I think a lot of things have to come together to enable one to have a medal placed around your neck in a 24 hour solo. Anything can happen in one of these events. As this was a pretty big deal...I think this may be a bit of a wordy entry....here goes...
My Pops was my support guy for this event and I can't thank him enough. To say he was committed is an understatement! Couldn't have done this without him, literally and figuratively, as he was the one that strategically had me dig deep into my own mind and get one more lap in to achieve 15...why the hesitation to get that last lap? Recall time..
The race started off sweeeeetly with us setting up camp the night before and getting a restful sleep after a belly full of pasta salad and some beef kabobs. Awoke to what looked and felt like a beautiful day. Tanya Flemming was AMAZING with all of her tips i.e peppermint oil on the straps of helmet for night rides (works) and other strategic race info!! My mood was positive and calm all the way up to the event.
Hydration was achieved via water bottles vs camel back and fuel of choice for day was Perpetuum and at night, Perpetuum caffe Latte...this stuff WORKS! Only had a couple gels (too sweet) and ate cold and hot pasta throughout the event. NO SLEEP T'LL BROOKLYN!!!!!! No sleep, rode straight through the night.
My placings were looking suspiciously good, which may have stemmed from the fact I was keeping sub hour laps for the first two laps...course was just tooo fast and flowy NOT to. Then it happened....placings went from 3rd to 2nd to 1ST!!!!! I just finished a night lap around 3:30 in the a.m and looked at results screen....yup 1st place...completed another lap and my 1st place gap was GROWING!!!!
I know how many laps these events typically take to WIN and for me to be in first was a nice place to be but I thought I knew what would happen......but it didn't...I had some time to ride with the Chris McKnight and Andy Shrubb. They were both good riders and I didn't think for a minute that they WOULDN'T get 19 or more laps in....but they didn't. I was sitting there in my camp chair just completing my 14th lap and STILL in FIRST place, when my dad did the math for me....I could secure 1st and DEFINITELY second if I got two more laps in. Little did he know I put a solid 14th lap in riding the high that I was the lead rider for almost 6 hours in a 24 hour solo race. Yeah RACE vs RIDE :) So....dug deep and did it for the pops. Cranked out my last lap to end with 15 which secured my podium finish. If I had creeped out and got one last lap out......yeah....I would be blogging a 2nd place vs 3rd place finish, however, my results were two things....a PB and Podium, so really....unless your first, does it really matter 2nd or 3rd? I knew Chris McKnight was looking strong and there was no way I had 18 or 19 laps in me.....this year ;)
So, it's the day after my first podium event and the last year of me being in the Under 40 category......I'm smiling right now......next year will be a tougher group and will look at all the different options for racing....Chico puts on a great event and I need to go back to bed...
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