24-hours of Adrenalin race today!

[Adventure Girl]

My biggest cycling event of the year starts in less than 4 hours! I'm pretty excited and a little nervous. I'm racing in the 24-hours of Adrenalin mountain bike endurance race in Monterey. I'm on a 5-person coed team (4 guys and me).

The race starts Saturday at noon and ends on Sunday at noon. The course is about 12 miles long. I'm in position 4 and will probably ride 4 or 5 laps – two will be night laps.

The Luna Chix pro team will be competing. Alison Dunlap, Marla Streb, Shonny Vanlandingham and Katerina Hanusova will be racing in the 4-person class (men's division) because there isn’t a 4-person women's class. I sure hope I don't end holding Alison Dunlap up on a tiny single track section!!

We rented a motor home. We set it up at our campgrounds last night and had a pasta feed for my team. (My husband makes fantastic marinara sauce!)

The race starts in 3 hours and 36 minutes…

[Irulan]

Good luck, AG!!! I've been asked every year to be on a team for ours, which is Mem Day weekend ( I've declined) so, knock 'em dead and have a great time!!

irulan

[spazzdog]

good luck AG... bust a move on them pro gals :D

spazz

[aka_kim]

Go AG! I know you'll be awesome. :)

2 hours 33 minutes and clock is ticking...

[snapdragen]

Way cool AG - I want to hear all about it when you're done. I had a friend do one of these a few years back, he had a blast.

Irulan - you should go for it, just for the "I did it" factor! :D

[CorsairMac]

Wicked good luck AG! let us know how it goes!....Irulan I'm with Snap on that - I think it would be blast to do something like that!.....course my mama always said I ain't got no sense!

[LBTC]

wahoooo!!! go, AG! Have a blast and kick some girlie butt!! :D

DH does the 24 in Whistler. Super fun!

Namaste,
~T~

[RoadRaven]

Well, she must be well under way now

We've all been thinking of you, girl, looking forward to hearing all about it from you

[Adventure Girl]

What an incredible weekend! Our team did great. I am really proud of my times. I have a million pounds of stuff to unpack and I need to get some sleep. I'll report more later.

[jobob]

She-Ra Returns ! :D

[Hill Slug]

You go AG!!!!!!! :D :D :D

[snapdragen]

AG! AG! AG! AG!

[nuthatch]

Good going, AG!! Give us the complete, gritty play-by-play when you get rested!

[Adventure Girl]

Whoa! What an event! It really was 24 hours of Adrenalin! We finished in 15th place in the coed division. The coed division doesn't have age groups, so we were competing against teams that were half our age! The team in 14th place was college students (Their total team age was under 150. My team was over 250). They beat us out of 14th place by 43 seconds over 24 hours. That's 1.9 seconds per lap!!!

The race starts with a LeMans start. The lead-off riders from each of the 300 teams run about 600 meters up and around a hill (in biking shoes, helmets and camel backs). After the run, they grab their bikes to start their first lap. This helps to spread the field out a little. And it adds excitement!

I did 4 laps. My first lap was my fasted despite having a rather scary incident. Riding through some bumpy single track, I thought I had blown my front fork. The front end was chattering. I pulled off the trail and picked up my bike to check it out and my front wheel fell off!! The skewer had loosened and I just avoided a major disaster!!! How's that for adrenalin!

Lap 2 and 3 were in the dark. I'm not an especially strong night rider, but I chugged it out. Lap 3 was particularly difficult because it was really foggy. 5 feet of visibility while bombing down a gravel road is pretty scary! Then lap 4 was just after sunrise, cool, windless and an absolute pleasure! I beat my projected times on all four laps! Having a time goal really pushed me!

One of my team mates had a bad fall. His front tire blew out and he crashed on a 20mph gravel section. The whole left side of his body is rashed! Ouch! But he got up and finished the lap. He's one tough dude!

My husband, Robert, was there for the entire race. He was our resident pit wrench, and my personal helper. He was there at the start and finish of all my laps. He prepared all my meals. He had my bike ready. He did a million other little things. But most of all he was my own cheering section and president of my fan club! I couldn't have done it without him!

Overall it was a fantastic event. I enjoyed second of the 24 hours! It is really satisfying to push as hard as you can and feel that you really did your very best! There's also something special about working that hard for a team result. Our team had great chemistry. We were all in it together and everyone worked as hard as they could! I can't wait to do it again… But first I have to catch up on some sleep and do a mountain of laundry!

[CorsairMac]

Thanks for the update AG - sounds like you had an awesome experience. Whewww on the front wheel! and riding at sunrise must've just been glorious! Job well done!!!

[nuthatch]

Ditto, AG - what a save on that wheel!! Glad you had fun and came out unscathed!

[LBTC]

Aw, AG, you brought tears to my eyes! oh, the memories!

My DH does the 24 in Whistler each year - 5 man team, they won their age category last year, did 24 laps! Anyway, I do the volunteer time, food, laundry, and most of all cheering. It was a great race last year! Talk about being pumped for the whole 24 hours!!

They're racing again this year, and he and the team captain think they'll sit next year out. Their break will be my good fortune next year. They've offered to be the chief and mechanic when I put together an all-girls team next year. :D And these guys know how to plan to win! Whistler, by the way, is the only place on the 24 hour tour (from what I've been told) where you don't have to camp! And we DON'T! Condo all the way. Laundry, showers, baths, garage (the bike wrenching section), full kitchen, bedrooms with *doors*, Hot tub, and an 8 minute climb up the road to the start line. For the rest of the team not on a lap at that time, there's an exciting place to watch that's about a 30 second walk from the condo. it's such a great experience and so cool to have all the comforts of home!!

I did race one 24 hour race a bunch of years ago. It was such a smaller race than the adrenaline series - shorter, easier course, way fewer teams...but we won! and I was on my heavy Norco Torrent free-ride bike. heehee. got some good lap times and everything. And I LOVED the night rides! they are sooo fun!

Way to go, AG! You and your team rock!!

Namaste,
~T~