The weekend was a beautiful one in the White Mountains and our team "Cobra
Kai" was geared up to make the assault on the Great Glen trails at
the base of Mount Washington. Being my first 24 hour race I didn't know
what to expect but I was determined to make it through the race unscathed.
Our team consisted of myself, Lew Conley (ECV), Kent Wosepka (soon to be
ECV if we can get him to kick in 25 bucks for membership) and Greg Balco
(Kent's college buddy). We also hooked up with the ECV cyclocross king Stu
Boyd and his riding partner Chris Yaceshyn who entered in the men's pair
division which I thought was very sick to say the least. They were joined
by Ron Messina from Hamilton who assisted as a chef, mechanic and alarm
clock. We set-up camp next to each other and ECV had our own little township
at Great Glen. There was another person riding in an ECV kit but we did
not get his name.
The race started with the customary cannon shot at 12:00 noon on Saturday
and Lew volunteered to make the first lap of the course. The race starts
out as a Le Mans mass start with all the racers running around a pond,
about 1/4 mile, before mounting their bikes for the first lap. Lew, the
avid runner he is not, actually finished the run in the top 25% of the
pack when he mounted his bike. The first lap was a little slow as traffic
built up during the first climb up a pretty steep switch back section
leading into a new technical single track section added this year. The
course length was increased to 8.5 miles and we figured we could lap
the course in an hour or less targeting 24 laps for the race. We decided
the line up would be Lew followed by Kent, myself and then Greg. This
riding order would change during the race.
Lew finished his first lap in a little over an hour but felt good as
he made the transition to Kent in the timing tent. This year all riders
were equipment with a timing chip attached to their wrists that they
would need to wave across a sensor to record their lap times. This was
a little chaotic during the first exchange as more than 150 riders passed
through the timing area. The excitement filled the tent as all teams
mounted their second riders and off they went. My lap was third and I
took the baton from Kent smoothly. The course was laid out very nicely
with a mixture of single track, fire roads and tricky technical sections.
The first climb left me gasping for O2 but I recovered nicely before
heading into the first technical section. Even though conditions were
dry, the roots and rocks in the woods were always damp and very slippery.
Fire roads dominated the course with relentless climbs. After finishing
a technical section, the road would tilt up again and we would climb
and climb and climb. Soon I found a rhythm and felt confident on the
bike. I could not complete the lap without dismounting many times running
through some sections that were just too tough to ride. It felt like
I was riding a very long cyclocross race with a very heavy bike. As I
reached the start / finish area, the most technical section of the course
consisted of a trail called the "Plunge" which caused more
than one rider to crash during the race. This descent was very tricky
and steep but I was able to make it through without a mishap and reached
the finish line for my first hand off to Greg. My time was slower that
I expected, about 1:05 but I felt good.
We continued to ride this pattern, 1-2-3-4, through the daylight hours
and decided to change the riding order at night to allow for more sleep.
We switched to a 1-1-2-2-3-4-3-4 pattern at night with Lew and Kent each
riding a double lap and Greg and I switching off laps to allow for more
recovery and battery charging time. My first night lap was scheduled
for 11:00 PM and this is where my troubles began. I decided to make a
pedal change before my first night lap since I had trouble with my cleats.
Don't try to change your pedals in the dark with a flashlight like I
did. I erroneously cross threaded my right pedal and had to take the
bike to the 24 hour bike shop to have this fixed - thank god for these
guys. Greg had to take my lap since my bike wasn't fixed until 11:30
PM. After getting my pedal fixed I prepared for my night lap. Now the
temperature was dropping into the 40s and it was expected to be in the
upper 30s throughout the night.
My night lap was very slow as I was pretty cautious on the technical
sections. We all rode our night laps about 10-15 minutes slower than
our daytime laps. Upon reaching the finish area, I dismounted from my
bike cross style and my right leg went into a massive muscle spasm right
in front of the timing tent. This was most likely due to the cold and
slight dehydration I surmised. The muscle cramp was so bad I could not
move across the finish line to transfer the baton to Greg who was waiting
for me inside the tent. After several minutes of massaging my leg to
work out the cramp I hobbled across the finish line and transferred the
baton. At this point I knew I would not be able to continue with my next
lap since my leg was cramping so badly. I made my way back to our tent
and woke up Lew to get him ready to take my next lap. Lew, being a great
competitor, gladly woke up to take his turn. Now the riding order definitely
would have to change. We figured that Lew would take the next 2 laps
and Kent would follow with his two laps allowing me 4 hours to recover
till the morning. I promptly downed 3 Advil, a Gatorade, power gel, banana
and vitamins and crawled into my sleeping bag to get warm. My 12 year
old son who was camping with us during the race did not even wake up
during this whole ordeal. I later learned that Stu Boyd also suffered
with cramps due to the cold but was also able to shake it off via a trip
to the massage tent.
The sun rose on a very cold and dew drenched mountain with Kent finishing
his 2 laps at around 6:00 AM. Greg would have to take my lap again since
my legs were very stiff but I was determined to make it out again. I
started to get dressed for my 7:00 AM lap and I started to feel much
better. At this time, we discovered that our team was in first place
by about 5 minutes and we knew it would come down to the final lap to
decide the race for our category. My fourth and final lap would be at
7:00 AM and even though my legs felt stiff, I managed to finish my lap
without cramping. Our final three riders would be Kent, Lew and Greg
which would result in 22 laps finishing just about 12:00 noon when the
final cannon would be fired. The race rules require someone to be on
the course at noon. When Lew & Kent finished their final laps our
lead grew to 13 minutes and Greg would only need to finish his lap at
an easy pace in order for us to win. Lew actually was dressed and ready
ride a final lap just in case the second place team caught up to Greg
which we knew was unlikely. When Greg descended from the Plunge, which
was visible from the start/finish area, we started counting down to determine
the gap to the second place team. Greg would finish well ahead of the
second place team and we ending taking the top podium position in the
4 person men's beginner category. This was clearly a team effort with
Lew, Kent and Greg picking up additional laps when I was suffering. All
in all it was a great race and we can't wait till next year to defend
our title.