Coolest 24 hours at Boggs race report by Rafeal

My report:

The course. Much different than the BikeMonkey race. You could definately feel the extra 400' of climbing per lap, and the new rocky section at the beginning was sketchy for a 24 hour race (in a good way, but had many people walking). The second fireroad climb (different and longer than the march event) was a death march every lap, and more rolling singletrack before the run into to the finish. I'd guestimate 3 laps was the same or harder than 4 laps in March.


My second attempt at a 24 hour solo. This time with less (endurance) training, and more xc racing. Its been a long race season for me, and I was starting to feel burnt out coming in, but I gave it a go anyways. The weather turned out to be perfect. Not too hot, not too cold.

My strategy was to ride most of the time, with a 3 hour nap if I was feeling good, and more if I wasn't. I definately wasn't feeling it on the first several laps. On the third lap, my legs were feeling dead, and I definatly wasn't in the endurance shape that I was last year. I thought hard about quitting early and joining mr. jameson at the shiela moon camp. Toward the end of the 3rd lap, I see my buddy dennis getting carried away on the stretcher, but he was in good spirits cracking jokes. (broken hip. ouch, heal up quick buddy!)

By the 5th or 6th lap, I started to just take each climb very slowly, spinning in the granny, and my legs started to come around. I thought maybe I could actually do this. Lap times weren't bad, ranging from 1:10 to 1:20's, so I kept chugging along. I then set the goal to do 10 laps before taking a short nap for the night. On my 8th lap, the wind picked up hard, and it got cold really fast. I was sorta struggling, and just wanted to get into warmer gear. Toward the end of the lap, right around the same point where Ogre crashed, I clumsily veered off the trail, hit a rock and flew over the bars. D'oh. I gathered myself, and slowly rolled in, but it was COLD. As I crossed the line, I was 50/50 about wether I should keep going or not. I thought about checking the scores/leader page, but just wanted to warm up, so I skipped the check. I figured that if I went out and had another bad lap, that could end my race, and I didn't want to see if I needed to go back out, so I decided to just get into warm clothes and take a nap. which I did, a bit early around 11. I down a recovery drink, some cold pasta, a cup of chocolate milk, and some advil first.

Alarm went off at 4:30AM, and I got ready, ate a bit more, and was back on the bike by 5. Surprisingly, the legs felt better than they did at the start of the race, but I still just spun up the climbs slowly. I figured I timed it so I could get 4 laps comfortably, and 5 if I went hard.

I finished with 12 laps in a little under 23 hours. For the first time I checked the scores to see if I need to go out for another, and I see the 2nd place person only did 5 laps. My goal was 14 laps (after considering the increased difficulty compared to the March race), but I am fine with the 12 after how I felt on the 3rd lap. I thought I should just start packing up early since I also needed to do the long drive home by myself too. Only 4 or 5 in my age group. Kind of a charity win, but I'll take it.

I did the race self supported, which I think would have been okay, but I should have brought a camping stove for something warm at night/in the morning (thanks Jen/Kyle, murphy, and the others for the generous offers to share pits). Also, congrats to Kyle and his team!

Totals:
120+ miles
~17,000' elevation
place 1st / 4

Food:
6 bottles of perpetuem
6-8 bottles of water+nuun
4 bananas
2.5 PB&J sandwiches
2 cans of mr. pibb, 1 cans of coke
2 shots of gu/hammer gel
1 pack shot bloks
1 cliff bar
bunch of fried rice and pasta
lotsa twizzlers
handfull of goldfish
4 girlscout cookies
1 bottle recovery drink
1 cup chocolate milk
1 powdered doughnut

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Skyline Race Report by Matt Leonard

Another great race this weekend. This I think is my 4th time at Skyline, but the course was changed a little. Instead of the long fire road, up to the rocky steep climb, we did a short fire road burn and took a little turn in to about a mile of singe track climbing. Everyone was concerned about the Sea Otter style conga line, but I didn't hear any moaning and groaning after the race, so it must not have been too bad. However, I knew that I still had to make it to the front if I wanted a shot at my true goal; beating both John Grover and Chad Arkoff ;-) I consider these guys both to be faster than me, but I have been on a rampage of a comeback lately, and I could see the fear in their eyes ;-) I heard John talking smack in the parking lot, so I approached him and told him I'd take care of his bike while he went and registered. Some how he didn't take me up on my offer, but let me know that "Today I am not racing for the Mouse. I'm registering as 'Team Beat Matt Leonard'." The challenge was gladly accepted.

Waiting for our start, both Chad and John somehow got to the front row, along with our resident SS sandbagger Allan. We take off, and I just put my head down and raced to the single track. By the time I looked up and caught my breath, I was about 5th wheel in the single track, with Allan, John and Chad behind me somewhere. I kept on the gas most of the first lap, making my best effort to stay towards the front, but couldn't keep with the lead guys and people slowly started reeling me in. But thats okay, my plan worked, I didn't get caught behind anyone slower than me, and was able to race my own race for the first half hour. Chad caught me midway through the first lap, but I ran past him before the descent. However, once we hit the S/F fire road, he passed me right back. Crap.

