Top 10 Lessons Learned from a 24 hr mtb race

TOP 10 LESSONS LEARNED FROM A 24 HR MTB RACE

10. If it can break, it will.

9. Don't start off too hard, it's a long way till the finish.

8. If you have a RV, you can actually get some sleep!

7. No, I didn't pee in the sleeping bag, its called dew--Seth

6. You need more than a flash light zip-tied to your helmet to ride at night--Greg

5. Aliens are real, I saw them several times around 3am!

4. If teenagers are on your team, they will fall asleep & not show up at the transition! And a 7 yr old can not stay awake all night either.

3. If you wake a teenager from sleep, he may curse you out!

2. The sun will rise! Hang in there

1. The 5am shadows are not really bears and the roots are not really snakes.

OK more than 10.

The top thing I learned from the 24 hr mtb race is:

JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEE THE TREES DURING THE NIGHT,

DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T EXIST.

THEY ARE STILL THERE AND WILL NOT MOVE!

24hr Burn: Yeah a 24 hr Mtb Race. All night!

24hr Burn Mtb Race

I know. WTH! Or you nuts again. Everytime I set off for one of my adventures I call my mom and tell her. She always responds, "You're doing what?!" followed by a big sigh. Sorry mom for all those years I have taken off your life:)


Ok, here's the deal. I find out some of the RCO guys/gals are doing this 24hr mtb race in Wilkesboro, NC. I couldn't resist. I called a few guys to get a team but was willing to try it solo if necessary. See, I enjoy these long distance suffer fests. They help validate the idea that I have what it takes. Maybe it's ego, maybe not. Maybe I feel I have something to prove. Maybe I simply enjoy it. Whatever the case, many well qualified people have made attempts at analyzing this narcissistic behavior. My longest event has been an offroad ironman. It took me about 20 hrs. Well thank goodness I had a couple of teammates to help out with this one!

As with all of my events. Main Goal is to HAVE FUN! The race is basically do as many 7.5 mile laps as possible in a 24hr time frame. If you have teammates, then you can alternate laps and get some rest in between. There were some solo nuts out there and they did about 30 something laps. That's over 200 miles on the mountain bike. WOW.

I pick my #1 teammate up from school. He has just turned 7. That's my boy Seth! I told him we were going to do a 24 hr race, get to camp and eat campfire meals. He loves those army MRE meals! His reaction was priceless. "Daddy, do you mean I get to stay up all night?" I responded, "Yep, it sure does." Seth raises his arms high and shouts, "Yesssssss! Up all night and nobody telling what to do!" WHAT? Where did the "nobody telling me what to do" come in? He's only 7. Oh well, I knew he wouldn't make it past 10pm.



He found some friends and this trike bike. Boy did they have fun riding those things. When darkness fell, he stayed close by the campsite, cheering on the riders and helping us with the water bottles and food. About 10pm he said, "Daddy, I think I'll get in the tent for a little while." He crawls in his sleeping bag still cheering riders as they pass by. A few minutes passed and I heard no sound. He was out till sunrise. Lesson learned. Give kids some freedom to do things. Instead of saying "NO" you can't stay up all night, say "YES." He managed to get to bed on his own at a reasonable hour. Saying "YES" often takes away the desire where as a "NO" increases the hunger to do whatever it is.

Greg Bartocci and myself make up the team. But wait, we found another kid at the race that was looking for a team. 15 yr old Randall Charwood from eastern VA. He and his family were there with 2 other teams. His dad was looking for a cool team for him to join. What cooler team that 1 Preacher 3 Sinners team. Yeah, that's our name. I knew it would raise questions and it did from the moment we registered. Ok, let's do the math. 1 Preacher 3 Sinners = 4 right? They kept wanting that 4th teammate to add. Ah I question, is a preacher above sin? It took a few minutes but they got it. Do you?

