If you could put on a bike race, what would it look like? What kind of course would it be? What kind of prizes? Where would it be held?

This past weekend, a whole bunch of you found out what goes through my head when I think about such things.

it had to be long.
it had to be epic.
it had to have a whole lot of sweet singletrack.
and most of all, it had to have plenty of meat and beer at the finish line.

I think I successfully lived up to all those expectations this weekend.

There were lots of good stories from the weekend, and I hope that some of the other folks who were out can help me out with some of the fun and excitement that took place out on the course. I’ve got a few pics from the aid station and a few that Ben took on his way up waterline, but hopefully there were some others with a camera out there snapping pics and a mental diary going of the inevitable story-worthy moments as well.

There’s a big album of the pics I pulled from the 250 I ended up with on facebook here. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

To start off the journey, I want to thank all the folks who sent stuff my way to help with the race. There were bagels from biffs, amazing chocolate chip cookies that the Bevinator brought up from the oven of phoenix, chamois cream from DZ-nuts, and food from honey stinger to help people through the ride. There were prizes from bike trailer shop, hayes brakes, dirt rag, voodoo climbing holds, rooley sunglasses, AZ bikes, and singletrack bikes.

And then there was the trophy. The glorious trophy. This beast was made by Stu Henderson from Silvertone Fabrications and Sendero Cycles. The thing weighs a ton (it’s made out of an I-beam as the frame) and was absolutely amazing.

He kept prodding me every now and again for input, and I stubbornly wouldn’t give him any, as I wanted this to be HIS trophy, not mine. I’m glad I took the hard line. This is truly a work of art.

We lined up for the pre-race meeting a bit late, and the initial crowd took off at 7:20 in the morning.

I decided against the lemans start this year, and instead had everyone line up in the parking lot and take our sweet time getting moving. The ride was decidedly NOT ‘no-drop’, but the start was decidedly ‘no-man left behind’, so we took our time and made sure that everyone was on the line when I yelled ‘go’. Everyone promptly spread out and headed off into the dust and up waterline.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The aid station folks were headed out, the first wave went off without a hitch, and after the last couple months of planning and plotting, the 2009 crazy 88 was finally underway. It was a great feeling.

I went back to camp, chilled out for a bit and then got ready to send the 9am start time out of the parking lot and off to their own adventures. Again, the turnout was amazing, and everyone was super-stoked to be out riding.

The trails were a bit dusty, but not too bad, and everyone I saw had a smile on their face coming in from the first lap. The arizona trail was a welcome addition, and only a few people got lost on their way around. The aid station was a hit, and I heard that kyle and dan even added beers and bacon to the food and water that I gave them to hand out.

Beer and bacon, now that’s an aid station.

As people started trickling in to finish the first lap I had a couple lovely assistants working the grill and making a run for bigfoot BBQ (thanks melanie and kerry!). We tapped the two kegs of New Belgium (skinny dip and blue paddle) and the two kegs of homebrewed kolsch, and got everyone fed and rehydrated.

The full 88ers came in, ate some food, debated their decisions and headed out for the second lap, while the 44ers cleaned up and dug in for an afternoon of enjoying the sun and the refreshments.

Adam pulled out the win in an absolutely amazing 8 hours and 2 minutes, with Randy on his tail the entire race. They had about 15 minutes in between them most of the race, and then Adam really turned it on and put another 15 on Randy in the last 20 miles.

If you want to see the full results, you can take a look at them here. I know there are probably some misspellings, and there are definitely some times missing as well. The misspellings are probably due to handwriting, and the missing times are nobody’s fault but your own (I know lots of people who made it back and never wrote a word down about it). If you got a finish time that you want on there, let me know what it was and I’ll update the sheet.

Everyone ate and drank into the evening, and when we had reached critical mass on arrivals, we handed out some schwag. Adam and Lynda took top honors in the 88 and each took home a pair of rooley sunglasses and Adam got to take home the bitchin trophy for his incredible 8 hours of suffering. I think most people who stuck around for the prizes got something to show for it, I only wish I had more to give away.

I do have to make mention of one particular individual that we all decided exemplified the spirit of the 88, and thus took home the Hayes Brakes. I’m talking about Judd from Albuquerque.

Judd, as you can see in the zoomed in pic above, was riding a Black Sheep singlespeed (a bike after my own heart) in a pair of baggies, and a bitchin custom bowling shirt. He rolled out from ABQ with the whole family, including the wife, 2 kids, and mom and dad.

