RR: "12 Hours Of Temecula" Final Update/Merged Threads

m210...that was probably you we saw zoom by camp with 1 minute to go...incredible!!

 

WOOOO!!! I finally won something in a raffle! I got one of those $250 towards the series next year and VIP pits/parking. Couldn't have asked for a better thing to win in a raffle. Huge Props to Jason for doing that for the races. Best prize from a raffle evar!

 

Well if you insist.

So I wake up at 4:45 load the car up and drive down first thing in the morning. By 7:00 I'd met up with the team (Team Mollasses) and we get registered. We set up our pit area and I was amazed at the space STR and specifically Neil and Traci had set up for the race (thank you guys for always being freindly and generous and making mtb'ing feel like a family). We had a geniuine pit area complete with trained mechanic (alot of people owe chris thanks for keeping their bikes up to snuff yesterday).

Once settled in we get our order down and Jay goes out, followed by Donny, Qingyu, myeself, and finally Jojo. As each rider comes in and talks about the tech sections, crashes, and crowded descents I start to get more and more nervous. I did not get a chance to preride the course so I have no idea whats in store. So finally it's my turn and I head out, and the dam(n) climb just murders me. I made it without walking any but I was just done. The whole rest of my first lap ends up feeling like I had just finished the climb. And of course I don't know the course so I kept thinking I was almost done only to be sent back up some other hill to climb more. By the end I was curseing the course and trying to think of a way out of the rest of the race. Finally I finish my first lap at 1 hour 30 minutes and I am just demoralized.

Well as it would happen I figured out what the problem was for my first lap. I had a 3 liter water bladder full (boy was that fun to carry) and I only drank about half a liter of water if that. I thought I was drinking enough, but I was severley dehydrated when I got back in. Fast forward 4 hours of eating, drinking (water), having fruit, and drinking, snacking on trail mix and drinking, resting and drinking, and drinking and drinking and I finally feel ready to start my second lap (I know I'm a wuss).

So out I go...on a course I've only ridden once...and I'm in the dark at this point. And the wind was litterally trying to kill me by blowing me off the ridgeline. I make it up the dam(n) climb with only one walked section toward the top and I'm feeling much better. I start to head along the ridgeline to the water station and things are looking pretty good...then I crash on a rocky section. And almost go over the bars two seconds later, and have to wait for another rider to crash right in front of me. So some time killed but it's all good, I don't care about time anymore, I just want to finish. Then I make it to the water station and begin my descent and suddenly I start passing people. Apparently dedicated xc riders on hardtails have trouble going fast down tech setions at night at speed. The only time the entire day I was happy to be on a 5inch travel 33 pound all mountain bike :lol:. So I finally make it in with only one more crash and I've managed to cut my time down to 1:20. Note great but I'll take what I can get.

Jay, Duke777 (Qingyu?), Jox2 (Jojo), Devoid169 (donny) and myself decided we were going to do a 5 man team. (well donny volunteered to be our fifth when our other 5th dropped out) And we decided we were out to have fun, not go fast. Well apparently at some point that changed and I didn't get the memo:lol:, as my team started cranking out 1:10ish laps (with donny doing under an hour). But competeing or not it was a great time, and I might actually do it again...maybe even with some training.

All in all if your thinking of doing this event and you like xc at all I would do it at least once. It was exhausting but totally worth it. (I'm looking at you Davidb!!)

And again thank you to Neil and Traci for the support, Chris for mechanicing...and proving that beer is ok for breakfast, Qingyu for the fantastic carne asada (and the commentry on pickles:lol, Jojo for pulling out that last lap, and Donny for being the best replacement rider ever. Did I mention that he pulled wheelies past the crowd to start and end his laps.

 

See...I told you...positive thinking!!!

 

sweet! not sure which one you are, but i took a pic of the big winners

 

Congrats to you all. Looks like a hard fought battle.

 

What he didnt do the whole thing in a wheelie:?::lol::lol:

 

Now I see pics, I realize I rode with or saw many of you.
Nice candid shots also. Not like the photo guys staged at the spot to capture you in the most amount of pain.

Anyway, I had what I thought was a good game plan going in to ride solo. 2 laps on and a short break. That soon turned into "crap, I wish I could have a major mechanical so I can quit". My main motivation was going swiming at the half way point. I kept dreaming about how nice the water was going to be. So after lap 5, I made my way to the pool....... Lets just say there was shrinkage. Holy Crap, that pool water was right off an iceberg. so swiming was out and it was time to ride some more.
I was only going to do 3 more laps and that was it! (I mean it this time, damn it!) ( I talk to myself alot when riding).
My first night lap (lap 7) was a disaster. my light kept going out at the wrong times I rode from Marlin to camp following people. It sucked. It was a borrowed light that will be returned with a swift kick in the ass.

