What a great weekend of racing! There were a total of 160 racers from 25 states as well as Denmark and Austria, 21 of which were competing in the 24-hour solo race. The facilities were excellent and the race organizers and over 100 volunteers did an amazing job. On Saturday, it was pretty cool to come blasting down the hill toward the four-way stop in the town square. As we approached, a sheriff was waiting to move traffic out of the way so we could blow through while slowing just enough to make the turn.
The 26.5 mile course was very tough. Before the race I had said that I didn’t think the hills were quite as steep as some had said. That was based upon riding a couple of test laps. I now stand humbled and corrected. By the end of the race I was desperately counting down how many more times I would have to crawl up the three toughest ones!
The best part was seeing so many of the recumbent family. Unfortunately there never seems to be enough time to socialize. Before the race I was preoccupied trying to get my “stuff” together and afterwards I was so worn out I was only half aware of what was going on. A special thanks to Ray Torrey and everyone else for staking out and holding such a great pit location for us and for all their help during the race.
Not having the speed of the big dogs, as usual my strategy was to stay on the bike, minimize stopping, and ride a steady pace, what JS calls “turtle racing”. My goal was to keep my total stopped time to about 15 minutes, and if I kept to my planned average time per lap and not have any flats or other problems, I could ride 390 miles in 24 hours. Of course that’s a lot of “ifs”.
In my few previous races I had only competed with myself and my own distance or time goals, not being competitive with faster fellow racers. However, in this race, if I managed to come close to my distance goal, I thought I might be fairly competitive overall. So for the first time I would be trying to keep track of where I was in relation to the other riders. As we lined up for the 6 pm start I somehow accidentally ended up in the first row. Steve Petty was the only rider next to me and as the seconds counted down to the start, as if reading my mind, he said “what am I doing up here?” But sometimes things just work out that way, and the race started as it finished, with two recumbents out in front.
During the neutral start I quickly found myself dropping back from a very fast Steve who was with several DF’s. Torn between expending enough energy to catch them and trying to avoid going out too fast, I managed to just hang on and keep them in view until I caught up later in the lap. Steve and at least one other unknown upright rider (“Mr. DF”) blew through the pits without missing a beat. Since we needed to hand-off two bottles and my wife Laurie was my only crew person, I had to do a slow rolling hand-off and once again found myself trying to reel Steve and Mr. DF back in. I caught them a few miles later and we spent the rest of lap two passing and being passed by one another.
At the beginning of lap three it was my turn to get through the pits faster than Steve or Mr. DF, and while I didn’t know for sure whether or not there were any other riders still ahead of me, I thought that I might just be in the overall lead. That was confirmed about halfway through the lap when I passed Bryan McKenney (who was racing near the front of the 500 mile race) who volunteered that no other 24-hour racers had passed him. He also suggested I dial it back a little and not burn myself out. Thinking that was sage advice, I did so only to be caught by Steve and Mr. DF and we finished the lap together.
Once again I got through the pits quicker than Steve or Mr. DF. This time I was determined not to be caught. I later found out that Steve flatted sometime during, I think, the fourth lap, and that would help me to pull away from him. There was no information on where the other racers were (lap results beyond lap 3 were not posted until after the race), so I spent the rest of the night watching my mirror for approaching lights, paranoid that at any minute the lights from Steve, Mr. DF, or some other racer would suddenly appear.
It was several hours later, as I was counting down the laps until dawn, that I passed a familiar looking upright rider. Suddenly I realized that it was Mr. DF and I had just put him a lap down. Now the question was, “where the hell was Steve?” I continued to watch my mirror. Finally, near about noon, after my insistent questioning about how far away was Steve, Laurie said “about 5 minutes.” Damn! Well, it had been fun being in the lead, but that was it. Steve was too strong and it wouldn’t be long until he caught me. I no doubt looked crestfallen when I said, “he’s only 5 minutes behind?” Laurie said, “no, he’s only 5 minutes ahead.” And then it hit me. Unless there was someone else out there than I didn’t know about, if I could just hang on for a few more hours, I was going to win this race. But again, that turned out to be a pretty big “if.”
I took off trying to catch up to Steve. I had no interest in trying to lap him even if I could catch him. But I thought if I could just get him within sight, it would take the pressure off and I could relax a little. The problem was I was fading fast, not taking in nearly enough calories. A mix of Hammer Heed and Sustained Energy has usually worked for me and I had planned to use it for the first 12 hours. But after 6, I felt really bloated and tried to switch to Boost and solid foods. But my stomach didn’t handle it well and by mid-morning I was really having trouble. As it turned out, I’m lucky I finished at all. After the race Laurie and I compared notes and discovered I took in only about 1,000 calories over the last 7 hours of riding (and since I threw up 30 minutes after I finished, I had digested even less). Averaging less than 140 calories an hour for the last 7 hours of a 24 hour race is not a recipe for success! Additionally, as the temps rose into the mid 90’s I missed getting an extra bottle of water before lap 12 and got seriously overheated. I had to take nearly 9 minutes off the bike re-hydrating and having Laurie pour ice water over me before I continued. To use another JS term, I went into “survival mode” for the last two laps. I managed to catch Steve near the end of lap 13 and was able to pass him only because he let me. After the 14th lap I still had an hour left, but I was out of gas and my distance goal was out of reach, so I called it a race. The final official total was 371 miles in 23:01 including a total of 23 minutes of stopped time.
The recumbent family made a great showing throughout the various races. Steve Petty rode an incredible race and it was great having him as friendly competition. Perhaps the most impressive ride was that of Peggy Petty who finished third among all 24 hour riders. As usual, there is much I can learn from this race, most importantly that it is back to the drawing board on fueling strategies. But what was really great for me was that I finally got to have a small taste of real head-to-head racing, the kind that we read about in the race reports of the big dogs. There is nothing else quite like it. I can’t wait to try it again.
