12 Hours of Gears

My camera didn't come out until the end of the day....

12 Hour men's solo podium (above) - Congrats to Brad (3rd), Ron (1st), Chris (2nd)! Chris and Ron both did 31 laps!

Team World Bicycle Relief - Chris, Kim (support crew extraordinaire) and Brad, with Chris' brand spankin' new custom Siren! Check out that translucent paint job (beneath the trail dust), the WBR color scheme, the sweet fork, etc etc....

As for my race story - there are many peeps who deserve thanks for making it a great day at 12 Hours of Gears. Brittany, Bill, Jeff and the rest of the Pedal Moraine crew for putting on a such a fun event. Rich Ramsey for starting the event 10 years ago (he was the lean fellow in the Seven jersey on a Seven softail doing the 6 hour). Kim (see above pic) for giving me a handup and for cheering. Julie, Ben and Amanda for their enthusiastic cheering and post-race tent hospitality, Christine for taking great pics of everyone who placed. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone?

Christine the "podium" photographer.

All week I struggled to recover from the effects of Lake Geneva. My back just wasn't bouncing back from the difficult, bumpy course. I had serious doubts about whether I should be doing this race so soon after, but I didn't want to miss one of my very faves....

I had gone to the Phil Liggett event at Turin Friday night. After that I had to get groceries for the race weekend and eat. By the time I started packing my gear and food for the race it was 11 or later. I had hoped for 8 hours of sleep the night before the race but ended up getting like 5 or 6. Traffic was slow at one point but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, considering all the construction. Pulling into the lot was such a familiar feeling, in a good way. Often at WEMS races, especially the far away ones, I have no idea who's going to be there. And I still often don't know until I see them out on the trail because the other events start before mine. For this one I knew ahead of time that lots of people I knew would be there that day doing one of the events. Good people and some of my favorite trails - I was really looking forward to it! And weather-wise, it was a perfect day.

I saw Kim as I pulled into the lot, and she said that Chris was in 2nd place and Ron in first in the 12 hour. Then I saw Jan, who was telling me she met someone on my team at a YMCA women's retreat near Amherst who knows me. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out who she was talking about. I did figure it out, the person isn't on my team but her husband used to be on our old team. At registration I noticed the nice brand new shelter built from funds from previous events. It looked great. All at once I did the series entry, race entry, WORBA membership and got an out of state DNR car sticker, it all sure adds up. They had lots of items out for the raffle. I like the way they have a container for each prize, so you can put all your tickets towards the prize(s) you really want.

I took my little cooler over to the World Bicycle Relief support tent to give to Kim, who had said she would be there the whole time during my race. Julie and Molly (woof!) came over during the rider's meeting. Julie showed me the results of her endo - a very swollen painful-looking finger. Ouch. I could see purple in it's future. She was a trooper and kept riding after she jammed it. Congrats to Julie and Amanda on their second place in the women's 12 hour team category.

Bill gave us a very understated "go", on the opposite end of the scale from Don's big Goooooooo! Thank you, thank you, to Bill for not making us run very far to our bikes - this was one of the most reasonable Le Mans starts I have ever done. Unlike Stump Farm's somewhat sadistic start where it seems like we are running forever, down the hill, around the trees and back uphill again! Looking around at the start, I knew for sure that a couple of the women were faster than I.

And off we went, up the grassy hill and funneling into that rutted chute thing. Into the woods and then we hit that longish uphill.. and that was where I knew it wasn't going to be a good day for me, much as I love the trails. As I got further into the lap, I realized that not only was my back going to rebel against what I was asking it to do, but for some reason it was one of those days where I felt like I had never ridden this bike on a trail before! (this is where some of you might say, isn't that every day?) But this was in sections that I shouldn't have any trouble with, not the new twisty bumpy stuff. My bike at one point on one of the early downhills seemed like it wanted to drift off into the woods. Things did get better in that respect later on, but not as much as I would like. I felt off the whole race. But the part that really scared me was that my back was doing stuff it hasn't done before. I felt really weak, among other things. During the first lap I really considered stopping at the end of the lap. But then I decided that I would keep going as long as I could, but at a slower pace.

I try to never quit a race. Wendy B. and I used to say we'd cross the finish line unless our arms were hanging by a thread... I tried to stand and coast over the bumpiest areas instead of sitting and pedaling, which has been my 2008 "strategy" so far. If I needed to run/walk over a hill so I could give my back some relief, then that was what I would do. That made it possible for me to continue. My lap times were slow, but I kept going. It was disappointing because this is one of the few courses where I can comfortably go fast and push myself without getting in over my head.

