24 Hours of Moab 2007 was a blast!
Jo and I were on different teams so we had the opportunity to race at the same time (a first) and enjoy our down time together. My team (Doug D., Pablo, Doug W., Angela) were mostly airline people and Jo's team (Lisa, Mike, Brion, Tony) were all Emergency Medical people.
My Team
Jo's Team
They were all great people and hanging out was just as much fun as being out on the race course. This year there wasn't tons of pressure and suffering like in 2005, nor 100 year floods and mud as in 2006. Our 5 person coed team didn't win, but we did well for our circumstances and most important we had fun which was my number 1 goal. My other goal was to ride the 15 mile course with 1360 feet of climbing in under 1:20, actually I was shooting for 1:15. In 2005 my first (and best) lap was 1:15:32, followed by 1:17:45, and 1:17:55 respectively, the 9 laps I rode in the race averaged out to 1:31 a lap. In both races I also did the start lap (featuring a running start), the most night laps, and the finish lap. What more could you ask for in a 24 hour race!
Sunset against the La Sals
Jo and Angela
I fell short of my sub 1:20 goal, although, Doug did beat it with a 1:19:58. Well done Doug!! My first lap was 1:34:41, but it was plagued with a mechanical drama that sapped about 20 min off my time. Without the drama, I feel pretty confident that I would have crossed the line at 1:15 +/- a minute or two. I used my experience from the 2005 start lap to develop a good strategy this year. Moab has a dusty 200 yard Le Mans (running start) before you get on the bike followed by about 1 mile of wide dirt road leading into the first technical climb. Most people go "all out" on the run and then "blow up" (that's ride slow for you non-cyclists) by the dirt road or first climb. My strategy was to take my time on the run and then ride at maximum effort to work my way to the front on the dirt road. Jo did her team's first lap too, so we opted to take our time and enjoy the run together.
Warming Up the Legs
Jo Smiling in the Dust
Dust at the Back of the Pack
(I'm #172, that's Jo to my right)
Once I got on my bike, I put the hammer down. I'm a better sprinter than a climber so I tried to get as far ahead as possible while still on the flat dirt road. I was passing people faster than ever before, aggressively yet courteous. I felt like a such rock start blazing by everyone that I worried my head would get too big to squeeze through the gaps! As the peleton spread out I got in a rhythm and would just hang to the sides or work an gap in the center if I needed to. By the start of the climb I was chomping at the back of the lead pack.
Once in the climb I was warmed up and it was time to shift strategies. When I started riding this spring my healing knee slowed me down on the climbs. To adapt, I was forced to work on tech skills and balance to clear (ride) the technical sections of trail. I called it "ultra slow climb mode". It would frustrate the hell out of people I rode with because I would go up the technical stuff so slow that they would have to get off and walk if they didn't get in front of me.
In the weeks before the race I gained had some climbing speed back, but still used my honed tech skills to climb the hardest lines. The first half of the race course in Moab is a technical climb followed by some technical rolling sections. You can climb the whole course in the middle ring yet the trail is filled with typical Moab slickrock steps and ledges with the easiest lines on the outsides of the trail. During the start lap when everybody is grouped together these lines are packed tire to tire and it can be impossible to pass. My strategy was to ride straight up the middle, picking the hardest lines and passing all the people stuck in traffic jams on both sides. It worked great because my body was used to the power output required for the technical riding so I didn't blow up. It was almost easier to ride the technical sections at my own pace rather than have deal with other people's pace on the easy lines.
Top of the Climb
Jo Passing #38 so Fast he Almost Crashed!
At the top of the first descent I could see the race leaders rocketing up the next climb across the small canyon. They were fast!! I was also catching people who were at or above my skill and fitness level and having to work harder and harder to pass and not be passed. It was good fun and with the worst of the climb over I was settling into my groove. Passing slower people is fun, but it's more fun to race someone evenly matched.
Sandy Descent
The backside of the course is made up of long, fast straight sections with small technical bumps and gulley's. The only way I was going to hang with the people I had worked my way up to would be to get in the big ring and stay in some one's draft. I was in a pace line with about 6 other riders by the first straight. It lead into a hard left turn so I positioned myself to the inside for the pass. As I entered the turn I leaned the bike way down low and sling shot up past the guy in front of me I felt a horrible feeling through the bike. It is a feeling I have known many times before. My stomach turned sour. I mentally weaved a nest of denial to crawl into. I finished the pass and stuck on the wheel of the next guy in the pace line, but it I knew it was all in vain now. My comfortable nest of denial started to fade away just like the air slowly hissing out of my rear tire. With each pedal stroke I felt more mush and less speed as the tire went flat.
