24 Hours of Temecula

24 Hour Mountain Bike Race in Temecula, Ca Race Report

The race started at noon so I slept until 8am and got a real nice breakfast at the hotel before the race.  Unlike the day before it was not rainy.  Friday evening I went to pre-ride the course and it was cold wet rain.  I really needed to check the course out but did not get a chance to…this made me really nervous.  I did get my bike together and everything else done that needed to be done.  Nite Rider was going to take care of making sure I had lights.  Both Charlie and the guys from Nite Rider were my crew for the race.  I don’t think I could have had a better crew!  I also met a great massage therapist named Brandon that came out to do some acupuncture and massage before and after the race.  I was set!  Brandon might be joining me at Le Tour and he knows how to adjust the neck and is a great guy!

The race was about a 10 mile loop.  This is so us racers can stop by the campsite after every loop to tend to things.  The course was mostly on jeep roads and lot’s of climbing with hills that you needed to use your momentum on.  I did not learn this until the race.  Nite Rider had a big trailer there to charge lights and they were also racing as a 5 man team.  There were only 10 solo riders entered in the race.  Dave Haase was there to compete solo to.  He was the first American across the line in the 2006 Race Across America.  I sure wish I got to pre-ride with Jack ( Nite Rider) and Dave before but Jack needed to get the trailer taken care of for the race. 

The Start-  They start all of us riders off with a little run around a pond.  I had ridden my bike around it earlier and knew that it was soaking wet deep grass…yikes.  The announcer was making a big deal about me a Dave being at the race.  He was really bragging on my Ultraman to.  We all lined up to start and there was a guy drinking a beer at the start in camouflage pants and a t-shirt with no helmet.  He seemed to be just hanging out but he was in the race.  The gun went off and we all ran around the lake.  My ribs were hurting me so I ran easy with my hand on it and had my hands out to the side running on my toes.  I did not look like a runner. I actually had someone tell me I ran like a girl…hehehe  I was about dead last to getting on the bike but that is where I wanted to be.  I did not want to be worried about slowing people up behind me while learning the course.  The guy with the beer walked it so I guess he was behind me but not for long.

There was a little short hill (really short) in the beginning and I was off my bike for a couple of steps.  We then started a gradual 3 mile climb that was really hard.  This is one of those hills that you earn a hotdog on since you get your heart rate up so high.  The race promoter called his series of racing www.grannygear.com and I see why.  I am not one that spins fast on the bike and like to get out of the saddle.  I am new to mountain biking and have not yet gotten my balance good enough to do so.  I was forced into the granny gear and had to spin. I am still working on my balance and seem to have trouble getting my weight ovet the front wheel so it wobbles around pretty good and I look like a drunk.  The bike I started with is a really light weight carbon bike that I have not ridden much.  It is the one I keep in California so I was not used to it. I also stuck a big fat road biking seat on it thinking that my private area would appreciate it after the race.  Starting with this bike and the new seat was a huge mistake.  I kept running off the course on the uphill and loosing balance.  I also have trouble getting started in the middle of a hill with the pedals I use.  This is something that I will get better at but it will take some time.  This is the kind of hill that I would normally make time up on since I love working hard and burning calories but not today.  After this  there was some fun down hills and then we got to a technical that one that had some rocks.  I stopped at the top to see how I was going to do go down it.  The bike I was on also had to much air on in the rear and front shock so I felt every bump and my glasses were on the end of my nose when I got to the bottom.  I do not like taking my hand off the bars in mountain biking to adjust things but I had to.  After the there were some more rolling hills that an experience cyclist would have gone over with no problem but not me.  I was stopping at the top of every climb and checking things out.  After taking it easy on the down hills there was no momentum to go up the other side so I was walking the bike or working way to hard.  I was really having trouble feeling balanced on the bike I was on and wanted to use it since it is the one that I own.  It is not the bike I have ridden the most in Lubbock so I was not used to it.  I just felt all wrong and had the chicken blood in my veins since I did not ride the course the day before.  That would have really helped.  There were some down hills that I did walk since I was so nervous.  Walking down them is harder then running down them.  If I did ride down them I felt like I was going to go over my handle bars.  The seat I put on was way to fat too.  When you go down a steep hill it is good to put your weight behind the seat.  When I did this the fat seat was getting stuck between my legs when I wanted to come back up.  My butt was almost on top of the back wheel and I would be stuck there.  If I was bold legged then I would have been find but I was not.  That fat seat was a stupid idea of mine.  The course also had 3 places that were called bike-a-hikes or hike-a- bikes.  I can’t remember what they are called but everyone pushed or carried their bike up them.  This was miserable for me with the bruised ribs and I suffered the most on these areas.  I wanted to cry trying to do it and there is also a technique to this also.  It helps to put the break down when you are trying checking on a good place to put your foot.  My shoes were also coming off some too.  Well I did finish the first loop and was in dead last after it.  I did know that it was my kind of course and that I would be ok so I made some changes in the transition.

The first thing I changed was my bike and I went back to the bike I bought from Lubbock with the skinny seat.  This was a heavier bike then my other one but one that I knew better.  The pedal mashers also set me up on it the weekend before.  This made a huge difference and off I went.  The second loop was great and it was not much slower then the lead girls.  I was riding over the top of some of the hills right into the scary down hills that I was to chicken to try the first loop.  There were two down hills that I hated and feared wiping out on but I did most of them.  I also did better with my momentum.  With more experience I know that this will be a great course for me.  I had a really good time on the second loop and did not loose my glasses since my bike had suspension.  I dropped 20 minutes off the second loop.  I was still way behind but I was having a better time.  I love my other bike but I need to get it set up as well.  I can tell you that my rib problems were a huge set back.  I had trouble lifting the bike, felt them on all the bumps, and really had tears in my eyes on the steep hke-a-bikes.

