Ride Report 12 hours of Temecula

Super fun race! Saw Jason a few times on the trail, but never got him to give me one of those $25 tickets. Didn't win anything at the raffle either! Anyways, it was a very fun race. Perfect weather. Got a little cold at night. No bike problems, no crashes, great pit team (wife) and lots of fun!

 

Yeah - super fun race. Course was in perfect condition until the afternoon (got pretty soft), and the weather was great. Nice large field, plenty of places to pass riders, and that dam(n) climb was always something to look forward to:lol:

 

Man that was great...first 12-hour solo race was a wakeup call that its a little bit different than riding 200+ miles over a road.

Nice course, everybody riding was great to each other whenever someone was stopped (I was ok...just watering the bush at dusk at the bottom of the damn climb), crashing on an uphill after failing to clip out (3 times alone on my 7th lap doomed me), or just passing each other through whatever part of the course was there.

I thought the course really only softened up on the technical downhill switchback sections where a lot of people with lesser handling abilities (like me...I'm more of a freeway-style rider) ended up carving the trail into deep ruts.

As much as I hurt this morning...more from falling over after not being able to unclip on some of the steep ups I didn't make on the night lap as from the rest of the ride...I know that this "Arrogant Bastard" be back in January on the same antique GT LTS-1 from the last century with better tuned suspension.

Kudos to everybody who put in all the hard work to make this happen...its more than worth the price of admission.

 

ha.. was that you in the arrogant bastard jersey i yelled at on the damn climb up? wasnt racing, i was out running support for my team and decided to go out for a few laps once everyone was out on course.

great race. awesome event.

our women's team took 2nd, and the overall.
we had some great solo finishes - two 3rds, and one 4th.

thanks to jason and his crew. i'm beginning to feel that socal is becoming a real hot-spot for endurance racing, and he and his team is a force behind all of it.

 

Nice job to the promoters!

I feel like I drank tequila all night and went 12 rounds, yet I got in no fight and had no drinks. I also feel dumber today than yesterday! cant seem to figure anything out, I just stare without thought. Is this normal?

 

ahahahah.... sounds about right for a solo rider. been there tons of times. nothing makes sense and the mind is pure cobwebs.

 

I had a very disappointing race. I had a great first 4 laps passing people on the downs, taking my time on the climbs, not eating too much. Hell, I even cleaned Marine Corp. on the 3rd lap. Then about 1/2 way up the damn climb on my 5th lap, my legs just completly went away. I don't even remember the rest of the lap as I was so focused on trying make the pain go away.
This is a major mental blow, I'm still bummer out today that I could make my self go on.

Sorry to the girl from Troope that I made a very questionable pass on just after the aid station on the slit downhill. I thought I had more room.

I also made another not so hot move at the bottom of dragons back on the solo ride with the red rear tire. Sorry 'bout that.

Oh well, the Jan. race is only 8 weeks away.

 

mr.hobbs:
you are now a marked man. you messed with a trouper, you get the whole army to deal with.

kidding, of course. the girls are solid riders. none of them mentioned it back at camp so must not have been that bad.

the first solo is always an eye-opener. any weaknesses are magnified and you know what to work on for january.

 

Yup...there was some general profanity among the group after you passed when someone mentioned you were just out for some fun...and passing us like we were standing still.

 

First off, kudos and thanks to Jason and his crew for putting on another fantastic event :clap: They are holding it down for SoCal endurance racing...a laid back and fun yet competitive event. Nothing pretentious, just good old-fashioned racing!

Great course (is it me or does Dam Climb get a bit longer each time?)...challenging climbs, super fun descending, some wide open, some techy/chunky singletrack. Great mix of everything. Weather was pretty darn good...sunny then chilly at night. I only wish the sun hadn't set at 5 (that was a bit of a mental hurdle).

Upwards of 600 riders (!) at the event...the parade lap was huge!

I'll spare ya'll the details but here's basically how it went for me:

Showed up by 7 am to get a pit spot. Reg/chat/get ready. Before I knew it, we were lining up. Dan was my pit crew again, assisted by Justin who was pitting for Allison and her co-worker.

Single speed!


My hubby...pit crew extraordinnaire




1x1Clyde making his way around the pits


Solo pits


Compared to June (my first solo), I was pretty calm at the start. I trained less (though I think I banked some training from the summer and also did a 70+ mile race a few weekends ago to make sure I was mentally there).

Chaos off the line


Not sure what my face is all about...


Def some teams with flair out there


Start of lap 1


Went out too fast on laps 1 & 2 (first lap was a sub-1 hour) and by 3 had to dial it back to my speed. Went back and forth with Manu, an adventure racer from Brazil who is here training for a while. Eventually, she pulled ahead and stomped me on Dam Climb.

By lap 4, my electrolytes were down and a headache was creeping in. I was mentally at a really low point, remembering that my goal of 8 laps meant I was not quite half-done.

Back in the saddle again (photo by Lynn)


Lap 5...I got back into camp, had a quick snack and headed out up the road. Got to the first descent, shifted, and heard the sound of the chain and rear der. going crazy. Thought I mis-shifted and tried again. Then my legs started to free spin. Sh!t. Derailleur was done and luckily I was close enough to walk back to camp. Dan & Justin slapped a new rear der. on pretty quickly but I had lost 20 min between the walk and the repair. Bonus was that I got to really rest and get rid of my headache. Lap 5 (the reprise) felt sooo good!