Some of my blog regulars might remember a certain (just scrool down) where I burned a bike pump and swore off flat tires for ever with the installation of new tubeless tires. As I drifted to a stop I couldn't face the reality that my rear tire had gone flat. I had set up my tubeless tires with tons of Stans sealant so that even if the tire was punctured it would self-seal. I got off the bike and could see huge drips of sealant and sand oozing out of a 1/4" slash in the center of the tire. I topped off the air pressure and spent 5 minutes rocking the tire back and forth to get more sealant into the slash. It seemed to work at first and I clipped back in trying to ignore all the people that blew me while I was stopped. My rhythm was broken, but at least I was back in the game and could start working my way back up to the front right! Wrong!! After about a mile the tire was limp again, it just wouldn't seal. It was time to make a decision - do I spent the rest of the lap periodically stopping to top off my tire pressure and risking a failure or do I take a long stop now to put a tube in it. Continuing was a gamble, so after some thought I chose the latter.
Doug
Pablo
Angela
My long stop took about 15 minutes which is an eternity during a race. I had to unseat the tire bead, which exploded with Stans sealant all over me when it came off. Stans is like a combination of whole milk and Elmer's glue. It changes viscosity quickly as air pressure changes. Once the bead was off I had to put in a tube, re-seat the tire bead, and pump it up. It was probably the worst time and place in all 24 hours of the race to get a flat. It was comical how many people passed me. For the rest of the race people were coming up to me saying "Hey, your that guy that passed me and then got a flat on the first lap, right?" On the rest of the lap I tried to stay focused and get a good time, but my moral was broken. Had I been racing more this year I might have used the incident as a motivator to dig deeper, but I just couldn't turn it around.
Hanging at the Campsite
Gearing up for the First Night Lap
Molly Getting Settled for the Night
Back in the tent city I chilled out and enjoyed hanging with Jo and our teammates. Both night laps were solid times and the fastest on my team, 1:27:45 and 1:31:50 respectively. As I rolled into the gate off the last one first light was dancing off the peaks of the La Sals in the eastern sky. I decided to bring in the dawn with a 10 minute nap and a shower. Then somehow I got in my mind that my race was over and I wouldn't have to do anymore laps. When Doug came in off his lap we did a little math which showed otherwise. I spent the next 2 hours like a little kid that didn't want to go to school in the morning. I was tired, warm, and clean. My knee hurt, but not as much as my ass! The last thing I wanted to do was get back on my bike. Pablo, our team captain, caught wind that I was done and came over to give me some encouragement, but I wouldn't have it. When he got there I was sitting in a camp chair with my head down eating a chocolate doughnut. I told him he could say what he wanted about me but I was DONE! He walked away and I finished my doughnut. I was disgusted with myself. Where was the person who suffered through all those solo 24 hour races and 30 hour adventure races. When did I turn into a sniveling little girl! Someone call the Wambulance - MAN DOWN!!
Warm Blanket - Don't want to Ride Anymore
I knew deep down I wasn't done. Maybe my misery tolerance isn't what it used to be, but I couldn't face letting down myself and my team. In the end I made the right decision and suited up for one more lap. Jo grabbed the camera and Doug readied my bike. Our other rider named Doug came in at 11:53 am, 7 minutes before the race ended. My last lap was mixture of pain and pleasure. The race ends at noon, but if you can get a rider out before noon the lap still counts. It was a ghost town out on the course and I tried to combat my pain by setting short goals and positive thoughts. Once I got going I felt strong, but my knee hurt. The sharp pains ran through my nerves like little missiles into my brain. I could have gone harder, but didn't want to be out rehabbing all winter (been there, done that, no fun). I finished with a respectable 1:25:58, total race time 25:18:58.
Jo Finishing her Last Lap
Finishing the Last Lap
Our team got 19th out of 35. Both Jo's and my team were made up of great people. We topped off the weekend with a chaotic delirious drive home through rain, snow, and fog.
Snow and Fog
More pictures can be seen
here.
