Coolest 24 Hour Endurance Race

The race went good except I had to work through a torn right calf from the beginning which made it a long and painful 24 hours. I got 15 laps in for about 200 miles so that was cool. Also, I was battling out the last couple laps with the pro Sean Sullivan from Independent Bike Fabrications and that made it a lot of fun. I ended up in 5th place out of 19 (3 of the 4 guys were pro/semi-pro that beat me) in the solo 24 hour singlespeed class so I am very happy.

Ryan was a stud and rode amazingly strong just like he did last year. Blairski was our pit stud so he helped us stay on the bikes as much as possible. Team grognard got 3rd place in 4 man team singlespeed. Todd won 8 hour singlespeed class. Roger retired from 24 hour racing. Bob got 2nd place in 8 hour geared masters.

I have realized there is an insane difference between a 24 hour race and any other typical bike/running race, double century, or even 8/12 hour races. Pushing your body for 24 hours through the heat of the day, the cold of the night, rapidly consuming mass quantities of sports drinks that make your body want to hurl on top of the pain of riding the bike, skipping nutrition/sleep to save time, getting gruesome saddle sores, and all the other crap is just an evil challenge.

I did have a great time this weekend overall. I really appreciated everybody who showed their support (thanks for all the cheering as I came through the finish chute) and I thoroughly enjoyed my last couple laps of duking it out with Sean Sullivan.

But, I had some evil moments of perpeteum coming back up which made it hard to get enough nutrition in my body, my right butt cheek became a bloody, painful mess, the cold wind at 4am made me shiver like a little girl and forced me to take a break to warm back up, and my right calf felt like I was being stabbed on every pedal stroke (because I tore/pulled it the previous weekend grinding up some steep hills at the Devil Mountain Double). I thought my calf had mostly healed and I knew I should have let it heal longer but my dumb ass couldn't miss the 24 hour race.

I have ended up tearing it further on the 1st lap and endured that for 15 laps thanks to a little ibu and adrenalin. Now that the race is over I can barely straighten my lower leg or walk now. Any advice on how to heal it?? I hope I can get back on the bike soon.

Devil Mountain Double Century 4/26/08

I did the Devil Mountain Double which started in San Ramon, CA and climbed Mt Diablo, Morgan Territory, Patterson Pass, Mt Hamilton, Sierra Road (~15% grades for about 6 miles), and more for a total of over 20,000 feet of elevation climbed and 206 miles ridden. The weather was great since there was only mild wind in small portion of the ride.

I got 26th place out of 175 riders who started and finished under 15 hours before dark (even though official results say 15:09).

Auburn to Concord Road Ride

Todd and I rode from Auburn at about 5:30am and arrived in Concord at mile 120 at about 2pm. It was incredibly windy. It was like riding up hill for the whole ride without being able to change your position and having your bike turn into a bucking bull. There were a couple times when we had the wind to our back and we were crusing along at about 24 miles an hour and then we did a u-turn and headed back into the wind and had to work hard to maintain 13 miles an hour. It was a very rough day and both of us rejoiced when we got to climb the bridge to Antoich and Kirker Pass.