4 Laps of hell

Well it wasn't really hell.  At least it wasn't raining.
Kieran was off on the GO Train to stay with my sister while I was at Albion camping out this weekend.
Not having gone camping in decades, and on top of that mtb racing for 24hrs, I needed to focus on myself.  But afterwards I thought he would've enjoyed this.  The people, the atmosphere, the buzz.

On top of that,  two of my teammates had 11 year old sons that he could've hung out with.   Time really flew, but I think I would've been  more exhausted trying to manage more than 1 person's stuff and schedule.  Maybe if I'm a little more seasoned and I can handle more.  This is only my 2nd time at this event.  First time camping overnight.

It was going to be a mostly childless weekend.  Thanks to my sister.  She's awesome.  Kieran's lucky she and Uncle Ray loves him so much.  But that can easily be worn away if he is not more respectful.  Tresa got a chance to get a head start on packing for HHI.

This was the 20th Anniversary of the Chico 24HRs of Summer Solstice Race at Albion Hills.
I was so happy I got on a team!  One of my good friends from the DHF Mudders subgroup hooked me up with a team with 5 other riders.  I've done a lap of the race before and it is fun riding.  But the rest of the experience of camping over night, being on a team with a common goal is something I had yet to experience.  Finally got the opportunity.  And this team has been doing it for 14 yrs!  They were considered regulars.  So they get one of the PRIMO sites with water and POWER!  Kick ass way to get introduced to this event.

I was pretty comfortable at my campsite.  The weather was pretty good, not much to complain about.  It did rain at the end.  It rained as I was halfway through my 4th and final lap! There was thunder I was told, but either I chose not to hear or I just didn't hear it.  But overall it was a terrific weekend.

I brought my pasta and perogies, although i finished my food prior to my second lap.
I didn't feel like taking a chance eating burgers during a race but as soon as I'm done my laps I'm heading to the grill to chow down.

My first lap was at 4pm.  I didn't know the exact time of my start but I think it was about 4:12pm.  I was nervous!  Glad I pre-rode it, so I knew what the distance was by my Garmin.  The course says 17km but my computer was clocking 14km.  I don't have a speed cadence sensor on my mtb, which adjusts the distance a bit so it's not relying solely on satellite GPS for distance.  It was helpful because I knew what to expect and that I needed to save fuel in the tank for the last 5km because that was where all the climbing seemed to be stacked!  The Brown Monster was there.  It's actually not bad. Doing it multiple times though.  It starts to hurt riding up this thing.  It's full of rocks so keep to the right other wise your rear wheel slips like plantains frying in oil.

I was passing more people than I was being passed.  I felt really good on the hills and was motoring on the single track.  Maybe not as fast as some of the mtb racers, but I was pushing it.
"On your left" I was using that quite a bit.  Or "Whenever you are good to let me pass" too.  It was great. The other riders were so nice, I'm sure it's because we're all Canadian!

There was a Filipino crew out there, Pinoys and Pinays.  I thought it was just the men, but I noticed the ladies also had the same gear.  If I'd ridden around the campsites more in between, i probably woulda smelled the rice cooker, sausage cooking, maybe some spam and corned beef frying too.  Reminds me of my youth and the days of unlimited animal fat, grease and salt.  The dream of every Filipino is to be one of the best Cardiac Surgeon's .... patient.

I shoulda considered doing that, they would've fed a hungry fellow Filipino.  But my Taglish is pretty bad now.  I only know food and profanity words, but I can fake the accent though!
Probably for the best.  My internals have not had Filipino food in some time and may reject the food. Or worse, it may EJECT the food!  That'd be bad.

I was looking at my garmin screen on the home stretch and when I did the pre-ride I clocked in 64mins.  And my goal was to better that.  At the finish Rob found me in my dazed state and took the baton and headed out.  I ran into Elysse who was waiting in the corral to go and she was so excited and nervous and terrified.  We chatted for a bit before I headed out. I told her it'll be fun, and when the trail forks, the easy way is on the right. (I forgot that 2 rock step downs though are on the right, oops).  And then off to change and prepare for the next lap.

It definitely felt like I put more effort than my 64min pre-ride, I was definitely beat, and should have done better than 64min, and I'm not sure what I was looking at, maybe the time since I turned it on, I'm not really sure but I recall seeing 1hr 08mins, and I was bit disappointed with that, however when I got back to camp and checked it again, my ride time was 57mins.  Woo hoo! sub-hour lap.  I don't care what I post in the following laps now. haha.  I was gonna have a beer!

Every lap afterwards I was going by my watch, I'd check what time my teammate came in so I'd know ballpark how I was doing.   It's too hard to look at the screen when you are on a mtb.  It's not like riding road.  If you look away from the trail, you could be eating that trail. Ha.

There were 5 hrs in between my finish and when I start again.  Seems like a long wait, but you know what, it was my turn sooner than I wanted to go.  As the sun set, the temps dropped too.  The moisture in the air was settling on the ground and worse the tree roots.  It was slick.  I've ridden night laps before in the Don, so riding with lights was no big deal for me.  However handling trails with slippery roots, that's nerve wracking in the day.  In the dark, it's on another level of fear when you don't have the handling experience of riding in damp conditions.

After I completed my 2nd lap (my first night lap) after 11pm, I was feeling a bit hungry.  I had missed the burger run at the Norco tent, and the grill was closed at the chalet, and a but I did bring protein powder with me.  It's not a burger with toppings, but it was protein that my body needed.  And I had my electrolyte drink stuff that I was taking after every lap.  I think it's better than junk.  But sometimes junk just tastes so much better.  My mouth and tongue wasn't satisfied, but I'm sure my body was grateful or at least my gastro-intestinal track was.