So the race starts. I took the first lap and you would have thought it was a 1-2 hr race. People were going nuts. I'm like, come on guys, we are going to be out here all night. Sprinting up this first hill isn't going to win it for you. We started out taking one lap at a time which takes about 45 minutes. That leaves a little more than an hr for rest between rides. Ride a lap, come in, eat, rest, head out for another lap. During the night I doubled up some laps because of the kids needing their beauty sleep:) These trails rocked. Below is Greg getting some air!



Things going well near sunset. Feeling strong but hungryAh nothing better than hot food to get you through the night. Lets see. I had Mountain House Beef stew, Chili Mac, Lasagna, 4 Latte's, 3 Burns, 1 bottle of hammer gel, too many Enduralite caps and anti fatigue caps to count. Countless bottles of heed. 4 peanut butter sandwiches, bag of chips, 4 cliff bars, and other food that I can't remember. And I still lost 5 lbs. Go figure? Thx to the rescue squad next to us that had a fire going. I got cold and wet. Fire and food are the number one thing for survival in the wild:)

Randall road great! His father said he was a trooper and that he was. He rode strong and with determination. He flatted twice on his first lap which took him about 1.5 hrs. I saw him coming out of the woods carrying his bike for another 1/2 mile to the transition. Way to go Randall!



Ok, below is our camp. Look closer. Do you see that huge 75ft RV! Seth and I arrived at the site and saw it with our RCO sign. He said, "daddy, is that ours? That's my team!" Our yeah, the team was pimped out in this RV. Check out Warren's (the other warren) blog for full report.

Check out this sign. We were so styln at this race! If you don't get the D-listed Race Team name check out Warren's blog for an explanation! Great name guys and Paula.

Oh yeah, speaking of Paula. Things get a little crazy in the night. People see things like aliens and wear strange clothing.

Remember? The race is about having fun and we did. I'm chilln before the next lap.D-Team might have had the RV. But we had the toys. Remote control trucks, Put-put course, trikes, golf clubs, etc.Well Seth and I signing off. Until then remember to:

Ride hard for the end is near!

Bedford Mtb race

This was my first Mtb race of the year. I have maybe been on the bike 15 x's this year and was in no race shape. But what the heck, I race because its fun, not to win. Plus, I love introducing others to the sport. Greg Bartocci and my son Seth participated in the race. It was a beautiful day for the race.

I'm really not that good at singletrack. The course is tight, twisty and rolling. My technical skills needs lots of work. I prefer long uphill grinds! Anyway, I wanted to hit the woods in the top 10 position. I hate getting bogged down in the field and like to try to follow faster riders and learn from them. The course starts at the bottom of a grassy field and has about a 1/3 mile climb to the woods. The horn sounded and the riders took off. The pace was not as fast as I thought it would be. I figured all would be sprinting to the woods. I got in a good cadence and found myself working bast the 12-15 riders into 2nd hitting the woods. Oh, if only I could hold it. Switchbacks, downhill, uphills, I found myself losing the wheel of the guy in front and having to let riders through. I guess I fell back to about 10th when things thinned out and hit some flatter sections.

Then there was the BIG log. There was 3 guys on my rear and the one right behind me shouting, "I'm going over." I responded, "Me too!" Then bam. Oh yeah, I went over. Endoed! That log was a little taller and steeper than I thought. I didn't pull up enough on the bars. Lost 3 places and Greg came around too. Chris Clark quickly caught up and we had about 5 riders grouped together for the first lap.

Finished the first lap 7.5 miles, and I feel strong. We hit the field and started climbing again. I knew this was a chance to get a good gap. I tapped Chris on the rear and said, "let's go." Took off and climbed hard. I hit the woods with about a minute on the NC Cricket guys. Chris was out of juice. I road the 2nd lap a little better. And then there was that big log again. EEEKk. I didn't make it again! I still had about 20 secs on the NC guys. They were much better technical riders so I hoped to gain time on the short, steep climbs. I hit them hard every chance and continued to get a gap only to be caught in the flats.

