Ridin' in the Wind

Come On - It Will Be FUN

As our mountain bike group received notice that there would be a 24 hour race in our area, I looked at the ladies and said, "I wanna do this."  With a little begging for some and not so much for others, I convinced them to help me make a ladies team for this race.  We started to brain storm who we could pull in to ride with us when the men announced THEY were going to do a corporate male/female team.  Going with the flow, three of us decide to join the men.

Home Sweet Home

Camping was first come, so my hubby and I arrived the night before and set up with a few other team members, we stayed the night in order to preserve our location which was right at the start line.  Best decision EVER!

Our crazy crew plus two

With twelve of us on the team, I knew that I would only be hit up for a max of two laps. My first lap was at about 6:30p and I was thankful it was still in the daylight hours even though I had preridden the course two days prior to this race.

Our first three riders came in under an hour each and we were clearly front runners in this race.  UH OH!  I was originally in this for the comraderie but now I wanted to win.  Darn competitive side!  What was I gonna do?  I'm the only BEGINNER rider in the group. 

Our next three riders finished in less than 75 minutes each.  As each guy came in, my adrenaline would rush and I would get dizzy and nauseous knowing that I was the slow one on this team.  I prerode the course at an hour and thirty minutes.  If I could hold that pace and not get off my bike, I would be happy. . .or would I?  I REALLY wanted to go faster! 

The dreaded staircase

As first female on our team to ride, my first obstacle was to carry my 30 lb. bike up these stairs, accross the overpass and down the other side.  I considered riding down, but I didn't want to risk breaking something before I even hit the trails, so I took the conservative route and walked my bike down.

Up and over to get out to the trails

My second hurdle was to get over the first BIG one mile long hill so I could start riding the trails.  I had so much adrenaline going through me, I was worried I'd go too fast at the start and not be able to finish strong at the end.  I hit the spin mode on my bike and managed to keep a steady pace up and out of Laguna Seca.

After that first climb, we tooled up some fire road that had rolling hills with gravel.  A couple miles of this and we finally hit our first single track - trail 50 (pics above).  It was somewhat downhill and fast but very narrow in some places with many sandy turns and Lee's tree (he had a mishap at a sneaky right and warned me of it during our preride).  A little over a mile of this beautiful downhill stuff and it was time to climb 49.

Trail 49 UP

I knew trail 49 was 1.4 miles long with 500 feet of climbing so I set by bike back on spin mode and began to climb. Looking at the time on my Garmin, I was right on track as to where I wanted to be. I was feeling pretty good. . .all of a sudden my left handlbar hit a tree. . .my bike did a little hop to the right and I lost control.   Knowing I was going down, I leaped off my bike as it started to skid down the cliffy embankment.   WHEW!   It caught on a tree, I didn't have to chase it down that hill. . .as I was pulling my bike back up to the trail, I was passed by a guy whose comment was "impressive dismount, you OK?" Humbled by getting too comfortable, I jumped back on and finished my uphill climb to the rock paying a bit more attention to what I was doing.

Trail 49 DOWN

My third hurdle was the back side of 49.  That 1.4 mile climb was now a .1 mile drop for that same 500 feet.  It was wide but rutted and I had walked it during my preride.  I was determined to ride this down.  Three guys were in front of me taking it at breakneck speed when I heard a "pop" followed by some very choice words.  The front rider blew his tire and the other two stopped to assist him (no injuries).  Me?  I got off my bike and walked it - CHICKEN was my new middle name.

Ewok

It was time again to start climbing.  First was Ewok which was a mile of beautiful single track with lots of twists and turns that ended at the bottom of Three Sisters.  Next it was climbing up Outhouse which was another two miles just like Ewok.  Saw lots of riders on these two trails which I found kind of pleasing since most of my races, I'm out there all by myself.

Skyline

Exiting Outhouse put us on Skyline Road which was my final big hurdle.  Two more miles of uphill climbing but these were rolling so there was rest options (I thought).  What I learned was when I cleared the top of each hill, the headwinds took my breath away and I had to pedal down hill as well as up.  As I worked my way through this, I realized I wasn't going to make my goal of 1 hour and 30 minutes.  At this point, I was passed by a gazillion people while I struggled to catch my breath and told myself to just keep going.  I started counting my spins (four sets of four seated, two sets of four standing) and that kept me focussed to where I no longer remember this part of my ride.

Trail 47

The final climb out was Trail 47.  At this point I was so tired, I don't even remember riding this trail.  All I know was when my bike hit the tar and some guy said I was almost home, I looked up and realized Laguna Seca was less than a half mile below me and I increased my gears and FLEW down that final hill.  Soooo worth the climbs - it was like your little half mile bonus. 

Yep, that would be me

At the finish were all my team mates and it felt GREAT to have them all cheer me on as I rode in and our next rider rode out.  Even though I was the slowest, they were incredibly supportive of my decision to do this with them.  I know I rode this the best I could and I plan on doing this again next year.  Maybe even with an all gals team - though I may have to do some hard convincing.  8-)

 Our last five riders, cleared their first laps and the second round began.  Our whole team completed 23 laps in 24 hours and we scored second place behind an all male team of eight guys that finished 24 laps.  What a great weekend of biking, camping, grilling (my hubby had steak already cooked for my after ride meal) and beer.  One more item marked off my wanna do list.

A matching set - One for me and one for my hubby