup, that I could start to really concentrate on my 24 hr race.

Around 10am we hear on the loudspeaker, that the race has been postponed (first time ever) until 1pm so that the course volunteers could do some repairs to the race course because of the storm. At this time my Coach Shaun, with my friend Scott and his wife Lisa show up with big smiles and start setting up their storm damaged tents. The pit and the venue itself is starting to buzz and come to life... it seems that everyone is showing up to help or to get ready for the race.

12:45pm a new tent setup at my pit, a few laughs with my firends, new and old, next thing you know I'm standing at the start finish line with Shaun, waiting for the gun to go off.  I'm ready for this event I have done some good preparation for this and I can't wait to get on my bike and turn some laps.

1pm, we're off for the Lemans start, I hang with Shaun for a bit during the run, but I can't keep his pace, I hate running. 5 or so mins later I'm on my bike, and heading out on my first lap.

The first 6 hours are pretty uneventful, as I ride my bike and get in some decent laps. Early on in the event I see some of my friends from Calgary make the drive out to support me. It was cool to see them, and I really appreciated. I get some high fives from my son Zach as I pass him on pit row, as well as from Jo-Jo and Danilo, (Vince and Laura's twin boys). I'm having fun and feeling good.  As night approaches I get my lights on and settle in for the night laps,  My sponsor's from AST are at my pit cheering me on, and then later at the start finish line. Very cool!

I get reports of a bear and cougar sighting. I don't see them, it doesn't mean I wasn't keeping an eye out for them. I hear "go solo" as I round the checkpoints and common area's, it's a great vibe and the people that volunteer and participate in this event are the best. 

I get some solid lap times in during the night. I'm able to move from 11th overall up 5th, and then again to 4th by the morning hours. It was great to get the lights off, and get riding into some daylight, the first lap of the morning is my favorite by far, and it was shaping up to be a warm sunny day.

At 11:45 am Sunday, I complete my 17th lap and I'm told I have secured 3rd spot, 2nd and 1st are just a bit too far away to pull back, but I still go out for another lap hoping for the best and enjoying my last lap of the event.

24hrs and 8 mins later I finish my race and get a 3rd place podium placing at this kick ass event. I am truly proud of this, and grateful.

I may have ridden this event solo, but it was by no means a solo "effort".

I have to thank, my wonderful wife, and son. They give me the motivation and the support for my training as well as Cor being a Kick ass Pit Manager.

A huge thanks out to my coach Shaun,  (Forward Momentum coaching) still the toughest dude around who has forgotten more than most racers know. As well as making the best coffee I have ever had. I continue to learn, thank you

To Vince and Laura, I (we) are truly blessed to have you as our friends and we are grateful for all your support.

To my sponsors, Active Sports Therapy, Dr Dave and Dr Claire. You guys rock and I'm truly proud to wear the AST logo on my jersey!

To Alex, and Al at Pedalhead sports in Calgary, for setting up my bike and making it race ready. I really appreciate the top notch service you guys give me.

To my b-in-law Scott, no matter what dude, you came and got my lights sorted out . Thanks!

To my brother in Austin, TX your support and friendship is always there when I need it . Now let's go riding!


To all the organizers and volunteers (and Crazy Larry)  who work this event year after year. Yeah, I heard ya at 3am when I trotted through the timing tent. You guys are incredible and deserve a big pat on the back for this.

For a great read on this event:
http://pedalmag.com/?p=167168

Next stop, Worlds :-)