I was on a 5 woman Spin Sisters team. Suz reserved the entry a year ago and some time over the spring we formed a Spin Sister team with Sandy, Angelika, and Gloria. A great group of ladies to spend a weekend with camped, quite literally, on a mountain bike race course.It was an inspiring weekend tracking the Fast and Female team captained by Martha and anchored by Sarah. A 29er single speed team of fast chicks! One of their women had the fastest female lap in the event and they won the 5 woman category. Nice job ladies!
My laps were at about 5pm and just after midnight. The 5pm lap was a scorcher! In the start area the temperature was 29C. Sarah and I were waiting together for our teammates to come in and tag up. I figured she'd be off first and I'd see her after the lap. But then Sandy came into sight and I was out of the start before Sarah. That set me up for a good little mental challenge. She's faster than me so I figured I'd make it my goal to not have her catch me. Of course, I had no way to know how far behind me she was and she's on a single speed but still, it was motivating to know she was chasing me. I figured I was probably a good motivator for her too and I'd better keep the effort up!
Starting a lap on the over/under bridge is a good kick for the adrenalin and I rode that out for the whole lap. I looked down at my Garmin on the first climb and my HR was 177... I never really got it down much. Being this race has a lot of casual racers in it and corporate teams, there were plenty of people to pass, which is also very motivating. I also knew Martha had me slated for 1hr20 laps on this 17.5km course. (Really?) So I was reaching for that. In the end I put down a 1hr24 lap and sent Suz off for her first lap. Sarah didn't catch me. She came rolling in very shortly after I did and said she'd only caught sight of me at the end. :)
Then it was time to clean up, fuel up, mount the lighting system, and wait for my next lap. I lounged in the hammock recovering. Catherine came by with some homemade cookies to share. Nice! The girls were chuggin' through their laps. Gloria was our speed demon with a 1hr13... even the lap when she had to stop and fix a flat came in at 1hr28. Nice job G!I think I started my almost-full moon lap just after midnight. I nearly screwed up the over/under bridge to start my lap but recovered at the top. I'm not made for this hammer-rest-hammer format. I wasn't ever in a good groove riding. But I was fully in it and did my best. This lap my goal was to try and come in as close to my day lap time as possible. But off the start my HR was in my normal race pace for distance races and I didn't have the extra to push. So I just kept it steady.
There were plenty of people on the course in the darkness but I did spend quite a lot of time alone out there. I actually kind of liked that. Riding through the dark, blissfully cool, forest was a treat, as was gliding through the meadows with the bright moon casting Rocky Mountain shadows. I sure liked being alone a lot better than when some douche bag came screaming in behind me and did't feel the need to give me a couple of seconds to find a safe place to give him a little room on a rooty descent. Really buddy? It's the middle of the night. Do those 5 seconds really matter more than my safety? Some stress, some colourful words, and he was off. Thankfully.
At one point I rode past some dug up loam and figured a bear had been looking for some grub. The day after the race this photo was posted ... funny enough, right where he is in this photo, that taped log had been moved into the middle of the trail in the night. Mister Bear messing with us!When I came through the top loop of the course and rode past our campsite I gave Suz a "Woot! Woot!" to let her know I was coming through and she should think about getting to the start line for her tag up. The rest of the course went well. At one point I had myself convinced I'd already finished the Long Road to Ruin and was about to pop out for the last bit to the finish. But the darkness was messing with me. That was obvious when I came to that left hand turn that keeps you from going up Georgetown. Damn. Time to dig deep and keep on climbing.
I finished that lap in 1hr35. I was happy with that for a night lap! That was the last of my riding. I'm still trying to rehab my knees and give them as much recovery as possible going into the TransRockies this weekend so I didn't want to push through more laps. In the end Suz and I both logged two laps, Sandy and Gloria logged 3, and Angelika, our hero, logged 4.
Angelika, freshly off ankle surgery, had done our Le Mans (running) start AND cheerfully got up Sunday morning ready to do a fourth lap to prevent us from DNFing. If you don't have a rider on the course after 11am then you technically Do Not Finish the 24 hour race. So cheers to our hero! A fine teammate, even if it takes significant strategy and effort to wake her for a lap in the middle of the night! Sorry about throwing that shoe at you Angelika ... even though you didn't even notice!
A great event to experience. Not sure I've got another one in me. Never say never though.
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