I was glad I got a bit of sleep.  Maybe an hour or 2, no more.  I woke to find a couple of raccoons looking for food in our camp site.  Not as big as the Toronto raccoons, but I didn't want to mess with them so I went back to my tent to wait until it was time to head to the start corral.  You can sort of see his shape in the middle of the image looking in the clear garbage bag.

My next lap was looking to be closer to 5am instead of the original schedule of 4am. If our team had stayed on it's lap per hour pace.  But night laps are always slower.  Didn't seem to be that much closer. After my first night lap, I wasn't looking forward to this one.  It was also really chilly, as I could see my breath in my lights.  It was probably around 8degC.  I could see my breath.  Armwarmers, were required. prob jacket too, but I neglected to pack pants and a sweater.  I just didn't think of the night laps when I was packing.  I'm not sure why I didn't prep for that.  I had 2 scheduled.

I headed out at 5:03am.  The sun was coming up.  It was amazing.  Then I got into the single track and it was slick. My rear end was slip sliding every time i stood up to mash.  I needed to stay seated to keep the weight on the rear wheel.  I even dropped my chain.  I was surprised.  Since i had the latest clutch and single ring tech. This isn't supposed to happen.  Never say never, but I guess it does, but rarely.  The first section is fun, when you aren't trying to hammer on a race with traffic and it's not wet and dark.  The middle part is great.  The last part was a mix, seemed to have all the punchy hills and single track, and a bit of mud.  But it's at the finish so it feels a lot better than the first section.

I was climbing the Brown Monster for a 3rd time and thinking, I can't do it a 4th.  My legs were done.  So I headed to the Norco tent to find Raoul and see what he was going to do for breakfast.  He was done too.  Then i went back to my tent to clean up and maybe have a shower and then go grab a bite to eat.  That Chico breakfast sandwich and coffee was so good.  I was clean and felt glad to be done.  But as I was chilling out at camp with a beer, they told me Matt's bike was toast and so that meant I up on deck.  No one wanted to do any more laps than they had to.  Everyone had done 4, except for me, MattV and Rob (who was after me).  Since MattV couldn't go, I had to step up.

My last lap prep included a Chico breakfast sandwich, a coffee, a chocolate bar, strawberries and a craft beer.  My brain thought I was done after my third.  I just didn't think I could do another lap.  The thought of doing the Brown Monster climb for a 4th time was making my quads ache.  So I put it furthest from my mind. Our captain had a mechanical that was unfixable - a bent sprocket on his cassette.  My legs were saying 'no', but my teammates were saying 'Go!'  Actually my brain was also going into post race mode.  Which is why I had the beer at 9am.

Glad I only had the one, cuz I was going to have a second.  But "doing it for the Team!" got me off the fence and I put on my last clean kit and headed to the start for my 4th lap.  No intention of hammering it, because the last two laps were nerve bracingly slippery.

Maybe the beer calmed me down.  Who knows, but I felt alright.
I waited calmly at the start, Art saw me before I saw him.  Our giant of a lead off rider MarkE was there to cheer me on.  It was my favourite lap.  It had everything.  The first section was drying out and the roots weren't so slick any more.  I wasn't interested in hammering this lap.  I had lots of time to get in before the 11:59:59 am time to have Rob get out for our team's final lap.  I was letting lots of people pass me, but as I passed the 5km to go sign,  actually right after my friend Neil caught up with me and called my name.  As he was hammering to maintain his team's podium placing, I picked up my pace.  The rain was coming down hard. There was water on the trail puddling, I could feel the grit in my eyes getting under my contacts.  It was giving me incentive to get this lap done.

The Brown Monster was coming and halfway up I got off my bike to push it up to save my legs.  I did a cyclocross hop on to my seat and clipped in and headed for the final single track and head to the finish.  As i was on the down hill switch back that passes the chalet to go out for a bit, I hear my teammate Rob shout my name.

For the first time I notice what he's wearing - a white-ish kit for a rain soaked muddy final lap. Good choice. HA!  Just before the chalet parking lot M-A passed me and I hear "thanks Ray!".  and I tried to hop on his wheel to get the finish.  People were cheering the other rider to push it as I was going to pass him on the climb.  He was gassed.  I had the legs to pass him on the last little uphill filled with slippery roots before the no-passing zone to the finish.

I took out the card and slapped it on the reader for my 4th lap and saw #249 come up on the screen. I was done!  I passed it to Rob. have fun.

It wasn't raining any more, but I headed back to camp to change and begin packing up.  No time to chat, Mother Nature was coming to clean up!  I washed my bike a bit and packed my bags and rode to the car.  I left everything else in the tent.
It was raining hard again. It was a bit of a zoo, but people were nice and organized and I managed to wind my way back to camp with out a mishap.  I backed up the car in the recently vacated site next door and opened the hatch and shoved everything into the boot. I love hatchbacks! It's so convenient. I'll pack the tent up neatly later after I cleaned it and let it dry.  Kudos to Mel for lending me a tent and air mattress. It was awesome!  So comfy.  Glad I brought my air pump.  Happy our site had power.  If I'm on a team with no power next year, I'm pumping up the air mattress beforehand for sure!

This is why I mountain bike.  The people the environment is friendly and amazing.
Not sure about next year, because this felt like a borderline sufferfest.
But it was a terrific experience.  Glad Mother Nature was nice this year.  She didn't make it hell for me.  Phew.

Team #249 - Our 6 person team finished 21st out of 152 teams.
We did 23 laps in 24hrs 38mins 07secs
Against other teams that had as many as 10 people.
We were in the 6-10 person team category.

Photos from the 24Hrs of Summer Solstice Race - 20th Anniversary