Summer Solstice Race Report-smells like team spirit

The 24 hours of Summer Solstice is the perfect example of an endurance race that is run really well. The venue was huge-so people could camp out all weekend. It had a bar, movie screens, catered food and a ton of events for people who weren't racing or doing support. My helmet is off to Chico Racing for a great time. I definitely plan on going back next year.

Here's what I think happened in 24 hours:

High Noon (start): People started lining up at 11:00 so that they would have a front position. I was still prepping my bottles and such so Jason Mead took my bike and stood at the start line for me along with Marks mechanic. I will be forever grateful for this because I avoided a lot of bike traffic. Speaking of the start, it was incredible. I've never seen so many spectators in my life. They were lined up 4-5 people deep.

Once the gun went off everything turned kind of blurry. You know that feeling that you get when you are riding hard? I had it full force. I could actually feel the blood pumping through my arms! The pace slowed down once we hit the first singletrack, and I was able to warm up a bit. It was cool going through the singletrack, because there was a ton of people in the woods with cowbells and sirens, cheering us on. I had my picture taken a lot too. Actually let me re-phrase that...my bikes had their pictures taken a lot. I'm pretty sure I won't be in any of them as the cameras were always pointed down at my frames!

Laps 1-4: I came out of the first lap in the lead out of the solo women, but didn't feel the greatest. I think my body was still a little tired from Lumberjack. My stomach had been hurting all week and I actually puked in my mouth twice during my first couple of laps (a first for me during a race). After that, I had a really hard time getting enough calories in. I pretty much survived off of hammergel and bagels for the rest of the race.

Laps 5-8: I started to lap my competitors somewhere in here. The course was deceivingly hard, much more so then Lumberjack. It was about 10 miles, with about 1000 ft of climbing in each lap. There was some doubletrack, but also a lot of twisty singletrack. After awhile, the climbs started to really wear down my legs. They weren't long, but on the steeper side. I couldn't ever just sit and spin up them. The singletrack also started to get a lot bumpier from everyone racing on it. My body was taking a beating just from going downhill. Since I was slowing down in the singletrack, I would throw my chain into my big ring and try to make up time on the doubletrack.

Laps 8-12: This was the point where Lumberjack really started to catch up with me. All of the aches and pains that I had after that race came back in full force. It started to get really cold out, which made me more tired. I stopped in my pit area, drank some warm coffee, and put on knee and arm warmers.

Here I am sitting while Scott put my knee warmers on...it took too much effort for me to do it myself;

Laps 12-14: My night laps weren't the greatest. We had to get off of our bikes at the end of every lap at the transition area. I remember standing over my bike at one point and not being able to figure out how to clip my shoe back into the pedal. I must have tried five times before I could figure it out. I think that my body took over and started riding on my own, because I couldn't think for the life of me. One of the nice things about this race was that there were so many competitors. It seemed like I was always catching or being caught by someone. By this point I'm sure I was being caught a lot more then doing the catching but it was sure nice knowing other people were out riding in the dark with me.

Laps 14-17: What's slower then slow? I was!! I don't advise doing back to back endurance races because you might just break down and start crying in front of your pit crew. I know, because I did. I was trying to get a little sympathy and had huge tears rolling down my cheeks while they were taking my lights off. Did it work? Nooooo, and I'm glad that it didn't. They kept me pedaling on my bike and I was fine once I was back in the woods.

This pictures sums it up perfectly...Scott telling me I had been in the pit long enough!

Lap 18 (Final lap): Nothing is better then the final lap...nothing! I came out of the final singletrack to a TON of people cheering. Naturally I thought they were all cheering for me, but it was really for the mud pit contest. The promoter had a log on top of a mud pit for people to try to ride over. I heard people cheering for me to try it, and I'm glad that my sleep deprived brain had enough common sense to take the alternate route. Maybe next year......

Jason and Ted had a great time egging people on near the mud pit. I guess it smelled really bad-yuck!


Overall, I had a great time. I was lucky to have the best support possible for this race (thanks Scott, Jason and Ted), not to mention awesome bikes. Another good thing was that this was the first time EVER that my IT band didn't hurt at all during a 24 hour race. That's a huge weight off of my shoulders.

So what now? I have one month until Nationals and a lot of stuff to work on. For the next couple of days though, I have strict orders from my coach to just eat and sleep. Thank goodness!!!