I had done the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo (24HOP) mountain bike race
back in 2003 on a 5 person team. I knew nothing of endurance events
back then, and experienced what it’s like to not have a nutrition
plan and reap the revenge of the gut. Word of advice: pasta at 11PM
probably isn’t a good idea before a 2AM night lap.

After doing tris for a few years and starting to get a better idea on
the nutrition thing, I decided to give the 24 another go. And why not
do the race with fellow Tri Girls? So the goal was to put together a
team of Tri Girls. Later it turned out we had a lot of husbands of
Tri Girls that ride mountain bikes, so we created a second co-ed
team. So our teams were Team Tucson Tri Girls (4 person female) of
Tara, Liane, Holly, and Janice and Team Tucson Tri Girls & Their Boys
(5 person co-ed 100-149) of me, Katrina, Neil, Zac, and Kyle. Holly,
Janice, and Tara were kind enough to step in and replace previous
members that had to bow out due to medical issues. Tara had done the
race in the past, so it was nice to have a fellow veteran on the
team. Liane had done Xterras and was proficient in the dirt. Holly
and Janice were brand new to mountain biking. I’m sure the race
wasn’t the ideal place to learn, but they were troopers!

Friday we loaded up our van and trailer (hauling 2000 lbs of
firewood) and caravanned out to the race site with Holly and Janice.
Thanks to an extremely cool EpicRides volunteer, we were able to find
an ideal campsite. Campsite location is absolutely key at an event
like this. You want to have enough space for everyone, yet be far
enough away from hundreds of campfires and late night party people.
Holly and Janice dropped Janice’s van and proceeded back to Tucson.
Zac and I set to work claiming our real estate with tents, canopies,
hammocks and every table and chair we packed. After all we had to
reserve enough space for 5 other vehicles arriving on race day. I
must say that Janice and Holly came prepared. I warned the team of
past races where porta potties ended up full or out of TP, so they
brought 48 rolls of TP out to the race. I’m not kidding! If we had
to, we could sell the TP to those that had run out and probably make
a profit.

Zac and I had enough time on Friday night for a quick dinner and a
short hike up the hillside to watch the sunset. We crashed at 8:30PM
that night, knowing we’d be getting hardly any sleep the next day.
Other people in the main campground area had other ideas, as we could
hear shouting and horns in the distance. It was kind of nice to be
camped on the fringe of the 24 hour town.

Race morning we got up and helped Tara set up her tent and camp.
Holly, Kyle and Janice arrived shortly thereafter and to the
discovery that yes, all 48 rolls of toilet paper were still accounted
for. Our team gained 3 extra members with the Justice kids, which as
everyone knows, know their way around a race site quite well. They
provided campsite entertainment and even helped with camp duties. We
made a last minute change to the race order to make sure Holly and
Kyle would never be out on the course at the same time. This meant
Kyle got the prestigious position of being the first rider for the co-
ed team, and got to do the LeMans start.

Noon came quickly and the teams were off. I was the second rider up
so as soon as Kyle was off I started to get ready. Katrina and Neil
were arriving later as Neil had to work that morning, so Zac would
follow me in rotation if need be. I got to the timing tent early
because I wasn’t sure how fast Kyle would go. Sure enough, Kyle rolls
in after a 1:19 lap, and that was his first time even seeing the
course! I grab the baton and head out of the tent onto the course. I
flew down the first little bit of singletrack and thought to
myself “I’m going WAY too fast!” My heartrate was already pegged.

