World Solo Championships 24 Hours of Adrenalin from the eyes of a tent ho

Canmore, Alberta - July 26, 2008

It's taken me awhile to post this. We really had a great time although this race was definatley run in the worst conditions that Ray has had to endure up to this point.

We landed in Calgary on a Wednesday evening. By the next morning we had found the grocery store and the Walmart and started stocking up for our pit area. We headed out to Canmore and found out we wouldn't be able to check into our hotel until 4:00, so we did some site seeing in Banff.

The race......

What's it take to get ready for a 24 hour MTB race?

From a racers perspective, lots of training and good genetics but I don't really worry about that part cus I'm the Pit Manager. In other words, I get to worry about all the little details that have nothing to do with me riding a bike but everything to do with my racer riding for 24 hours. So, we have started some preparation. We leave this week on Wednesday. A few items that have been taken care of by the Pit Manager:

Flight - check --lucky for us we had enough miles for both to fly free. We are also grandfathered under the old baggage policy so we don't have to pay for checked bags. We only have to pay $80 to check the bike.

Hotel - check --unlucky for us this thing is in Canmore and man is it expensive $$$

Car - check --lucky for us we are USAA members and get a big ole discount on car rentals

Bike box - check --lucky for us, Rich has 2 and he's letting us borrow one (these are about $300)

Now to decide how to get the nutrition to the race. Here's what we got so far:

10 - servings Sustained Energy (protein), this is enough for 10 bottles.

2- bottles Hammer Gel. He can down one of these in 12 hours.

1 - bottle of Endrolyte capsules. These are electrolytes and keep you from cramping.

2 - tubes chamios cream. If you sat on a seat for 24 hours, you might need some of this.

Real food will be purchased once we get to Calgary.

We won't be shipping this due to the cost. We will have to take our chances with our checked baggage. Hopefully the drug dogs will leave our bags alone.

Now all the things switched out on this bike for this race:

Tires - New Specialized The Captains + new sealant.
Bottom bracket - Used Phil Wood
Cranks - Used Eno
Brake pads - new
Gribs - New Titec Hell bent

Put it all together and ride it around a couple of times then disassemble and put into the bike box.

All we have to do now is pack and we are ready to go.

Judgement Day

Judgement Day - 12 trails in 24 hours. 95+ miles of riding and 200 miles of driving. June 14th, start time 5:30am, finish time 12:20am. I handled the driving portion, they handled the riding. Donna was there for support and company throughout the day and Teresa showed up as our entertainment and spare part mechanic. This was the 2nd JD that Ray and Tom have completed. They both hung in there all day and through the night even through 100 degree weather, multiple crashes and mechanical breakdowns. They ended up finishing the expert distance with 2 other fast boys that started 30 minutes ahead of them. This picture is at the start of JD around 5:15am or so at River Legacy park.

List of trails ridden in this order:

River Legacy - 1 lap

Cedar Hill - 12 mile loop

Boulder - Red loop

OCNP - all loops

RCP - all loops except 13

Arbor Hills - 2 laps

IDB - all loops

Johnson Branch - all loops

Knob Hills - one way, full lenght

Northshore - one way, full lenght

Horseshoe

This picture is at the end, around 12:20am (Sunday morning!) at Horseshoe Trail at Grapevine Lake. They don't even look tired! We ended up at IHOP for anything that had pancakes with it, and our heads finally hit the pillow around 4am. I'll just consider this my training for the 24 hour race coming up at the end of July -- Gina