I Found Salvation On The Sidewalk

Hmmm, they left off the weight and length.

Most Of The Day And All of The Night

The 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race took place this last weekend. The theme this year was All Day And All Of The Night. Failing the IQ test once again, I signed up to ride solo. I trained a lot better for it this time around and it paid off in places. On the down side I'm carrying 6-8 more pounds than last year so I had that going for me. My brother John came over from Tacoma to be my support, which was awesome of him. After it was all over he said that if he comes back to this race then he's riding. I guess he's getting a mountain bike then.

 I am clearly flexing and sucking my gut in.

My back at the back of the start.
(Photo by Dave Braun)

I started in the back of the crowd for the Le Mans start. The first lap is very crowded so I wanted a lot of people to get ahead of me. Plus, it was very hot on Saturday so I thought I should take it easy and push the fluids. That wasn't working as well as it should have been. Probably because I was doing it wrong. I was feeling pretty crappy after two laps. The heat was sucking the life out of me and even though I thought I was pushing the fluids, it wasn't enough. I started cramping during lap three so I took a longer break to try to recover. Lap four was even worse. Different muscles would cramp up at the most inopportune time. There's a climb that's followed by a 180-degree turn and a really loose, gravelly downhill. Right when I was taking the turn my right hamstring knotted up. I immediately straightened my leg to fight it back. I went down the hill with one foot on a pedal and one leg sticking out to the side. 

Starting off on my first lap after the Le Mans start.

When I finished that lap I felt pretty close to being finished myself. I tossed back some more liquids and ate a bunch of cantaloupe, honey dew, and watermelon. My calf muscles were twitching all over in different places making it look like a creature was trying to find its way out from under the skin. So I laid down for a bit to relax and maybe get a short nap in. After an hour of coughing up dust--the course was extremely dry and dusty--and fighting more leg cramps I decided to get back on the bike. I took it as a personal favor that the temperature gods starting dialing it back a bit. I felt a lot better after the fifth lap so I knew I was good for the night. 

Just about done with my first lap.

The cool night laps were much more comfortable but my body was not about to recover from the toll it had paid earlier in the day. So I'd do a lap in 1:30-1:40 and stop for a while to refuel and recover. As the sun crept up over the horizon the temp started climbing back up and I was feeling it. After my ninth lap I asked John to check the standings. When I came in on lap ten he said I was in fourth place with the third place guy 2-3 laps ahead of me. Perfect. While I had time to get one or two more laps in, I just wasn't up for it and I wasn't about to kill myself for a very slim chance to podium.

My stats.

I did a couple things different this year. Just past the halfway point going up 5-Minute Hill it takes a steeper angle and there's more loose sand and gravel. I decided to walk from there to the top. That way I was grinding my butt into the saddle as much or burning up my bike legs. Yes, there's some time loss, but I was okay with that. By morning I was walking on some climbs because my legs just weren't up to it. I'm sure the extra weight I'm lugging around didn't help. Last year I had some chafing problems. This year I was prepared with a "secret recipe" for a chamois cream from my friend, Geoff Forshag, owner of Two Wheel Transit, that he shared with me. It worked great. No chafing whatsoever. My saddle is so slick and shiny, too.

I'm very happy with the Scott Genius. It performed flawlessly the entire race and I never had to touch the backup bike.

Around 2:30 am something weird happened. A tree grabbed me and threw me into another tree. I managed to stay upright. But still, it was strangest thing I ever did saw. 

Other notable memories include:

* A fellow with a tall can of PBR was offering midnight-hour beer hand ups at the trailhead that's just after the top of Five Minute Hill. I politely turned him down. 

* I came up on an injured cyclist in Little Vietnam, which is the part of the route that runs alongside the Spokane River. He hit a tree and injured his shoulder or collar bone and was in a lot of pain. He had already called his teammates and fortunately was pretty close to the main event area. I offered to walk his bike out for him but he turned me down and insisted I continue racing. Never mind that for me it was more riding with a number than racing, he told me to keep going. I stood his bike up for him, put it on his good side and pressed on. 

Sticking a fork in it after ten laps.

That's the spirit. 

The fellow next to me never stopped. John likened what he did to a NASCAR pit stop. He would roll in, toss two empty bottles to the ground, grab two more bottles from the coolers, and head out again. Every once in a while he'd shotgun a can of Coke. He won the 40-49 solo division with 18 laps. That's killer.

 A wheelie finish at the end of the race.

A big thanks to John for his support, unpacking stuff, packing stuff, hauling stuff, refilling water bottles, etc., and to Kathy and Barb for checking up on me. It was a good time. Except for the pain and suffering part but that's to be expected. I imagine I'll be back next year. And maybe John will get that bike and share the camp with me but without all that snoring he was doing at three in the morning.

Missouri Trip

Last weekend Kathy and I went to Missouri to attend her sister's graduation as a registered nurse. Yep, we have yet another nurse in the family.

Mary Beth and her family.

Kathy stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things. My nephew Alex was with us. We were killing time just walking around when I randomly told him to grab a toilet seat to carry around the store. To my surprise he did. I thought it only fair that I should carry something too so I picked up a pair of XXL panties, black with pink lace. You hardly notice them. We walked up and down aisles and Alex kept track of all the looks we got. It was pretty funny. Of course, when we caught up with Kathy she asked, "What the heck are you doing?" And then she took our picture.

Kathy's a fan of the Cardinals so we caught a game.  It was the last game in the series against Pittsburgh. It went 14 innings and St Louis won it with a home run. But not by this guy.

We happened upon the Peacock Diner on Delmar Street in St Louis. It has the best carousel of love I've ever been in. A milkshake on the menu was called The Human Sacrifice, which includes three types of liquor so I had to try it. Another ingredient was cayenne pepper. I was wondering where that came into play. I found out when I licked some of the whipped cream from the top and my tongue got a little zing. I thought they had sprinkled cinnamon on it. Nope, it's the pepper. The shake was delicious.

No Bazookas

Ya gotta love it when a business has a sense of humor.

Design Fail

The motion activated paper towel dispenser is right above the urinal. Simple walk up and have your view blocked. It was difficult to get a shot of this because the bathroom is so small.