All my loops went ok until about 1 am in the morning and then I was miserable.  My rib pain was in my back and I could feel it with every breath.  There was no getting out of the seat and on some of the hike-a-bikes I was in screaming pain.  I was getting stuck on the middle of some hills and having trouble getting to the top.  These were hard for everyone but I was getting to wear I could not do them at all.  I would sit in the middle of some of the hills trying to get the strength to lift the bike up over a tiny rock.  I told Jack about this at Nite Rider and he told me that I could have another rider help me if I needed to.  He was going to be catching up to me on my next loop so I wanted to hit the hardest one at that time.  I was on the most difficult one and stuck near the top. This hike-a-bike had two big boulders at the top that would have been hard to get over even without a bike.  I hated it when other riders would ride up and have to go around me on up the steeper part but I could not help it…I was stuck.  Most of the time I would be polite if I was at the bottom and let the rider know I would get out of the way if I needed to.  Most of them were really nice and could tell something was wrong.  There was one rider that did come up on me and it was at night.  I was being my polite self and letting him know that I would get out of the way when he started yelling at me and hollering real loud at me.  He asked me what the heck was I doing and to get out of the way.  I felt so bad and thought I had messed his race up and almost wanted to cry.  I could not see the race since it was night time and he had a bright light on his helmet shinning in my eyes.  He then started to laugh and it was Jack from Nite Rider.  He laughed so hard he dropped his bike.  This was the funniest part of the race and I laughed to.  It was a great joke.  Did he make it up to me?  No.  He went up the hill and did not help me like he said he would.  A few minutes later Dave Haase came by and I knew why Jack was in such a hurry.  I bet it took me another 10 minutes to get up that darn hill but no one else yelled at me like Jack.

Speaking of Dave Haase.  He was leading the race and for a while he was top 3 overall even with the teams.  He came by me every 3 loops and lapped me.  He was on fire and riding well.  He was also very nice every time he passed unlike Jack.  Don’t get me wrong that joke was the best part of the night!

DNF? I guess it was a little after 3am and I was really getting slow and my ribs were done.  I stopped and got in Charlie’s truck to warm-up and change cloths.  I was up one of the hike-a-bikes and let go of the bike and it went back down the hill so I had to do it all over again.  I decided that to go on would be ridiculous and that I needed to quit.  My had told me that I did not need to do the whole 24 hours and just needed to get the experience with night riding so I decided to quit.  Charlie tried everything and was really cracking the whip but my mind was made up.  I had every excise in the book as to why I did not need to finish.  My legs were not tired and I was wide awake but I was not getting on the bike.  About 4 am Dave Haase came in with the shivers and Charlie pointed him to the truck and he slept in the passenger seat.  That boy went right to sleep and I sat there wide awake happy with my decision.  Dave rested around 45 minutes and I began to wake him up when Charlie came to do the same thing.  Dave was off on the bike after he got up and I was not budging.  Charlie kept trying but I was done. I could see the disappointment in Charlie’s eyes and he did get into the back seat of the truck to get some rest.  I then got to thinking about how supportive he has been of what I do.

    Charlie works really long hours and hardly gets to spend anytime with me.  We could have been doing something other then the mountain bike race but we were at the race.  Charlie still has his broken bone so can’t train yet.  He also had spent his evening waiting for me to finish each loop and tend to my needs.  He had a harder job than I did.  We were not comfortable in the truck so what the heck were we doing there?  I then  decided to get back on my bike around 6am and finish what I had started even with my hurt ribs. If I got stuck on the hke-a bikes then so be it. I got out the of the car and went to get on my bike.  The dry cloths that Charlie gave me earlier did not have a sport bra in it so I just had some base layers and one of his coats that was way to big for me on.  I went to find my stuff and it was not where I last put it.  Charlie had moved it.  I wanted to go back to the truck to ask him about it but he was gone.  This meant I had to ride and went as the braless wonder in a huge coat.  I let the race organizers know that I was still in the ball game just so they would not think that I died on the course. 

I took off up the hill and had to walk quite a bit of it since my sides hurt.  I was just going to keep going.  My legs were not trashed  but with my hurt ribs I could not get my weight where I needed to on the bars.  I had to refresh my memory again on the course.  I was nice to be back in the ball game no matter how painful it was.   I had trouble with the hike-a-bikes but just got through the loop.  I was disappointed that I did not ride from 3-6 am.  Since I can stay awake I figured that this would have been where I would have made up some time…darn!  Oh well…I do not have a DNF on my record.   I did two more loops and was thinking that was enough since some of the racers were quitting.  I watned to know my total loops and I had done 12.  If I did one more loop then I would have 13 and that is what the winner had last year.  I thought that I had only done 10..wow.  I went for another loop.  You would think that I would have pushed it to get it over with but I did not.  I have not looked at the results yet to see my slits but I am happy with my race and I do see me doing this next year.  It is my kind of race!  It would have been cool if I won but those winners were tough and I am glad they did so well.  Dave Haase won and not one was even near him….what a stud!