Race Report: 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo MTB Race

Team "Tucson Tri Girls and Guys on Bikes"

Yes, it has taken me forever to do my race report! Sorry!

Zac and I arrived on Friday to the race venue and were greeted with falling snow and a horribly muddy road. The road reminded me of swamp buggy races, complete with sippy holes. We tried to go the speed that allowed us to float on top of the mud, and in some parts our trailer was throwing a wake. We got to our preferred camp spot on Fairwheel Blvd, dropped the trailer, parked the muddy RV, and roped off the area for our teammates that would be arriving on Saturday morning. I found a hole in the weather at about 1:30PM and used that chance to get my 1 hr run in. Sure enough, just as I was coming back to camp the sleet started up again, and continued for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

This was a "fun" race for us and our team. To set the tone (and because I had the time on my hands due to the storm) I made up foam TTG suns for the tops of our helmets for Shari, Liane, and I. It took me 2 and a half hours to do those 3. But they looked awesome. If you're just out there for fun, you have to have goofy stuff on your helmet. :) Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or materials to make decorations for Zac and Kyle. The guys were kind of bummed about that. I'll have to make it up to them next year. But we got a lot of great compliments on the course about our cool helmet decorations.

The next morning, the rest of our team arrived safely to the venue. I was worried the road would be bad and an RV would roll and block the entire road. Everyone set up camp, and we got Kyle, our first rider, all set to go. Everyone on our team was used to 24 hour racing, except Shari, who was our newbie. You always have to have a newbie on the team that may either have a lot of fun, or may hate you and the sport forever. Fortunately, Shari had fun. :) I decided to put experienced people at the front of the rotation, where the crowd would be, and at the back where the night laps would start. Shari would be in the middle where it would be less crowded on the trail for the first lap, and still in the daylight.

We got Kyle's bike racked, complete with a smiley face balloon so that he could find his spot. He had the "run" lap, with the Le Mans start. Everyone ran about 400 yards to the bike racks, and the race was off. About an hour and a half later, Kyle rolled into the transition tent, and I was off for my first lap. Everything was pretty good on that first lap, except the rebound on my rear suspension. I kept smacking my pedals into everything, so the rear was too soft. I got back to transition and handed off to Shari for her first lap, and headed back to camp for adjustments to the bike. Kyle was already taking his first nap.

Liane got set to go, and wired up her lights as she would probably be getting back when lights needed to be on per the race rules. Shari made it back to camp in one piece, and told us how she had crashed and gotten run over by some guy. Holy crap! A quick check of her back and yep, tire marks were still there. Of course we got the camera out and took a pic of the evidence. Most would pack up and peel out of there after that experience, but Shari was a trooper and got something to eat and stuck it out. She's tough as nails. Especially since she was doing a 24 hour race with less than 20 hours of mountain biking experience.

About this time, we were visited by lots of friends. Tri Girls Kathy, Bizzy, and Karen came by our camp, as did our friends Johnny and Tony. It was great hanging out with everyone by the campfire. Bizzy told us that Liane had a mechanical, and had left transition pretty late. It turns out she had had a catastrophic failure with her tire valve, and hiked back a few miles on the trail to the expo to get help. Overall it cost her about 40 min, but we were just glad everything was ok. She left and got back in the dark, so Zac's first lap was also in the dark. He's used to this position in the rotation on the team, so he was cool with that.

After that, we all fell into a groove. We had a white board at our camp where everyone wrote down the times the person they handed off to left, so that we could estimate when we needed to be in transition. Everyone ate when they needed to, slept when they could, and everyone took care of themselves. It was an awesome team! I had a little snafu where I wanted to take an hour nap between 10 and 11 PM. I set my alarm, but didn't hear it go off. Zac came in at 11:07 to wake me up. I ended up missing Kyle in the timing tent by 10 min, but he had left the baton for me and headed back to camp. We must've just missed each other. So I had an extra 10 min added to my night lap, but that really didn't matter for me.

