The details

So here's a little write-up from the 25 hours of Frog Hollow race...

The hubs and I arrived in Hurricane late Friday afternoon. We stopped by Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane to pick up our numbers. Owners DJ and Quentin gave us a little course beta and specific directions. If you are riding in that area--that is definitely the place to hit up. The shop is really cool too. DJ advised us on a specific lube to use which ended up serving us well on the dry dusty course.

We made our way over to the course. It was nuking winds with not much protection. I did what any sane person would do--hunker down in the car and eat pita chips and cookies. The hubs eventually convinced me a pre-ride would probably be smart so we headed out onto the course. It was several miles of gradual up-hill on a dirt road followed by a mandatory dismount into a SUPER FUN swoopy downhill on the JEM trail. The single track was a lot of fun, very flowy with a few technical ups. This was followed by a slightly downhill dirtroad section and then a pretty technical section of the hurricane rim trail.

All the pita chips and cookies were really doing a number on my tummy so I was definitely walking the dog. We made it back to our camp and waited for the JemClems to show up.

It was a VERY mellow event. I think the race had less than 100 participants (and that's for ALL the categories). So we felt like we had tons of space at our campsite and unlike 24 hours of Moab it wasn't a dust clogged generator purring cluster.

The JemClems eventually arrived with all the fixins for a legit 25 hour race: spring bar stand up tent, table, chairs...the full deal. And tons of food. And more beer. Rick (our 5th) eventually showed up in the middle of the night.

The next morning we headed to the meeting...in costume.





Jem gets the double take.




We got our final instructions and then took up position to cheer on our runner and 1st rider, Clem. (These 24+ races usually start with a run in order to try to spread people out).

At the start line there was definitely some legit costume action:



Wonder Woman is my favorite!








This guy had the fastest male lap. And he did it in disco pants. You can't see the shirt he's wearing--which says "NOTICE ME".





Clem was 2nd behind Mr. Notice Me in the run.

He had a fast first lap, finishing right about the hour mark. So I was up next.









The first lap was my favorite lap. I felt great and had a total blast on the course. I crashed on the switchback after the mandatory dismount section, but luckily it was not the same side I crashed on at the cyclocross race. And I had a nice sagebrush to break my fall.

I finished my first lap in 58:46 which ended up being the fastest female lap and handed the reins over to the hubs.

The hubs ALSO had an awesome first lap, riding the course in 57:57--which was the fastest lap on our team! He ended up breaking a spoke on this lap--but didn't realize it till later...(that is foreshadowing)




Rick was up next and also rode a sub hour lap, and then Jem rounded out our 1st rotation.



She *hearts* her mountain bike.





I got the last full daylight lap and then it was into the night...(imagine ominous music)

Enter guest writer, the hubs...
please forgive the change of style. I'm a blogging beginner. This one is for the Sleaze... and all the rest of the folks that know me well as the "junk show".

So, backing up a couple of steps, imagine what normal people do before a big event like this. Yeah, they take their bike into a local bike shop (aka. The Wild Rose) and get em tuned to racing perfection. Joanna, Tiff, and Rick all took a ride on that luxury cruiser and guess what, with the exception of Rick (perfectly demonstrating the "moth drawn to the light" effect and it's obvious consequences), they all had mechanical free laps. Clem and I, on the other hand, were confident that our Konas were in prime shape and up for the challenge. A few pre-rides in the weeks before the event, and I was pretty psyched with how the Dawg was loping. Although the shifting did seem to be a tad on the "auto" side. But I thought to myself... that'll probably work itself out on the ride. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had a slow leak in the front tire, my line of thinking was that as long as I topped it off before each lap, it should be money, I mean, why waste a perfectly good tube.

Pre-second lap realization: Fast forward to the 25hour Halloween madness and the few hours before the night laps. During my first lap, I had this sense that there was something a bit noodly about the rear wheel and was wondering if I had somehow missed another slow leak in the rear tire.

Clem came blazing in after his second lap (also under an hour), but seemed to have decided that he needed to round out his costume with a bit of makeup (so that the ass would blend in better with the recently attached rubber balls which were a good light weight substitute for the trucknutz we had been contemplating). Alas, the only thing he could find on the trail was this redish-brownish powder. Luckily, his rolling around in the dirt hadn't affected his time and had left his balls in tact.
At that point, Jem, feeling as though the trail had unabashedly been staring at her ass, decided that she couldn't wait another four laps before she went out and slapped it in the face for the offence. Which I'm happy to say she accomplished quite well. She had no idea, but she had unknowingly given me even more time to neglect the slow leak in my front tire. When I was getting ready to hit the course again, I looked down at my rear wheel and noticed that one of my spokes had given up the ghost. Now that wa-wa sound I remember hearing from the back wheel a few weeks ago was starting to make sense. I was contemplating just riding without it when Clem offered up his wheel until we could fix mine. A bold move on his part.

After Jem got back, the trail had learned it's lesson and Tiff turned another amazingly fast lap (just over an hour). She was loving her Yeti, and it wasn't letting her down. Dusk was approaching and that meant lights, balls, and glowsticks for the Dawg. After the long rest, I was feeling super fresh and ready to attack. Two other 5-person coed teams had taken off at about the same time as me, so for the first time I had some rabbits to chase. I soon left them in the dust and was feeling pretty good so I decided to see if my Dawg had any handling skillz when to my surprise, it did but I didn't. I went down pretty hard, got up, and quickly realized I had a flatted the front tire. Hmmm maybe it was leaking a bit faster than I thought. Nearly 8 minutes later (turns out the pump I had borrowed from Rick was capable of an impressive 1 psi per 100 pumps), I finally had the rig back up and running and finished out the course with a respectable 1:10. I was thinking to myself, "sweet, at least I got the 'first wreck' jitters out of the way, and I even got a new tube out of the deal". Other than the flat and the slightly worse auto shifting, the Dawg was still being my best friend.

I sent Rick off into the night for his second lap, we exchanged the team motto "nice ass!", and I promptly went back to camp and plugged in my lights' batteries. I hate to say it, but this may have been my smartest and perhaps only sensible move of the event. Out on the course, however, Rick was putting his stans no-tubes to the test. He had contemplated recharging the old glue before the race, but adopted my "I'm sure it'll be alright" school of thought. And I'm certain it would have been, except that he wanted to re-enact the "it's so beautiful" line from a Bug's Life. His sirens took the form of a lone sharp rock in the middle of an otherwise perfectly graded dirt road (i.e. the super fast portion of the course). Luckily a CO2 cartrige did the trick and he didn't even have to change the tire, only a couple of recharges with his pump. His mishap cost him less time and he Armstronged it in (think Leadville) to the tune of an amazing 1:07.

Next up was Jem, and now that she had shown the trail who was boss, claimed a great time, her ass hanging out tauntingly the entire way. A quick check of the results, and Jem had helped us put the next closest team more than a lap behind.

(To be continued...)





a little trailer for the next post...