I had about 30 secs on them and hit a slight up river grade that is non-technical and straight. I pushed it as hard as I could and gained some more time. The last section before hitting the open field is tough. Lots of roots, rocks, and trees to knock me down. 2 other riders were coming in view giving me a rabbit to chase. I caught a guy just as we entered the field and attacked hard. Looking back, I didn't see the NC guys or the one I just passed trying to hang. Hit the final uphill section hard, came back out to the field and no one was with me. So I coasted into the finish, 5th place in sport 36-49. I was pleased with that. I haven't ridden much and have difficulty with the technical stuff.

Frank putting a little WD40 on his chain. For security reasons, I can not show his face!

Ron in his usual goofy self.




The proper equipment. Pink water bottle cages.

With painted pink toes to match!
Hey, not my toes. Their hers!

Seth excited to be there

what the heck is he doing?Ah, a clean bike is a faster bike. I might could learn a few things:)
man, i think he takes this stuff too seriously. He had the same look at the Greenbrier Triathlon.Crossing the finish in 2nd place!Ah the prizes!

Ok now for the big kids.

The RCO gang had some great results and brought home lots of swag.

Skeetz - 2nd place Single Speed

Yenski - 1st Expert 36-49

Pookie - 1st Singlespeed Women

Jen - 1st Sport Women

18-35Adam - 1st Clydesdale

Some had to result to stealing the swag. Jen, what are you doing? Get out of there.

Nah, she won but looks guilty:)
Warren and Gordon fight it out over a pair of gloves.

Hey Jen, I'm taking a picture here.

Greenbrier River Race

Marlington does a great job hosting the Greenbrier River Race.
3.5 mile run, 4 mile kayak. 10 mile bike on the River trail. This was Seth's 1st tri of the year. It was kinda long but thought he could do it.

Pre-race meeting. Man he is serious!

He listened intently to the rules for 20 minutes in this position.

Left to right: Darren Verable, Patrick McNown, Trey Lewis

Keith "Mountain Man" Simpson. AKA Superman:)
He rides his bike while I run. I had a really fast run for me. With stopping to take pictures, I ran it in about 24 minutes. Ok, it's hard to remember everything. I forgot food this time. Seth is like me. Without proper food, we bonk. We got halfway through the canoe and he said, "daddy, I'm hungry." Crap, I forgot the food. We did have a flask of Hammer gel which is great for carbs and a bottle of Heed. I finished that off but was still out of energy. The canoe took forever. The boat was so heavy and river slow. We were passed by everyone!

We got out of the canoe and headed to the bikes. I started asking folks for food. A lady had a couple of energy bars she gave us and gobbled them up. Off on the bike. We got about half-way through the bike and it started pouring rain. A cold rain too. My first thought, "Oh no, I forgot the jackets too." I can endure the cold but he is too young to have the ride miserable. He never said anything. He just found the puddles of water to ride through and kept splashing me.
Christy's first triKeith andTerry's first tri. She later crashed on the bike:(

Terry is one tough woman. She crashed and had a really bad wound. They tried to talk her into going straight to the ER but she wanted to finish. When I was picking up the canoe after the race, I overheard a couple of guys talking about her and the crash. They said, "That was one tough woman. She refused to quit. Blood was streaming down her arm and she kept going." She received the Fire & Rescue award

Erin's first tri. Oh yeah, Terry is the mom and Christy and Erin sisters
About 2 miles before the finish, he was toast. "Daddy, my legs are tired," he said. So I placed my hand on his back and helped him move down the trail. I tend to play games with him to help distract from the event when he gets tired. So much of it is mental. We started to talk about the sprint finish. It is a nice downhill to flat section and I challenged him to the sprint. If he can beat me, he gets a prize! We turned the corner and he took off. Its about a 200 yrd dash. He pumped hard and made it a photo finish. He won by half a bike! We found some food and then he said, "daddy, can I play in the river?" Sure, to the victor goes the spoils.



As they began to hand out prizes, he heard his name called out for being the youngest participant. Everyone had seen him and cheared for him during the race. He ran hard up to the podium with everyone chearing. Who doesn't like affirmation for a job well done. The prize: FREE ICECREAM! Oh yeah!

Total Time: 2:43! That's a long time for a little guy. Way to go Seth. My hero!

His usual post-race nap