24 Hours Round and Round at Spokane, WA

409Kms in 23 hours and 40 minutes got me to an awesome 3rd place in the single speed category and 10th overall ! This is a local race in Spokane super well organized by Wendy and Gino, very nice people and organizers (the race had included camping, pizza at midnight, breakfast and a delicious post race banquet). It was a hard race in a very different environment. A 24kms loop with almost 95% of single track (wide single track not very technical like the tracks in Canmore, but with loose dirt, rocks and amazing views of the River Valley). Head out on Wednesday after work with Maria, Nick and my mother in-law (awesome pit crew committed to help through the entire race..). Pre-rode the course on Friday evening and found out that there will be a lot of pedaling in such a long course..... After that I decided to changed my gear to a bigger one 32/18 (I knew I could regret to have that gear on the night laps, specially on the 5 minutes hill, but there were plenty of flat and rolly sections where I could take advantage of a bigger gear to make up some time).

The race started with a lemans of 600mts up the hill running to get on your bike. I hammered the first lap to get away from the crowd and be able to climb all the hills, and that worked pretty well. Second lap in and with only a few seconds in the pits to grab a water bottle I was off to the course feeling very well. by 5:20pm I was already done with 5 laps (very consistent time). It was 8:30pm when I already needed to have lights on, but only got one in the helmet which was ok. After that lap I put on the other light on the handle bar and was able to pick up the pace with more than 1,000 lumens brightening the course (thanks to Steve S. for lending me the exposure lights and Ryan for lending me a spare light in case I need it). The night laps were awesome until about 1:00am when my hands and feet were numbed from 0 degrees Celsius temperatures in the valley. Put on winter gloves and winter sucks from then on, but still cold... with a jersey, vest, jacket, long sleeve Jersey and another jacket I could barely move to get my food out the pockets... (I wasn't expecting such a cold weather this time of the year and wasn't prepared for that...). 2:00am and 3:30am required a quick stop in some guys's fire pit to warm up before starting the lap (very nice guys, they were Canadians of course :-)) I literally warm up my butt and hands which were the worse (oh I forgot, I also had arm warmers, knee warmers and tides) If I were to fall I bet I wouldn't scratch a bit :-))))) I would have bounced !! last night lap started at around 3:30 and by the time I was 20min before completing the lap the sun was rising and the biggest challenge has passed (I survived through the night!!!). Stopped for coffee that my mother in-law had nicely brew for me and out for another lap. After that my stomach was a bit upset and I couldn't drink or eat anything.... not even my magic watermelon juice will go through, so I decided to stop eating and drinking for a full lap to see if I feel better. Nothing after that got better.... and despite I tried to eat and drink I only felt worse, I even got  an annoying hiccups for almost two laps that wasn't only killing me, but driving nuts a guy that was on my wheel for a while ha-ha.. Check my position in the timing tent before heading out to do lap 15 and I was in 2nd place !! crap, my motivation came back and I was improving my lap time, but nothing got better in my stomach. Lap 16 was slightly better, but didn't drink anything again (the cooler temperatures helped though..). Last lap in my head was 17 and decided to fill in my water bottle with a Pepsi and lots of ice, MIRACLE!!! it worked, I felt really good with that although I couldn't crank a super fast lap, but at least I had a chance to say good bye to the course and hammer all the hills one more time. I crossed the finish at 11:40am and luckily they advised me about the rule of crossing the finish right after 12:00pm otherwise I would have shown as DNF, so I went back to the pits and waited for a few minutes to officially complete the last lap. I ended up in 3rd place single speed and 10th over all. I have to admit one thing, all this training somehow has affected my motivation in a way that I don't feel like racing anymore..., in fact I didn't feel like coming to this race at all, but been able to ride for 24hours at a considerable hard pace has allowed me to get to know myself better, to control things that I wasn't aware they exist and I found that very romantic in a way. Every lap, every minute, every thought is something that has allowed me to grow and to get to know myself better.
If anyone is wondering whether or not I had a mechanic on duty on this race the answer is yes, Nicholas (my baby) was there all the time, making sure my tool box was a mess and that I have nuts and parts all over the place!!