24 HOURS OF MOAB, 2009

This race has become tradition. As many times as I've done this race I tend to take it for granted. But it really is "epic" as Laird Knight the race promoter put it. It has over 4000 bicycle enthusiasts from all over the world and ALL levels of riders collecting in the middle of a red desert to form a MTB oasis. This year the perfect weather gave me a chance to see the beauty in this place and REALIZE it's in my back yard! I must admit this is the first time I've done this race that the weather HAS been good enough to allow for this type of reflection. The first time I did the race in 2002 under team Quadra-sore-ass wrecks it was raining and freezing. Since then I've done 5 more with Mad Dog and endured hail, floods and wind storms.

2009 was looking like it was going to be perfect. I felt relaxed, comfortable and well rested (perhaps too well-rested). As usual I "volunteered" to do the Le-manz style 200 yard run around the poor pinon tree. I got off to a great start and found myself in probably the top 10 runners going around the tree. Not bad for an old fart I was thinking when I looked down and saw a baton on the ground. Instinctively I felt for mine on my right thigh where I carried it under my shorts. I couldn't feel it there! What luck I thought as I stopped to pick up the baton as 50 runners passed me. In the next instant I felt BEHIND my thigh and there was my baton. UHGG! What a stupid move. Anyway, I still ended up toward the front of the hoard of riders and really didn't have too much traffic to contend with as usually happens if you get caught in the middle of the 300+ racers fighting for a line.

I was feeling confident and taking aggressive lines down the rock drops and ledges when I got to the Nose Dive Hill bypass. There was a "helpful" guy there yelling at everybody to be careful since there were some jeepers at the bottom. So what do I do? I look over to see what he was talking about, ended up on the wrong line and drilled the front straight down. Even the larger 29'r wheel up front couldn't save me and I found my self rolling over the handle bars. It's funny the vivid stuff you remember thinking in that split second- only some of which I can repeat here. I remember thinking, "So how bad is this going to hurt? Is the race over right here? I hope the Arantix is going to be OK." Well I landed and had NO pain! I did the usual systems check and all systems were functioning. I jumped up and picked up the Arantix. I had held on to it so that it wouldn't slide and roll too far down. It only required a small straightening of the handle bar. Cool! I survived. The rest of the lap was a blur of relief for my life, anger, frustration at lost time, anger for being frustrated etc. I lost my concentration. Once it was done I had to admit my time of 1:14 was reasonable and I tried to shake it off in anticipation of redeeming myself on the next one. My duo pal Carson was next pulling in a screaming time, followed by Captain Keith who kicked some butt and then Scott (the team cook's main squeeze) finished off our 4 person rotation. And I was up again.

I headed out feeling strong until I started to hit the technical ledges and my chain dropped in between the cassette and spokes. As you all know (your lucky if you don't) that's a #$*ch to get out. I must have bent the derailleur hanger when I wrecked on the last lap. I finally got the chain out but had it happen two more times within a 5 minute period until I realized I just couldn't use the lower gears for the rest of the lap. I was frustrated. I put in a 1:20.

The next lap was going to be a night lap. I had our team wrench, Bryan, straighten the hanger and put the lights on. I've been wanting to take advantage of the hollow nature of the Arantix to "light" the Isotruss up so I got some glow sticks.

Night riding is really fun. I feel like I am in a different very focused world. The challenges are directly in front and nothing else really matters. The third lap in the past has been the toughest mentally and physically. It didn't let me down. This was a rough ride. I couldn't get into a rhythm. I pulled a 1:26 and went to sleep.

I went out for the fourth lap at 4 am. By now I new the lines and I got into a great rhythm. It was a very, clean satisfying lap done at 1:28. By now I had realized that I'd have to do another lap, but it would be in the daylight hours-and warmer.dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd...I'm falling asleep. I'll continue this tomorrow.

Good night Moab.

Fun times off the bike

While everyone was putting in training miles (Holleys, Carson, Keyes, Kendra) I was not. It was a good week, though.

Monday, I played hookey from my chores and headed off to go wakeboarding. I haven't been for about 3 years but it wasn't as hard as I thought. I did make it over the wake, which I haven't been able to do before. It was a good way to say goodbye to summer. Thanks Jory and Noelle!

Thursday for UEA we headed to the west desert to hunt for Geodes. Wow was that fun! The boys just kept digging and digging. Some of the time they even collected what they were supposed to. As you can see we came back with plenty of them. We camped for two nights. Hiking, 4- wheeling and exploring was included. I even got in a good two hour ride with the Arantix. The next day I went to head out for another ride but the front tire ripped and I had to abort. I made up for that by riding today with Carson here at Corner Canyon.

Now we have to get all those open! If anyone has kids this trip is a must do.

TEAM VIZMEG - MOHICAN OHIO

I got in with the bike intact and things going well until I heard that my wrench support through Delta 7 sports had a family emergency with his daughter hospitalized and couldn't help. I definitely did not blame him but it did leave me without any tools. He did set up to have the ARANTIX put together at a local bike shop. But I had to do a whole 12 hour race to do with a leatherman and my parks tool. I recruited my sister, Jessika, to help but the whole family showed up to help run support. That turned out to be the funnest part of the race. As some of the solo riders that I was racing said. "Wow you have a whole army!". I started out pretty excited to take on the OHio boys and found myself second half way into the race. I ended up having the second fastest time. But as usual I paid for that by burning out. With the Vizmeg army I had really had good turn around times so by the third lap I was out front overall. But half way into the lap another 12 hour solo rider passed going pretty fast. I got in and with a quick turn around I was first again. Again, at about the same spot I was passed by the same guy. I figured my first place chance was over. The only hope I had was to keep having good turn around times and pray he didn't. By the 5th lap I was getting reports from the Team Vizmeg crew that he was hanging out at the pit areas longer and I was 7 minutes ahead of him.

