Monday, October 13, 2008

24 Hours of Moab

Well, things didn't quite go like I wanted them to in Moab, but here's how things ended up: Friday, Dave and I got out to the venue and set camp up....then things got interesting.

Throughout the night, the winds that were already sustained at 20-30 mph got stronger. Gusts in the 50 mph range were destroying easy-up tents left and right. In the morning the dumpster looked like a tent graveyard. I spent the whole night literally holding down the tent with Dave and Stephen and adjusting the guy-lines every time the winds changed. I finally fell asleep around 4:30 and got a few fitful hours of sleep before the buzz of activity race morning woke me up. Great...so now I was heading into a 24 hour race with about 3 hours of sleep. And the icing on the cake.... during the night, the wind would whip up lots of sand and blow it into the tent where it would settle on everything. I'm pretty sure we each swallowed atleast one metric crapload of sand and I now couldn't even take a deep breath and later would develop some nasty coughing fits.

Our lungs had the same sand coating

The gun went off and noon and it was apparent from the first lap that my legs weren't quite 100% I rode the first lap with Mark Hendershot as we tried to dodge team riders who were all over the place and taking every possible bad line. I kept motoring along in desel mode and hoped that my legs would come around in a few hours, but I just had no punch in the legs....no "moxy" so to speak.


The wind made things interesting on course, lots of sand in the eyes and lungs. By the time night rolled around I was having some pretty bad coughing fits and couldn't quite breathe 100%. It also got really really cold. I heard that it got to around 32 degrees....add in some 30-40 mph winds and you've got some nasty windchills!! I came in from my 7th lap at midnight, changed into a fresh kit and sat down for some soup and coffee and it was apparent that my mind was fried. I just couldn't will myself to ride hard like I normally can. I just couldn't make myself hurt....I was fried. I ended up crawling into a sleeping bag and crashing until about 6:30 when got up and put in another 3 laps to finish with 10 total. Not the race I wanted, but running on 3 hours of sleep at the start isn't exactly an ideal situation. Here's a cool video of the race and Josh on the way to the win.

Now, my off season has officially begun. This weekend has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and makes me even more stoked for next year. The usual fire in my belly just grew a little bit. Mentally, I'm hungry as ever, but lately I've over-eaten a bit physically and I need to rest up. I've got some big ideas for next year....but for now, I've got some tinkering in the garage to do and lots of ice cream to eat....


2 comments:

Matt said...

Yeah some years there is just one too many race in the schedule. Last year i tanked my last 12 hour....kept thinking what the hell am I doing here? BBQ and beer called me away after 6 hours....

Good call to take the rest...now go out enjoy riding for fun.

Ice cream and you are all bundled up? Saaaay what eskimo?

Anonymous said...

Fatty.

-Bro