In to the single track climb for the second time I can see Paule ahead and just as I begin to chat it up with him, I can see John Grover coming up the fire road, entering the single track. Crap. Paule slowed up a bit with a a little laugh and giving his teammate a little advantage, but quickly let me by and wished me luck. Okay, Chad is in site in front of me, and John is quickly approaching. I was tired, but not close to bonking. I kept the intensity up, but it wasn't enough. John passed me close to the top and I wished him luck catching Chad. I knew I was still in the top 5 or so, and didn't give up hope. Before the first creek crossing, I saw Chad working on his bike. I guess he had a slow leak and just dumped a CO2 cartridge in to his tire and jumped right back on his bike. Then, here comes Urbina roaring by me, never to be seen again.

Through the rolly stuff, I just kept racing my race, passing a few people here and there, being passed a few times. I sort of got stuck behind someone on the last exposed rocky climb, but didn't have the strength to pass him. All I could think about was that Chad would be on me at any moment. Down all the twisty switchbacks, over the little bridge and the last little fire road climb before the finishing sprint by the RV parking and the gravel fire road. I could see John just at the top of the climb. I gave it all I had to try and catch him, and as I was motoring up the hill, Chad zips right by me. DOH! The chase is on. I stick with Chad through the grass and on to the gravel. John is sitting in behind two guys drafting, and I can see Chad is lining himself up to sit in right behind the 3 of them. For a split second, I had mentally settled on defeat. Then, a quick @#$% that! I put it in the big ring, and kept on the gas right around all four of them on the outside of the uphill gravel turn. Just as I came by, the guy in 2nd wheel decided to jump and make his move. He got squirly almost ate it, nearly taking John out, but one of those two front guys kept his momentum up and got ahead of me. I could tell he wasn't in my age group and just pedaled like hell to stay on his wheel. It all paid off and John and Chad weren't able to catch me.

Going in to the race, I knew John, Chad and I would finish next to each other somewhere in the top 5. But I was figuring maybe 2, 3, and 4, with John, Chad then me. Well, turns out I got 2nd, Chad got 3rd, and John came in right behind us in 4th, all separated by less than 10 seconds. What a great race!!! Now, I need to figure how much I'd really like to go to Colorado for the Mountain Bike National Championships. Katie's parents live about 2 hours away, but we already have a trip planned two weeks prior to visit with her parents. We'll see, if flights are cheap, I can borrow a case to ship my bike, etc., I may actually go.

Matt
2/13 1:41ish Sport Men 19-34

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Tamarancho report by Matt Leonard

I was pleasantly surprised to drive up and park next to Kyle, Jeni, and Justin Morgan. Kyle is always saying he races expert, and I always call him a liar, since he rarely races. Anyway, after some dorking around, lubing chains, etc, Allan and Mike Urbina rolled up. The parking lot soon got quiet as they realized the majority of the heavy hitters from Team Wrong Way had showed up. Okay, maybe not, but it was nice to have a good little group together. The six of us rode up to the camp with the Roaring Mouse gang and we all registered, rolled around the fire roads for a pseudo-warm up and headed to the start. Kyle went off in the first wave with the Pro/Semipro/Cat1 19-34 group, Justin following in the next group (or third), Allan in the third (maybe 2nd) wave, I was in the 4th wave, and Urbina behind me, all of us separated by 3 minute intervals.

As I lined up, I noticed a friendly face to my right. Chad Arkoff spent the past two years kicking my ass, but assured me this year he was out of shape. We all took off, and I settled in to about 5 or 6th. Lately, its always a guessing game of whether or not my legs will show up. I got behind a few guys who were just slightly holding me back, but I told myself thats okay, and just settled in and saved my energy. When the time was right, I got around, and was quickly on Chad's wheel. Same deal, he was just barely holding me up on the descents, but not enough to warrant a sketchy pass. When we hit the first feed zone, I darted in front of him in an attempt to beat him to the next bit of single track. No luck, he quickly regained his lead on the next short climb and we headed in to some more single track.

We rode together the for quite awhile, trading places several times. I knew I could catch him on the descents, but couldn't keep up with him on the climbs. So, I killed myself on the climbs to keep him close, then rested on the descents and caught him every time. In the beginning of the 2nd lap, he pulled over to lend a friend a pump, which I figured gave me 30 seconds on him. Only trouble was we were starting to climb the switchbacks, and had a brutal fire road climb in front of us. I punished myself as I could seem him chasing me up the switchbacks. Up the steep fire road, I passed a few people in my category who were walking, and could feel Chad right behind me. I kept in front of him and got in to the single track first.

After we popped out on some fire road, he regained his lead at the same feed zone where we exchanged places on the first lap and he led the way in to the next bit of single track. This time I sucked his wheel and didn't let him go. With the last bit of single track before the finish, we caught some people and wound up with a WTB girl in between us, and another rider holding all 3 of us up. I politely told the WTB rider that I was trying to get the guy in front of her, and if she could let me by when it was safe, that would be great. A few minutes later, she gave me the green light and right as I started to go by, we all almost piled up. She and I couldn't figure out what was going on, but as we went by Chad, he had broken his chain, maybe a mile from the finish. Bummer.

He was okay, but I didn't have a chain tool, so kept charging to the finish. I ended up coming in alone in 4th with a time of 1:19. Urbina came in shortly behind me finishing 1st in his category at ~1:18. I went back down the fire road to hang out with Jeni and cheer people on. Kyle came through on his 3rd lap with what will probably turn out to be a very respectable finish. All in all, a good time. I think the results were a little screwed up. Allan was pretty confident that he finished ahead of the 3rd place guy in the SS category, and a few other people were confused during the awards ceremony. Hopefully they'll post results soon, I'm curious to see how far out of 3rd place I was.

Matt
4th out of 20ish 1:19.

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