Number 6 is in the books. 6 twenty-four hour races. Four of them solo. You would think I would have this thing down by now.

I will say one thing, I can pretty much tell you how it’s going to end after the first couple laps. I’m either in a groove, feeling good, and keeping a good pace that i can crank for the whole race, or I’m hurting, and it’s just a matter of time.

This race, it was just a matter of time. That time was 2am. Here’s how we got there:

Lap 1 (1 hr 11 min)
I felt strong, but I couldn’t get warmed up. That is a terrible thing to feel on a course that has 1.5 miles of nice flat road at the beginning of each lap. That translates to a picture perfect warm-up each lap. A warm-up which is followed by a nasty climb (not too long, but definitely steep enough to hurt you). I went fast (the 1 hr 11 minutes includes the lemans start and the few minutes of rest after the lap, I was cookin’), but it didn’t feel good.

Lap 2 (1 hr 21 min) and Lap 3 (1 hr 31 min)
I finally starting to get warmed up, I settled into a better groove, and had about a 10 minute rest associated with each of these laps. At this point, I was thinking “okay, maybe this isn’t so bad, I just had to get warmed up”. I was definitely warm, and in fact, this may have contributed to my undoing. The sun was beating down on the course, and I didn’t realize it until lap 3, but there is not a single square inch of shade on this whole course. That translated to about half a camelbak and almost a whole bottle per lap, and it still wasn’t enough.

Lap 4 (1 hr 34 min) and Lap 5 (1 hr 35 min)
These laps (and the few after them) were incredibly consistent. I don’t know how, because about halfway through lap 5, my right leg decided it was not happy with me, and my quad started to cramp. I made it to the road, downed a couple of endurolytes on the way back to camp, and drank the rest of my camelbak. When I got there, I ate a bunch of tortilla chips and grabbed some more shot blocs. The chips were a little rough going down with the level of hydration, but I think the salt was welcome.

Lap 6 (1 hr 36 min) and Lap 7 (1 hr 37 min)
Again, I have no idea how I made these laps in the same amount of time as the ones before them. I was fighting cramps for both of them, and all I could think about was the fact that it was starting to cool off. I was driving as hard as I felt like I could just thinking about the cool night air. These laps got me to the dark, and it was the most welcome nightfall I’ve had in a while. The sun was draining my energy, and I knew that there was a long way to go.

Lap 8 (1 hr 50 min)
The first night lap was a struggle. I started it when it was light and still fairly warm out, so I didn’t take armwarmers with me. It was a very cold ride back down the road to camp. I downed some food, and took a little break (hence the longer time, all my rests were added onto the end of the lap times, since i checked in before I left, not when i got back).

Lap 9 (2 hrs 1 min)
This lap was officially the beginning of the end. I was cold when I left, but I figured I would warm up on the course. I was right. My armwarmers were around my wrists for most of the lap after the road, and then I hit the road on the way back. It was well after midnight at this point (I started this lap at 12:15) and my body didn’t have many calories left to make heat. Hence, the way back on the road was simply painful. I was more than likely hypothermic when I got back to camp. I was shivering like crazy, and tried to down some food, but it just wasn’t working.

In my delirium I decided to do the one thing that I knew would warm me up: leave for another lap. These are the things that cross your mind at 2:15 in the morning, after you’ve been riding your bike for 14 hours, pretty much non-stop.

Note: as of me writing this, the final laps aren’t posted yet, they had only updated the results to about 6 am, hence no exact lap times for 10 and 11.

Lap 10 (5ish hours)
This was the official meltdown. The road was frigid, I walked most of the hills (no matter how small), and I felt like I was going to throw up every time I tried to put anything down my throat (liquid or solid). I finished the lap in a little under 2 hours, and got back to camp around 4:15. At this point, I was shaking uncontrollably from the cold, and took every ounce of willpower I had to put down a little bit of food and water. I was done. I sat wrapped in a quilt shivering for about 20 minutes, before I stripped off my sweaty clothes, crawled into the tent, and admitted defeat until I could get control of my bodily functions again.

Lap 11 (3ish hours)
This lap will come in at around 3 to 3.5 hours on the results sheet. The reality is that I got up at 7:15, rode for about 1.5 hours for my last lap (not bad considering my state) checked out the results, and took a shower. At this point, the people behind me were 2 laps down, and the people in front were 2 laps up. Even if I rode another one (which I had the time, but not the enthusiasm for) I would still sit in 5th place. I promptly went back to camp, put the bike away, and showered.

So, in the end, I made it 11 laps, for a 5th place singlespeed finish. That comes out to about 154 miles, 126 of which were done before midnight. I avoided the meltdown for as long as I could on sheer willpower. Mentally, I pushed through, physically, my body finally had enough and rebelled against itself and took my willpower with it. It wasn’t a bad finish, not as good as I hoped, but not bad.

The only question left in my mind is why. I feel like I’m in some of the best shape I’ve ever been in, but I couldn’t even best last year’s numbers. I think a big part of it was durango, and my recovery efforts in the last 2 weeks after that. I obviously did well at durango, but I’m not accustomed to having to recover from such a big race in such a short amount of time. I feel like that is a skill that I’ll need to acquire if I want to start being more consistent at these things.

Or maybe I just need to stop being such a whiney little bitch and ride harder. . .

I’ll let you, the reader, ponder these reflections, and meanwhile, I’ll just be thinking about one thing while I sit here and sip my glass of wine:

When’s the next one?