This morning as I was riding my bike to work I started to recall the fun I had when I used to ride in 12 hour and 24 hour mountain bike races. There were three of us who were always on the team and the fourth spot on the team seemed to cycle through a few different people. Our team was SLAGI, for "Sounded Like A Good Idea". Our first experience was in 2003 at Snowshoe Mountain in Appalachians of West Virginia... Man, that was one gnarly trail. It was 8 miles of rooty ascents and descents that were sure to have you screaming in agony by the end of the race. A lot of the time at night I can recall running with my bike through ankle deep mud and a tangle of roots trying to get to the next dry spot to curl up and cry for mommy. It was the funnest thing.
The race was put on by granny gear productions (see the link to the right), and they are still putting on 24 hour races. You should definitely check them out. I think I'll try to make it to the 24 hours of MOAB this year since I'm on the west coast now and it's the closest race they'll promote this year (aside from Vail Lake in April).
2 comments:
I also recall one Snowshoe race where you appeared out of the darkness, at about 2 am, halfway through your lap proclaiming "I'm done". That caused alot of confusion in our camp.
Yeah! I was a bit delirious at that point... I recall an anonymous teammate yelling "eat a banana and get back out there!" That awoke me from my zombie like state and I re-stabilized, ate a goo and a banana, then jumped on the bike for another hour or so for my headlamp to burn out... What a rush!
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