Coolest 24-Hour MTB Race

The Coolest 24 Hour Race Against Cancer is an amazing charity mountain bike race in Cool, CA. I was at the inaugural race 3 years ago, and was really excited to go back this year. I headed out there early Saturday morning with Jay Bretz from Breakaway Bikes, entrancing him with tidbits from my latest favorite book “The Female Brain”… (poor guy!) I digress…

I brought my mountain bike to the 24 hour race, thinking I might go ride my old favorite MTB route in Auburn while the Breakaway guys picked away at their 24 hour effort. Alas- the bike race energy was too much for me to resist! The guys convinced me to sign up for the 8 hour race approximately 45 minutes before race start. I quickly boiled water and cooked some spelt, my favorite training ride snack. I figured I’d just apply my training ride nutrition to my 8 hour effort, since I hadn’t really thought much about what a 8 hour race might require!

They staggered the start by 15 seconds, beginning the 24 hour soloists, then the 24 hour teams, then the 8 hour racers. First lap I just tried to settle into a race pace that I felt I could maintain, just approaching this like I would a long training ride. It was super dry and dusty the first lap, as racers hadn’t spaced out over the course yet. 1^st lap as I settled in, I noticed other women with yellow number plates—my competition! Nonetheless, I just rode my pace, again, essentially trying to settle into something I could maintain. On the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd laps I saw one woman again and again, she and I were clearly developing a trend of being similarly paced- this is when I implemented my one and only tactical move for the race; beginning lap 3 when I saw her, before a big downhill section I dropped it into the big chain ring and shot away from her, riding as aggressively as I could to get away from her. This was the long descent before creek climb #1, which is essentially a hike-a-bike out up and out of a creek crossing. I kept looking back, never did see her, but I wanted “out of sight out of mind” to be the case here. As I was hiking out of the creek I was ducking behind shrubs on one side of the trail, then quickly crossed the trail to the other side, so that if she did happen to look up the hill she wouldn’t see me! Ha! Kind of dorky, but fun!

I stopped to pit after laps 2, 3 and 4. Mike Harrison’s brother John and John’s friend Mike were there to support- I would drop my bike, they would clean and lube my chain while I grabbed food and water, then off I’d go! I tried to make my transitions as quick as possible, under a minute each time... I had my iPod in my mouth at one point on the course and someone yelled “eat it” thinking it was food! Really though, I relied on Essential Electrolytes and Clif Blocks, peanut butter on raisin bread, and chocolate chip cookies for this race J

Based on my lap times, as I tried to calculate (i.e. ADD) in my head (this was difficult! Ha!) I thought I’d have time to do 6 laps. However, when I saw the clock after lap 5 I realized I was done- I wouldn’t have time to finish a 6^th before the 8 hour cut-off. This turned out to be OK! After I finished I was told that I’d WON! Whoo hoo! A victory at my first solo 8 hour race! I didn’t realize that yellow number plates were also given to women’s TEAM racers- so women that I saw ahead of me on the 1^st lap were on teams. Very exciting!

By the way, my friend Rhonda from Team Mad Cat came in SECOND in her first 24 hour race! She is amazing! She rode 3 times as far as I did, I cannot IMAGINE the pain! Unbelievable! Congratulations Rhonda!

Also, my Breakaway Bikes friends did awesome. Jay placed 6^th or 7^th in the men’s solo 8 hour... Fritz rode hard, left it ALL out there in his first 24 hour attempt (thanks Cathy for snuggling with him at 1:30 AM- I was NOT prepared to do THAT!!!) and Mike Harrison came in SECOND in his first 24 hour race! I am pleased to have contributed to the Breakaway Men’s effort by working the team video camera capturing all this J. An AWESOME weekend!

***

After finishing King Ridge, eating enough pizza for a sumo wrestler, and driving home, I realized that Fritz still had 20 hours to race up in Cool (he raised almost $2000 for Cancer, btw). I decided I felt surprisingly perky for having finished a 'hopper and decided to go up and support him and his teammates, and mine, as Shannon was racing the 8-Hour race. So, the inside skinny on Shannon's WIN is that at 30 minutes before her race she hadn't even registered, and was considering just helping others. Damn, good thing she decided to race, as the girl WON the entire women's 8-Hour field! I think Shan may have found her true bike racing genre... It was an eye-opener for me to crew at a 24-hour race. I still have NO desire to race one of these solo or anything (these people are crazy if you ask me), but the scene was SO fantastic and grass-rootsy; I loved it. Fritz was amazing in his first 24, and on the damn singlespeed as well (he'd cracked the top-5 when I arrived at 9pm).  Our group scored; Shannon won 1st and a Nite-Rider light, Mike H. won 2nd in his first 24 hour race, and both Fritz and Jay Bretz won bikes in the RAFFLE! I just hope some of that luck rubs off on me...

-Cathy

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004