I rode in the Boone 24 hour race this weekend. Our Team 14 4-person team (Thad, Rob, Sean, and me) achieved, and exceed our stated goal, which was to have a boatload of fun!
We started out strong (here is Thad after the run in 5th place overall):
We continued to ride well through 10 laps. We had been as high as second place, and, at 1:00 AM I think we were sitting in a tie for third. All but one of the 4-person teams was done for the night (the Rassy guys rode all night). I rode the last night lap for the team, and was ready for a beer or four when I got back to camp. Since the others on the team had a head start, I played catch-up (picture the high school girl in “Animal House”). We had some good times BSing with the Bike World guys, raiding the Irwin’s camp, hucking cookies at Nick’s truck while he tried to read “Runner’s World”, and getting all WTF over some guy doing 40 minutes laps in the mud and dark without ever passing anyone else on the course (He was later DQed).
Next thing you know, it’s 5:00 AM and our plan having someone up at 6:00 AM to ride has evaporated in a haze of beer and “Tilt”. I was up at 7:30 AM with a measly 2 hours of sleep. Any further laps on my part would have been hazardous to my health. Thad and Rob were in the same condition. Sean had been the voice of reason the night before, and had gone to bed early (2:00 AM). He redeemed our team by doing two more heroic laps on Sunday, giving us 12 laps total. Once the sun got warm we decided (“If you only applied yourself”) that we could do really well in this race if we tried. Maybe next year.
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is at the start and shows Kerkove in third:
In the yellow circle (in front of Squirrel’s trailer):
I think this is the unnamed rider that finished the first lap (and many more) in front of everyone. All without ever being seen by, or passing any of the lead riders. WTF?
In the end teammate Dennis Grelk put on lap after lap to win the solo race. Nice effort Dennis.
The other start pictures are here.
2 comments:
That's the guy who complimented my camera as he came through the start/finish line. He seemed in high spirits after 4 or 5 laps (though not whole ones apparently). It seemed he was not without a decent level of fitness, so why not give yourself a true go at the thing. We may never know why one would do this, so until then he is just a bastard.
I don't get it either. I like to have a charitable view of people. I would like to think he just got off course . . . lap after lap.
The funny thing was that he hung around for the awards. If I had been unjustifiably DQed, I would stomp off in a huff. However, if I knew it was coming and I deserved it . . .
It was also interesting to compare his condiiton after the race to Dennis. Dennis was a hurtin' dude (what you would expect from a 24 hour winner). The other guy looked pretty fresh.
We'll probably never know what really happened.
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