Everything was going well for Judd until mile 75. He was descending down off the back side of buffalo park when disaster struck: his fork steerer tube snapped. This sent him face-first into a rock, and straight to the hospital ER. Luckily, Matt Field came along right after the crash and helped him back up to buffalo park. His dad happened to be in town so he headed over and picked Judd up to go to the ER.

In the end, he had a broken nose and needed 27 stitches to patch up his face, but he was in good spirits and seemed to be doing fine considering the circumstances when I saw him the next morning.

I spoke with his wife that night when I brought over the brakes for him and she said that he was pissed at the ER docs because they were taking so long with the x-rays, because he wanted to be back at the party, and was mad he was missing it.

That’s when I knew we had made the right decision to give him the brakes. He also said he’ll be back next year to finish the full 88, since the ‘crazy 75 and a trip to the ER’ just doesn’t have a nice ring to it.

Good on ya, Judd, and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Final Thoughts
Man, what a weekend.

Honestly, the 88 was everything I had hoped for and more. I am still high as a kite just remembering all the smiles and good words people had about the race. It’s really an amazing experience. There were moments of doubt while I was planning it, there were moments of panic when I didn’t know if I had everything under control, and there were moments of complete exhaustion after spending hours trying to figure out how many burgers to buy, how many pounds of potato salad, and most importantly, how many kegs of beer we would need.

In the end, though, it was worth every bit. It was worth every minute of shopping, every mile of riding the course (I’ve ridden both loops at least 3 times in the last 2 months), and every late night hacking away at GPS files and cue sheets to make sure it was all in order.

I had more people than I could count come up to me and ask “didn’t you feel a little weird not riding it?” or “didn’t you wish you were out there?”. In the end, I did feel that a couple times, but I also am glad that I stuck around and made sure things went smoothly. I’ve done a lot of races over the last few years which have been meticulously put together by other people, and this was my time to give back.

I have a very deep passion for getting out and exploring, and every time I throw a leg over a bike, it’s a new adventure, and a new set of smiles. Every person who came up to me and told me that they rode a trail they had never been on, or that they rode further than they ever thought they could, or that they were going to sleep well tonight, or that it was an amazing set of trails, or even just ‘thanks’ renewed my passion for the sport and the people involved in it.

Every time that happened, I knew I was in the right place. I ride a lot of miles, and if I can inspire the number of people who came out on saturday to ride just a little more and enjoy their surroundings just a little more, I can certainly sacrifice a few miles on the bike for that cause.

Despite all that, I’m already thinking about next year and the plans I’ll have to make for it.

Keri left a comment on the crazy 88 page that I’ve thought about a lot since I saw it:

Hey Nate,just wanted to say thanks for an awesome event yesterday. Glad I got to do this while it’s still “under the radar” with the turnout you had yesterday looks like it could go mainstream next year. Too bad in some regards ie the chill atmosphere at the start,mid-way and post!….

At first I kinda brushed it off, but I think the part about ‘while it’s still “under the radar”‘ and the “chill atmosphere” are something that I’ve noodled on a lot. This year was a great turnout, but more than that, it was a great mindset. There were the folks who were out there to win it, and I loved seeing what sort of capacity they had for suffering and going fast, but the majority of the people were out there to have a good time and push themselves to do something a little out of the comfort zone.

They did that, and then they came back and ate 120 hamburgers, 60 hot dogs, 10 lbs of BBQ, and drank about 30 gallons of beer. They shared stories, met new people, and commiserated over a pint of pilsner.

I’m not sure how I’m going to structure the race and the entries and such next year, because I’m on the verge of needing a permit from the forest service, and I wonder if getting a permit and making it ‘official’ will change the atmosphere. I feel like there is a way to keep the spirit but bring more people into the fold of that same spirit.

I hear ya Keri, and believe me, the chill atmosphere is what this race is all about. That’s why I chose the title I did for this post, and that’s what’s going to be keeping me awake thinking about plans for next year.

I really do just want to throw a party and have a bike race at the party, not vice-versa.

Is it a mindset, is it a number of people, is it a format, or is it something else intangible that just happens? I don’t know, but you can bet that I’m gonna be thinking about it.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, I really had a great time, and I hope I’ve inspired some people to get out and do some more exploring.