I had given up on ultra endurance events a while back as I’m intimately convinced they are not the best thing for our health… or so I thought, until I accidentally signed up for this….
I did the 24 HOP in 2013 solo single speed and really enjoyed the venue, so this year I wanted to go back with a team and do 4 men relay race. Registration deadline came up quick and not as fast as the commitment from my fellow team members, so all of the sudden I was signed up for solo.
Wasn’t too excited about the idea, but knowing that Lorri would crew for me eventually convinced me that it could be done. And heck – Do Epic Shit!
This race pops up in the middle of the Sonora desert, on a fast and non-technical course (if you consider dodging pain inflicting cacti a non-technical challenge).
The drive from Silicon Valley to Oracle, AZ is probably as challenging as the race and an ultra endurance activity of its own, taking around 13 hours each way. We opted to break it in two tranches, driving to Palm Springs and then finishing off the next day. Got there before dark and proceeded to look for a spot. Last time I stayed at the top of the hill and I thought it was a good choice to have the pit before the timing tent.
Setting camp was pretty quick, pick up race packet and some tri tip sandwiches at the 24 Hour Town center. This time I had a better setup than the trusty Honda Element, a more capable 4WD vehicle and a comfy roof top tent and gazebo.
Bike Setup
As far as bike setup I went with the trusty Ibis DV9, SRAM Eagle 12s and Schwalbe Racing Ray/Ralph combo.
Brought several sets of lights, mostly Light&Motion and a powerful old school Lupine.
The course
The terrain is typical desert, with some fire roads, lots’ of twisty/sandy single tracks and a couple of rockier and more technical descends.
The scenery is great, and very different to Californian eyes. Riding within striking distance of cacti takes a little bit to get used, but once you start thinking of it as “poison oak”, avoidance techniques are the same.
Consequences are also different, pulling these spiky things out of your flesh is no joke, and it’s no surprise the swag bag contains tweezers….
The Race
The race goes from 12 noon Sat to 12 noon on Sunday. I has a “Le Mans” type start, meaning we all run for a quarter of a mile or so, to the bikes, find yours and get going. The course narrows down to a single track almost immediately, before reaching the fire road, so avoiding the bottleneck is ideal, and difficult.
Not my first rodeo in 24hr racing, I usually break it down in 3 blocks of 8hr.
The first 8hr are just like your typical long weekend ride, feeling great, the key is actually to avoid going hard. There’s light, you’re fresh all is good.
The second block of 8hrs is spent almost entirely in the dark: that’s where the demons come out. The hardest part for me has always been around 3-4am – that’s when the desire to quit and the questions about the sanity of the whole thing are the strongest.
The last 8hr, and really once the sun comes back out, that’s when things become easier again. Except now you’re really tired, and while the mind is on board to finish it off, your body may decide otherwise.
So the general strategy is to “save” in the first block, be prepared for the mental wall in the second and push thru carefully in the third.
To make things much more difficult this time, rather forecasts did not talk at all about the temperature dropping below zero. Not having the proper gear caused a significant challenge.
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