just getting there!

To start this thing off, the preparation that went into this thing kind of made riding it easy. What bikes to bring, charging all the lights extra tubes extra rims, etc. etc. etc. So once everything was loaded it was off to pick up Mitch to load up all his stuff, between us we had a lot of stuff, but we made it all fit!! Me and Mitch have a lot in common besides bikes of course, so the drive there was enjoyable. Before now I had ridden with Mitch a few times but never had the chance to talk to him, very knowledgeable guy about a lot of good stuff. So we roll into town about 1 or 2 and the first thing we are thinking is getting something to eat. Fazzolis was the choice for our prerace preride meal. Mitch found us a perfect spot along the course, setting everything up and checking in didn't take long and before we knew it we were out for a fun preride of the course. Preride went great took a lot of pics. and just road at a comfortable pace. So by the time we get back a lot of people or starting to show up, we are very stoked at the spot we got and decide to hit the showers. That has to be the coolest thing ever. The rest of the night was pretty basic eat a lot rest a lot more and enjoy everybodys company. Man I was very stoked when Mike T showed up, hadn't had a chance to talk to him so I didn't know if he was coming, He didn't show up until late and I think most of the rain drops already stopped falling. bummer or bummer not I think the rain actually helped the course out, just sucked we had to cram everything under the canopy. With having the camper there it made for a great night sleep, I think it was the best I have ever had before a race. So race morning came and I could tell I was already over excited for this one, would of rather of taken the Mitch approach! It wasn't long and Chad and Nathan had made it here. So we had a full support crew for the 3 of us doing it solo. I wish I could say everything was going smooth, but for the most part it did, I do owe Mike a big thanks for fixing my flat before I ever started the race and Chad for bringing down some extra rim strips. and with that man we were ready to race....

24

First hearing about a 24hr mountain bike race some years back before I even had a mountain bike or for that matter even thought about riding a bike is what eventually got me into riding bikes and then racing them. From my first beginner race in 2003 this was always my goal to do a 24, its kind of funny because this was so much like a beginner race for me. I had some goals that I wanted to make sure I would accomplish and did. I owe the biggest thanks to Nathan Means and Mike Teiber for all there help, you guys were awesome!! and it wouldn't of been near as much fun if Chad and Mitch wouldn't of been there, it was great to get to ride with each of you guys on some laps. Chad I still feel bad I didn't recognize you on one of the laps but it still makes me laugh when i think about it, its amazing how focused you can be. I stayed awake for the whole thing and loved every second of it, did more miles than I thought I would a lot easier than I thought it would be. met some very cool people especially Matt and Josh look forward to riding and racing with you guys again. I felt at one point in the race everybody there was supporting me and that was a great feeling. for everybody that did this race I'm sure you feel the same way I do we all accomplished something great a 24hr race!! when I can feel my hands again I will do a full race report because there is so so much I would love to share...

perfect week off

This was a perfect week to take off, great weather, finally got to see a road race, lots of camping and a cool trip to the zoo...

now its time to get ready for the big race, should be a nice trip through hell!!

Fear of the Dark

So I just downloaded this from mp3search.ru, Fear of the Dark its by Chuck Billy tribute to Iron Maiden. I have had the Maiden version in the ipod for a while now, Chuck Billy really does a great job with it!

I am a man who walks alone
and when I'm walking a dark road
at night or strolling through the park
when the light begins to change
I sometimes feel a little strange
a little anxious when its dark.
fear of the dark, fear of the dark

I have constant fear that somethings always near
fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someones always there

have you run your fingers down the wall
and have you felt your neck skin crawl
when you're searching for the light?
sometimes when your scared to take a look
at the corner of the room
you've sensed that somethings watching you.

have you ever been alone at night
thought you heard footsteps behind
and turned around and no ones there?
and as you quicken up your pace
you find it hard to look again
because you're sure there is someone there........

A little wet!!

Wednesday evening I headed out to greensfelder for a pre ride of the race course, bummer was it had just started raining when I got there. The cycleworx guys were there and Mike T the ICCC guy, lucky for us we ran into single speed Tom to show us the race course. What a good time! Well Friday the race was on and off a few times because of all the rain we were getting. By Saturday morning things were a little wet but the course was super fast. Race started like normal. This race I wanted to go redline for a bit then recover and do it again just to see how recovered I was from the 12 last week. Got behind a single speed guy off the start which was a bummer cause this course is hard to pass on, still was making some good time. by the second lap pretty much passed the rest of the other classes and it was an open course. Rain started falling pretty good just before the expert cross country race, course was starting to get pretty slick. Did the best I could to hang with some of the faster cross country guys that was a lot of fun! Finished up with 12 laps just a little before 3hrs. The beginner race was cancelled do to rain and the course was in pretty bad shape. This one was tough for the promoters, so a big thanks goes out to them for all there hard work!!



Over the last couple of years I usually had a hard time recovering from back to back races, seems I have that dialed in pretty good these days. 3 weeks 3 races still feel very strong. So up next is some big road rides to get ready for this http://www.grannygear.com/ 24hrs on a bike, ok so probably like 20 or something, should be interesting! only 2 weeks away.

12hrs of Sac

Did this race last year and it was a lot of fun, so i wanted to do it again this year. Left saturday morning at 6am for the 3hr drive to Springfield. After a few gas station stops to load up on ice and some energy drinks and to fill the tank so I didnt have to on the way home I was at the race site. Found a good spot to set up and plan out what I wanted to do for the day, lots of things I was wanting to try out. So the race started like usual line up for the run. normaly I would take my time on the run and just set a easy pace off of the start get into a zone for the rest of the 12hrs. But not this race, this race I wanted to go hard for the first hour and then set into a pace that I thought I could do for the granny 24. So the race started and I jumped up front with Doug Long and Nathan not a real hard pace but we pretty much dropped everybody else pretty quick. This course was totally different then last year they added 1 1/2 half miles of new single track, it looked like they just built it like last week or something! very cool! The course was pretty technical very tight and twisty with some serious fast technical sections.they said it was about a 6 mile loop. So we came in the first lap together witch was hard to beleive the fastest lap of the day. Doug went really hard on the second lap but flatted towards the end or he would of got it. The race went really fast tried out some drink mixtures, (grapefruit juice, gatorade and perpetium with a endurolite every hour and got to have a little NOS energy drink (very bad) but I love the stuff. The race went perfect never any major problems, about 4hrs in I got a flat on the front tire but I got the stans to seal, the only problem was when I got back to the pits to air it up the valve on stans strip blew out. Lucky for me Brian Adams and his wife and there teamate were set up next to me, I owe them big for fixing my tire. I had a extra rim that I put on the bike, and they fixed the flat for me while I went out, I never put that one back on I had 2.3 on there now and it felt better so that is what I stayed with, and since I never used that tire again I stayed pretty much self supported but mentally it was nice to know I had another tire ready if I needed it, thanks greatly! By this time the course was pretty much flat city if you got out of this race with out a flat you should play the lottery!! By 7hrs in I pretty much had a lap or two on the solo field and wasnt to far back off of the teams and the pace felt to good. Every now and then somebody would come from behind and it was cool trying to stay ahead or chase, night time made it real fun, had a few fast laps just to keep things interesting, this course was awesome at night. So I stopped the race a little after 11pm was about 2 1/2 laps up on the closest person. This race was a lot of fun and a good warm up for the 24. These guys put on a great race, give out tons of free stuff and pay big, to big!!