By then I was dealing with some serious chain skipping. It felt like the back cassette was slipping anytime I tried to stand or put any force on it. It was wearing on me since with the ARANTIX I like to stand on the short ups. My butt was feeling the extra sitting requirements to spin. The course was pretty wearing as well since it was a lot of ups and downs without any recovery sections. There were a lot of trees and roots that required standing. It was a fun course overall with about 95% single track, and a bit of grassy fields. There was a mossy 5o yard section of "rock garden" that was a challenge. It would have been treacherous if it would have been wet, though.

By lap six I was feeling it but did not feel like I could let up. Around that time what really kept me going was the excitement shown by my family. As I would roll into the pit area, I literally had the biggest and loudest cheering section. Each time I came by the whole team was there to help me out. They consisted of Jessy, Toby (sis and bro), Heather (sis in law) and their kids Nik, Alek and Maya along with my Mom and Dad- whose 70th birthday prompted this visit. As night rolled around I figured the kids had a long day and that Heather and Toby would want to take them home soon, but Heather made me smile when she said "We'll stay as long as you are winning". I had to keep going.

After the 6th lap I got word that 2nd place was 9 minutes behind and he seemed to be taking longer in the pit areas. This bolstered my confidence but I knew it wasn't in the bag yet. My cassette was skipping even more making me walk up hills I still could have ridden. With all of the skipping I felt for sure that the chain would break. I even had to borrow a pump to pump up my shock.

Night came and I got the lights installed in record time with my team and I was off 30 minutes ahead of second. I was breathing easier but finally getting tired and was wondering if I could keep going without stopping to rest like my competition was. I was cramping but not too bad likely due to the Carborocket I was regularly drinking. On the good side my stomach was feeling good and Mom had given me a bite of wonderfully tasting BBQ'd pork before I headed out. I thought of that the rest of that 8th lap and couldn't wait to get some more.

Coming in on the 9th lap I was 42 minutes ahead and barring mechanicals I was finally starting to relax a little. I decided to nurse the bike and chain to avoid a breakdown and slowed down. This also helped me avoid a full rest stop. So I kept going. This was the lap I was hoping the competition would stop on so I wouldn't have to do another lap. It was around 10pm when I rolled in still with plenty of time to do another. I wasn't prepared mentally to do more than 8 laps since last year's winning # of laps was 6! Jessy and mom were there to feed me and report that 2nd place had gone out about 10 minutes before I came in. I had to do another lap but as long as I finished I would win. Well that was the longest lap of my life!

My legs were shot. They even gave up cramping! They just gave up. I was spinning so slow that at least 3 times I would hit a small root, come to an immediate stop and tip over before I could even clip out. I never really got hurt since I was going so slow but it still stung. I felt like It was my first MTB race. I got in at 11 minutes after midnight. Jessy who was the core to the team and gave up her study time to help me was there with Mom. It was really cool to have the extended family experience the crazy racing stuff that has consumed my last few years and maybe have a better appreciation of why I do it. This has been the most satisfying race I've had. The funny thing is, is that I don't even have an award or medal to remember this by. They ONLY handed out $100 in cash! (which normally I would have preferred- go figure).

HAPPY 70TH DAD!

Race Trip! Mohican OH

This ones a new one for me. A true air transportation only race. I have the challenge of trying to fit the gear for a 12 hour solo race into two bags, including the bike, but making it look like it is not a bike. Get it? I found out-too late- that Delta charges $175 each way to check a bike! That's a lot more than my airfare! So I have taken the challenge of putting my bike into two "normal" cases to see if I can get away with the usual -robbery- cost of checking bags; $40. I got it all in for a total of only 72 lbs. Its a good thing the Arantix is light.

The 24/12 Hours of Mohican is at Mohican "Wilderness" in Ohio. I think the use of the word wilderness is used loosely. But we'll see.

12 HOURS OF SUNDANCE- 09

Saturday I paid the price for taking a "break" from training. Carson and I once again teamed up to take on Sundance's finest in a 12 hours race. As you can see we survived and Carson was even smiling!

This was Carson's day all the way. In an uncharacteristic move I took the first cold morning lap. This was because I new I had to be done early to get to work on time (yes. Crazy, but the only way I could do the race). I wasn't warmed up and hadn't been doing intervals for the last month so I really felt it in my lungs the first lap. I found myself dropped from the lead group to leas the middle group. But that's generally where I am at anyway. I came in at about 43 minutes. Carson took his turn and came in at a screaming 41 or so. That set the stage for the rest of the race. I never felt really bad and was actually relaxed and having fun but the legs just didn't have what I had expected of them. I continued to drop almost a minute per lap while Carson was rather consistant and at the most was only dropping 1/2 a minute per lap. Nevertheless we were against some stiff competition and were in a solid 4th place the whole time. I had a good time with the large Mad Dog crowd that showed up. This was a contrast to last year when I did it solo and felt lonely the whole time.

The hang out between laps.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARSON......

ARANTIX II Miles: 1350

MIA

I've been missing the MTB action for the most part since Leadville. Though I've had a good time, It's nice to be back to be on the bike.

Cool of the Night

It's too hot to ride during the day. So I dug out my lights and hit the local trails at night. Interestingly, I saw more night riders the other day than during my mid day rides.

Has anyone riden ghost at night? It lives up to its name. eeeeerieeeee!