Coming in from lap 4


Justin helping with repairs (photo by Lynn)


Without their help, I'm pretty sure my race would have been over (photo by Lynn)


Sending me out again (photo by Lynn)


Laps 6 & 7 were a blur. It got dark so fast and the light went on before 5. Turned it on mid-way up Dam Climb. Surprisingly, I didn't slow down all that much in the dark, some...but not too much. Toward the end of lap 7 going toward Marine Corps, I shifted and the chain dropped off into my spokes! Gah!! It was really, really stuck. Thankfully another rider came up and helped me. I'm not sure who it was (another solo rider) but he saved the race for me. If you're on STR, THANK YOU again!

Tonya reppin' for the SoCal high school league


Lap 8...goal lap. I came in from that and Manu and I were tied for lap #s but she had 30 min up on me by that point. I had decided to do a 9th...I'd have about 20 min to spare if I kept a good pace. Walked more than before but the adrenalin kept me going...cut 5 min off from the previous lap.

In the end, I finished at 8:40 pm with 9 laps. Manu bested me by a mere 10 minutes. Had I not had a mechanical...or had tried a bit harder up the climbs....

Exhausted. Exasperated. Exhiliarated.


Nevertheless, I was so happy because I did my longest-ever dirt ride and climbed more in one day than ever before.

I won't lie...I didn't get emotional all day until I saw my this (couldn't see it in the dark...bar light). It just hit me.


Awards


Medals


The series jersey ended up with me for exp/pro solo female (Jason said custom jerseys to be made by Canari...sweet)


Congrats to the other riders out there...whether you did one lap or 13 (like Dez), whether you made your goal or didn't...you are helping to build the sport here in SoCal. Looking forward to next year!

 

Great job to everyone who attempted this-you guys rock!

Steph, MAJOR kudos to you. If you ever had a momment of doubt, you should be assured that none of us shared it with you.

 

Rach...I smell a 12 hour solo in your future!

 

Hot damn, Steph. Those are some impressive stats. Congrats.

 

The season finale of the 2009 12 Hours of Temecula was both good and disappointing to me.

The Good
1) I got my wife to come out for the first time and run bottles for me. She had a great time hanging out with the crew and even asked about racing herself.

2) Did two more laps than I did last November which was held over a similar course. Guess training does work.

3) Got to hang out with the gang and see lots of familiar faces.

The Disappointing
1) I had a chance to win the overall in my class, but came up short. I've been telling myself that 2nd place is the 1st loser to fuel the fire for 2010. It's not working so far, but I'm still trying!

And some takeaways
1) I still need to work on pacing a bit. I probably went out a little too fast in the beginning and couldn't keep that pace on laps 5-9.

2) Bring extra stuff just in case. I lost a cleat screw on either my 3rd or 4th lap. My cleat we literally hanging by a few threads on the remaining screw, so I didn't want to lose it completely by unclipping or pedaling too hard. sdyeti - I swear I wasn't trying to show off on that sandy climb - I really just didn't want to unclip! That meant having to clean Marine Corp too. Luckily I brought an extra pair of shoes.

3) Infinit is good stuff.

4) 26" wheels work OK. But I wonder if things would have been different on a 29er (or 24" BMX) :-k

Hope to see you all again in 2010. It's back to the drawing board for me.

 

Anyone find results yet? I am anxious to see the complete standings with lap times and all.

 

Thank you For me it is really just "one lap at a time". I can't mentally wrap my head around it any other way.

 

W-You've gotta remember that the course is 1 mile longer...so over the day you did almost 10 more miles...huge increase in mileage if you did 2 laps more than before :clap:

I went out too hard in the beginning as well despite knowing better. One thing I did in May was go to Hurkey and do ~5 laps, trying to be super consistent with pacing each time. In June it really helped. I paid more attention to it.

Ah, the sandy climb and Marine Corps...it's awesome that you cleaned both:bang: I learned a lesson, too...never again laugh at the hubby for bringing a ton of extra bike parts, including derailleurs :-k

Jason usually jumps on here and tells us when they're up.

 

Congratulations Steph! What's up with Grizzly Adams helping your pit crew? :wave:

Any word on the BMX freaks?

I really wanted to head out there this weekend but my new bike build took longer than expected.

 

We all pitted together

The BMX freaks proved their freak-ness...d00d...sub-1 hour laps for some of them!!!!!

I won't give away the whole story though...I'll let one of them jump in and tell it.

 

Just a few notes. Tried to ride for fun. And it was. Though woefully undertrained and it showed. Turned some nice laps in the morning, very consistent about 1min within eachother for the first 3. Then my knees started to just hurt. Couple aspirin and a long break later took a 4th. Cramped through 5 and 6.

And just decided to eat fried chicken and Guinness after that. 6laps in 8 hours ain't bad for me just not good for a 12hour race.

Couple of shoutouts. Again, even not prepared I still had a great time. Jason Ranoa's clan put on a great event. Thanks to Trizz's family for coming and hanging out. Tri-tip and the hot shower facilities were the bomb. Surlygal, thanks for running the show for us and being there again and taking care of all the little things. Spaghetti was so good. Boats, dude thanks again for the mech help. Brakes were great, and bike overall didn't miss a shift the whole day. Jay/Duke777, Fried Chicken!! Had some great laughs. Nice to see Steph, Allison and their pit teams again. And to Dubjay's wife for making me a sanwich and bottles all day!

And for the un-THanks. To all you bastards on the BMX Mulisha! Riding that 30lb. tank with the ridiculously steep gearing. Passing people all day going up and then down the techy hills with no water, in mechanic shirts and cargo shorts. I'm sure you just ruined racing for me and a bunch of other people out there with our fancy bikes with suspension/gears and lycra outfits. I'm thinking for January you need to write "Don't Hate Me" on the back of your shirts. :lol:

You guys were awesome. I'm positive having the most fun out there. Made for great vibe in the pit.