I hit the first climb of the 7 Bitches (7 long hills all in a row)
and proceeded to drop my chain when shifting from the middle to
little ring. I got off and fixed the chain and jogged up the hill.
Thankfully a downhill followed. Now, downhilling on a mountain bike
is my thing. I can’t climb worth crap, but can fly anytime the
terrain goes in a downward direction. The rockier and more technical
the trail, the better. I stood in the pedals to absorb the shock as
my little hardtail bounced its way down the hill. On one of the
downhills there’s a bit of a dirt jump. I caught more air off of the
jump than I was expecting and had time to count “1…2…3…seconds” in my
head before the wheels hit the ground. My stomach caught back up a
few seconds later after I realized that I had more hangtime than
anticipated and actually landed without crashing. I enjoyed the rest
of the trail, but started to think about “The Decision.” Just before
the timing tent the trail splits off at a fork. The right is nice and
easy rolling singletrack. The left leads to a steep rock drop feature
that riders have to ride down if they choose that way. I debated in
my head if I should ride it. I really didn’t want to crash and hurt
myself, but then again, this was probably going to be my only
daylight lap. I got to the fork and saw a crowd lining the trail at
the rock drop and proceeded to the left. After all, who can resist
performing in front of a crowd? ;) I got off line a little bit at the
entrance to the drop and had to force the bike to the left line in
the middle of the rock. I got my butt way over the back seat and rode
it out and thankfully didn’t crash in front of anyone. After that I
headed towards the timing tent. I saw Zac on the side of the trail
with the spectators and he yelled “Neil’s next!” I saw Neil in the
timing tent and handed off the baton to him. Luckily he’d be able to
see the course on his first lap in the daylight.

After that we settled into a rotation. Katrina was able to go out and
fire off a speedy lap even with an injury, and came back to camp to
enjoy muscle relaxers and a campfire. Evening came and we started in
on the night laps. My first night lap started at about 9PM, but as
soon as I hit the singletrack I wasn’t feeling great. Everything
caught up with me and a headache turned into a bit of a migraine with
nausea. I seriously thought I was going to have to pull over to puke.
I told myself just to pedal slow and easy and keep moving forward. I
could end up feeling sick in Ironman, and I needed to see if I could
still push myself forward while feeling bad. The lap felt like it
took forever. I stopped and took several rest breaks and ate a little
while resting. A few of the climbs I decided to walk, just for a bit
more rest. When I hit the final bit of singletrack trail I was so
happy it was almost over. This time I took the easy trail option and
headed into the timing tent and handed off the baton to Neil. I went
back to camp and in 15 minutes I was in my jammies and in bed. I knew
I should have eaten something after the lap, but I felt rest was a
higher priority.

I zonked out for 3 hours and woke up to a conversation between Zac
and Neil outside the van at about 3AM. Neil was willing to go out
another lap but his light’s batteries were dying. Zac said “hey no
problem” and hooked up one of our spare batteries. Neil was a machine
that night, always seeming to be willing to go out on another lap. I
decided to get up and drank some nutrition drink and felt much
better. I figured if I could go out one more time when Neil got back,
we could send Katrina out for the dawn lap and then Zac, Kyle, and
Neil could finish out the day laps. I got dressed and scribbled a
note for Neil on our team’s white board and headed to the timing
tent. Neil had just come in 4 minutes earlier and left the baton, so
I picked it up and headed out. Even though it was 4:20AM and I had
only had 3 hours of sleep, it felt like I had twice that much sleep.
This night lap went much better since my headache was gone. And the
best thing was seeing the sun starting to rise over the mountains as
I finished up my lap. I got back to camp and Katrina was all set up
and ready to go.

Zac had what we thought was going to be the final lap. To be a
finishing team, the last team member must cross the line at or after
12PM or the team gets DQed. So most people hang outside just before
the timing tent at the end of their last lap so they don’t have to
send another rider out. Unless they are competitive in which they try
to get one last rider out right before 12PM. We were curious and
checked the results for our team and were surprised to see we were in
3rd place for our division! We headed back to camp and discussed it,
and Neil was, of course, willing to go out for another lap. I phoned
Zac on the course and told him not to hang back as Neil was going to
go out. Zac replied “Ok, I’ll hammer it in on the way back.” Hmm…must
be nice to have a hammer switch like that you can just flip. Zac came
in just before 11AM and we sent Neil out, which secured 3rd place for
us. It was kind of funny that our team actually placed, since we were
pretty easy going about it and doing the event just for fun.

Afterwards we packed up camp and headed back to Tucson with
everything reeking like campfire. Overall it was a successful
weekend. There were only a few crashes amongst our teams, and Holly
and Janice did especially well riding the course with having very
little time on mountain bikes. It definitely helps to be on teams
where everyone is really easy going as that makes for a good time.
The Tucson Tri Girls totally kicked butt that weekend! :)