It was midnight at this point and getting COLD. I had 2 pairs of thick socks and full booties on my feet and my feet still froze. That was the only part of my body really cold. I slowly rode along, and got some greetings from some of the aid stations like "Golf" where they would call out "Welcome to Golf" as you rode by. I hit the new singletrack and there were large movie cutouts of aliens and cowboys out there that weren't there on the first lap. Someone with a headlamp came walking up from behind the cowboy and said "Good job!" and I screamed. I thought the cowboy was talking to me! The guy said "oh, sorry about that!" when I laughed and told him why I screamed at him. I made it to the "Hotel" aid and needed to drink some of my nutrition mix in my bottle. They had a nice little fire going, so I pulled over and visited with the aid station guys while I warmed my feet and drank my mix. They invited me to sit down, but I told them if I did that, I'd never get back up again! I found a gap in the racers and jumped back onto the course. I made it to "India" and made one last stop to drink before starting the hellacious climb on the Highline trail. I hate this climb! I prefer climbing the 7 Bitches over this long grind. I slowly pedaled along, and finally made it to the peak of the trail and the fast descent back to the timing tent where Shari was waiting for me.

I couldn't tell if she was pissed or not, but it turns out she was nervous about the night lap. I told her to just go slow, stop and rest/eat when she needed, and take as long as she wanted. This would be her last lap, so I told her to take her time. She got on her bike and started the loop. I got back to camp, which was deserted. Everyone had retreated to their shelters. I threw another log on the fire, and sat by the fire to warm up and drink my recovery drink. It was 2 AM at this point, and I tried to be quiet and not wake up Liane and Nate who were sleeping in their tent close by. I finished my drink and changed clothes and got into bed. I woke up about an hour later just to see if Liane was up and heading out, and sure enough she was on top of everything and all set to head out for her second night lap. We had gotten thrown off a bit on rotation times, so Liane ended up with 2 night laps (normally that happens to Zac who goes last in rotation). But at least she got to see the sunrise.

I was asleep when Shari had made it back, so I wasn't sure if she was alive or not. I woke up after about 2 hrs of sleep and Kyle was getting ready to go. I don't remember Zac going out for his second lap after Liane. I hung out by the fire and Shari emerged from her truck, so I was glad to see she was in one piece. She had even ridden through the tough spot where she had crashed earlier, and didn't even know it! Kyle went out for his 3rd and last lap. Zac came rolling in, so I decided to go ahead and get ready. Not long after I started dressing I got a call from Kyle on the course. He had a flat at mile 7 and was changing it, and wanted to know if I wanted him to wait at the tent before crossing the line at noon. There's a rule in the 24 hour race that someone on the team has to finish after 12PM, or the team gets a DNF. So at about 11:30AM, racers will wait just in front of the tent if no one on their team wants to go out. I told him I was ready for my 3rd lap (I needed to get 5 hrs of biking in for my training anyways), so he could come in when he was done. He came in at about 11:30AM, on a flat rear tire, and as he left the tent, the front was flat as well.

I headed out for my 3rd and final lap, feeling pretty good. I felt like I was keeping a good pace, but slower than the first lap. I got passed by people racing for the finish (some guy made it a point to say "chasing the leader" as he passed...like I care), but rolled along just enjoying the ride. A guy on a beach cruiser and wearing a prison costume passed by, and since I let him pass he played music out of his little radio for me that was mounted on the rear of the bike. We leap-frogged each other a few times, but I passed him on the final climb up the Highline trail when he was looking cooked. My legs were SO tired at this point! I couldn't absorb the bumps with my legs, so I got the "crazy legs" on the final descent to the timing tent, where you're too tired to care that you're going too fast. Luckily I didn't crash. I rolled in just before 1PM, closing out the final lap for our team.

Everyone on the team did awesome, and had a blast. We had a ton of fun just hanging out by the campfire. It was a great team, and hopefully we'll be able to do it again next year.

Here are the pics from the race. Liane also has some great pics on her website here: Liane's 24 Hour Photos

And Liane's race report is here: Liane's 24 Hour Race Report

The weather as we headed out to the course on Friday:

Willow Springs Road:

Helmet decorations:

Race meeting:

Hanging out at camp:

We had lakeview property. We could have warmed up with a swim and done a brick.

Kyle getting ready for his first lap:

He was still clean at this point:

And they're off! The start of the race:


Kyle making his way through the fray:

Getting ready for my first lap:

Shari getting ready for her first lap:

Me finishing my lap:

Tire marks on Shari's back from getting run over:

One of the rare daylight photos we have of Liane riding:

Visitors at our camp. Tony is radioactive:

Campfire = good. Kyle kept trying to convice Nate to do a lap under the name of "Kyle". I don't think Nate bought it.

Zac in the timing tent, waiting for his first lap to start:

Me heading out for my 3rd and final lap:

Zac packing up camp:

The Tri Girls! Shari, Me, Liane:

Who's gonna wash the van?