|   24 Hours of Adrenalin @ Castaic Lake: Solo Race Report | Mark Jeffery
Apr 29, 2003 11:09 AM | | I had been checking the weather all week... here, moderately crappy to raining and there (LA) a little better. I was dreading the thought of 24hours in rain. Friday I get up a go to do my half day of work and it is pouring, damn. My first solo race... I didn't sign up for rain. That afternoon driving down it was raining for probably half the drive then cleared a bit, whew!
Friday @ Castaic Lake: very windy, but no rain. Pre-ride, no way. I will have enough chance to check out every aspect of the course tomorrow. Forecast = Sunny. No sign of Patrick from Light and Motion anywhere. Check in get schwag and set up camp.
Saturday Morning: Bike prep, humm, the Chameleon or the Superlight w/2003 XTR built by me and only ridden once. In the name of the jewels I chose the Superlight put on the plates... solo rider # 40... what kind of a moron am I? Are parts going to fall off... tuned right... At least I wasn't in it alone, my friends Ken Johnson and Dave Engelbrecht in it too.
The Master Plan: Finish the run last, tool around and take breaks when I needed them. To finish, not to place, not know where I am in the standings until at least midnight. Make it to the night in one piece... I ride well at night. My buddy Eric Warkentin does these things all the time and his take is that at 10pm the standings change dramatically. His diet suggests would make the most unethical eaters kringe.
Noon: We show up right on time and at the back of the pack for the run. Man it was much more pleasant to jog than run. The course was short ~6 miles and they called it "climbing- focused" or something like that. The week before they had changed the direction and now make us climb up the grapevine downhill course. My guess was ~1,200 ft per lap (but of course I could be way off). I was riding with my buddy Ken and the pace was rather quick but felt good, especially after the old legs got warmed up. After a while Ken faded (probably on purpose because of the hours still to go... could be a smart move) yet I still felt pretty good. The afternoon sun in the valley and up the climbs was pretty hot and open with the exception of some completely overgrown parts. As the day grew longer, I strategically chose a section of the climb to walk up for a break. Most of the team riders walked this section too. Night fell. This was the part I was looking forward to. Still feeling good. Lapped Ken, rode a couple of laps together then he took a couple of hours off. I heard that I was in second. I said "get out, you are... insert word here... me!". Don't fade at 10pm. It was about 1am instead. I ate a cup-o-noodles and just waited too long to get back on. Got cold. Eyes were very heavy. I sat down in front of the heater with a blanket closed my eyes and got a leg massage. My parents had showed up to support, how cool. They suggested I take a nap. My first rule was not to hit the sleeping bag as I knew it would be all over. I said if I do fall asleep wake me up in 30 mins. I heard someone say 30 mins... I got up put on the Team Armadillo Willy's wind breaker and was off. Man, it had cooled down. I did a couple of laps then heard the guy in third was only about 15 mins behind. Crap.
Strategy Enhancement: bust out as many faster laps as I could while it was still cool outside as I figured the going would get pretty tough then the sun came out. About 8am Ken and I started riding together again... saw Paul Wassem from MTB Review.com again... said hey! It was heating up... went from multi-layers to short sleeve to sleeveless in a matter of laps.
9am: Grind up the last steep climb at the lap half way point by some guy walking his bike up the climb... # 50... that was a lap on third... All I have to do now is tool around for three hours to clinch it. I come through the pits. # 50's support guy said "damn!" out loud as I go by... I smiled. # 50, Phil Kramer was an incredibly cool guy... that's what 24 hour racing is all about. As for first place, I pretty much never saw the guy, Allen St. Pierre... Animal.
Managed to pull it out... wrap it up early... and get on the podium... how about them apples!
Big kudos to:
Support: Mary Engelbrecht and Rachael, Ken's son Ryan and friend Lane, Ken's other son Kenny and booth babe Amy, my parents Valerie and Gordon. My wife Katie and kids Adam and Kyra Dinosaur.
Training and Stuff: The Summit Chuters, Team Armadillo Willy's, Stan's Bicycles, Eric Warkentin, Carol "Speed" Silvera, Lou Kobin, Joe Whitehead, and Sten.
Mark |
| Nice to see you Mark! | wassem
Jul 11, 2003 9:05 AM | | Hey Mark,
Found your post, what a ride Castaic was, huh?!? It was cool to see you and yer hammer heads buddies at Soquel the other night. How often do you ride there? Write me at paul@mtbr.com.
Cheers,
Paul |
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