the day of pain: mission accomplished

i did it! i finished my first 24-hour mountain bike race, and i feel awesome! although i am still groggy. i can’t catch up on my sleep and i still want to eat like a horse, which i can no longer do, so sad...

the highlights of the race are as follows:

• freezing temperatures and i got stuck with the 3am shift.
• high altitude and dry desert conditions, which means you could not drink enough water which led to dehydration and thereby cramps that ultimately doubled the size of my quads which equals massive PAIN. and that was the first lap…
• having to drink so much water that in the short spans of time you were allowed some shuteye (~3 hours) you ended up waking up every 30 minutes needing to pee your brains out, which necessitated having to get dressed in freezing temps (quickly!) and running to the porta potties which were located on the other side of the expo area, so everyone could see me skipping along desperately with my hand between my legs. certainly amongst my finest moments.
• a flat tire within the first mile of my 3am shift, whereby a tire iron breaks. i also run out of co2 so my tire is not inflated enough and i therefore had to spend a majority of the remaining 17 miles off the saddle to decrease my chances of getting a pinch flat. and this was before i ran into the guy whose headlights, both of them, died. i guided him for a few miles so he could make it to the main road and get moving so he wouldn’t freeze to death. totally killed my time…but you do not mess with karma.
• mini got to experience off-roading for the first time. great! she was filthy and ended up playing a 2-day game of alternating between boom box/soda can coaster/bonfire ash collector/just lay anything you damn well please against my car, people! poor mini. she got washed yesterday and i heard her squeal in delight.
• and guess who was in my category? yeah, my team competed against Dave Wiens’ team. this is the guy who defeated Lance Armstrong in Leadville by something like 16 minutes. needless to say, i am stoked my team got 19/37.

and then i would do it all over again. it’s that 99/1 ratio. 99% of the time is miserable, but that 1% will pull me back in. there’s something about being in the high desert alone at night with a clear sky, savoring the calmness and the peace of being overwhelmed with the elements. you come to terms with who you are, what you are capable of doing…in some sense, what’s most important to you. pushing your limits like that changes you, mentally and physically. seeing what happens to your body and mind is astonishing. i love it.

next time i think i’ll do it solo.