In the first lap Ben kept me company for a little bit on that long, deceptively tough, grassy climb. One of those that looks easy but is anything but. Thanks, Ben. The newly cut singletrack sections were really hard for me, which was evident to others. They were super twisty and super bumpy. Russell, more than once, told me I was "riding like a girl". He had a point! I saw lots of familiar faces on the trail who all seemed to be riding really well - Gina, Regina, Chris, Rich, Carlos, Ron, and lots of other people that said hi. Some of whom I know and some of whom I didn't recognize. I think I spotted Anne behind me at one point in the singletrack section - congrats on doing the 6 hour! It was really inspiring to come through the finish/pit area so many times and hear people cheering! Thanks, Julie, Ben, Kim and everyone else! When I wanted to quit, it really helped.

I found myself coughing alot during the race, I'm not sure if it was from the dusty trail conditions or allergies. At dinner people were coughing, and I found out they were during the race, too.

On one of the really fast, FUN long rocky downhills (the big bouncy two track one) I found myself in a testosterone sandwich of sorts. Someone came up superfast behind me and I didn't hear them until just before they started to pass me on the right. He might have said like a word or two once he started to pass, I'm not sure. At the very moment that he was passing me, another guy bombed past me on the left without saying a word. That was bad enough, but he whacked me on the shoulder/arm as he went by. Luckily I was able to hold my line, but it really hurt and could have caused a three-person wipe out in a bad place, with one of us going over the side. If he apologized, I didn't hear it. I realize that I wasn't descending fast enough for the guys, but wouldn't one at a time have been better? Anyone know a lean, possibly tallish guy wearing a white with yellow and black jersey without words on it? I later saw him coming out of a camper in the middle of the field. On Sunday I was telling the girls at Kettle about it and Sonni said that used to happen to her all the time in the six hour right after the three hour would start. The three hour guys would pass her on both sides at once. So I guess it's not that unusual.

So, on my second to last lap I was wondering if it should be my last. My first lap time was faster than all the later ones, and I wasn't sure if I could squeeze in another lap before the cutoff time. I knew I was slowing down and running out of steam. I decided to try and see if I could do it. This was where I wish I had better course memory. Some people always know what's next but I am not one of those people on a course I ride once a year. It was hard during the lap to gauge whether I was going to make it or not. Mike from Skinny's passed me and I told him I wasn't sure exactly how much time I had. I wasn't sure if my watch was the same, ahead, or behind the timing system. It would be a shame if I thought I had more time than I did due to not paying close attention to any difference at the start. First he said I had 10 minutes then he looked at his watch and said 7. 7 was what my watch said. As we turned the corner by the last Trek banner and got into the grassy open field I realized I might not be able to make it in the 4 minutes I had left so I pulled out everything I had. I passed Mike in the field and flew as fast as I could to the finish. I could see on the timing clock that I had less than a minute of wiggle room left when I crossed the line!! Whew! I think official timing had me at less than 30 seconds before the cut off time.

A much happier ending than one year at the Metro race at Crystal Ridge where I was dragging myself up that long ski hill watching the clock hit 8:00, then 8:01 before I crossed the line. That was painful, physically and mentally! (all the races used to end at 8 a few years back) One year at 12 Hours of John Muir, my teammates were doing a 12 hour team and we were all yelling into the woods for singlespeed Bob to hurry up, it was almost 8! We were all screaming for him to go faster, although we had no idea if he was getting close or not. He just missed it.

I got a chance to visit with people after the race - and I rested and chatted for a bit at the Half Acre tent after the race. Then I got a medal at the awards ceremony. I stuck around and saw the 12 hour racers finishing, and saw their ceremony and got the above podium shot. Afterwards I went to dinner at a yummy Mexican place with Chris, Kim, Brad, Ronsta, his friend, and the Peters family and friends, including Nate. I hadn't met the Peters family before. It was a fun meal. After that I debated on whether to drive all the way home, or to stay overnight and stop at Kettle on Sunday on the way home to meet up with the girl's ride. I knew that if I went home I probably wouldn't feel like driving back to Kettle that early.

Congrats to everyone on a great race. I saw a lot of really strong riders out there, very impressive.

I will add the rest of the weekend later. I'm finishing this up really late Monday night and I have run out of steam.