I then got a fresh battery check connections and I was off and running. when I came to the finish, I checked in and Heather said that Neil crashed and called it a night so I won the class. I was confused because I was walking some uphills, how could I have won anything?

Congrats to Neil for the season overall.

LUKE: Awesome ride! 11 laps & Your competeing with BBoz! amazing to say the least.

JoJo: do you ever ride bikes?? I saw you holding up the awning all day, whats up with that?

Jason, you and the family rule!!! Bananas saved my day.

On a side note: I think there needs to be a school for XC people to learn some DH skills. I seriously was in tears a couple times watching guys that killed it on the climb, walking or worse on the downs. In fact I looked forward to these little side shows every lap. Pure comedy:lol:
Maybe I need an XC class as well.

Here's my lonely pit set up. Waiting for the family to make it out of bed at home (5 mins away in Temeclua). I had my 3yr old kids bike all set for his race. The trainer all ready for my warm up.
They ended up spending 1 hour at the race. My father-in-law had to evac due to the fire.

 

Looks like alot of fun, Good Job Willie, way to show that trail. Good Job everyone, looks like this is going to be an awesome event next year. Progressing oh so fast.

 

FYI: I left my camera at home so I don't have any photos. See sdyeti's photos.

Arrived early Saturday morning and met up with everyone. I hadn't met a few of the guys before so it was nice to put a face to a name/internet identity. Mark(offroadie), Steph(sdyeti), Dan(Man blong Gaua), and myself made our way to the registration tent. We picked our team name on the way, on this day we would be: Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Got all our goodie bags and number plates(we were only one off of 420), we got 421. Went back up to camp and had some great breakfast burritos, courtesy of Sean(gp_pilot). Sean also brought out his RV and an EZ-Up along with a bunch of other stuff which made everything much, much more comfortable and easy. Thanks dude, seriously! We apparently decided that I was going first, followed by Dan, then Mark, and last but not least Stephanie. I had jokingly said,"So, when is the team masseuse going to be here?", Stephanie was like,"She will be here in the next 30 minutes." I thought she was joking but apparently a friend of theirs really is a masseuse(and a super cool chick), and she showed up with her massage table and all. We were stoked to say the least.
The first lap included a "Parade Lap" through the campground(which is where I realized I had left my water bottle at camp so I had to stop and grab it real quick) then to the Start/Finish and out on to the course. I had not been able to pre-ride the course so I was a little nervous about the steepness of the "Dam" climb(I was riding my SS Rigid 29'er). I only walked 2 sections of the climb up and was pretty happy with that. The rest of the lap was super fun, with a little technical descending and climbing and some super fun ridgeline riding. I came in with a 1:01(officially), I didn't start my GPS until the actual Start/Finish and it read :58. Dan went out next and pulled a :54. Mark was next with a 1:13, then Steph with a 1:05(she wasn't happy, and would later cut 7 minutes off of this time). Then it was me again and the lap went pretty much the same as before, I was faster in a few places and managed to get my time down to :57. Then, Dan(the MAN) pulled a :52 lap, WTF! That is crazy fast! Mark went out and cut 4 minutes off of his previous lap, followed by Stephanie's revenge lap which was :59. On my 3rd and final lap I cut my fastest time which was a :55. As Dan was out on his lap we started playing the numbers game and seeing if we would be able to pull 12 laps. It was gonna be close. I went down to the timing tent and checked everything out and came back to camp with the news. I told Mark that he had to cut an hour lap in order to give Stephanie one hour to finish her last and our 12th lap. He said that he didn't see it happening, but we collectively told him to just go for it and see what happens. Whether or not Stephanie would go out was dependent on Mark breaking his current PR. We weren't able to get the 12th lap but we were consistent all day and I was very, very happy with our performance. After the race was over we all got cleaned up and headed down to the raffle/awards ceremony, Mark wasn't going so I took his and my ticket. I, who never wins anything, won not only once but twice. First time, I got 2 big tubs of Hammer's Heed, 2 Vigor helmets, and 5 pair of Sockguy socks. Second time, I got a THE Track Pack backpack, 1 Vigor helmet, and a bottle of wine from Wiens Family Cellar with a cool "Cycling" jewelry necklace on it. I was STOKED!!! We watched in amazement as they handed out the awards for the solo classes[Pro Men winner Ben Bostrom(yes the same one who races Superbikes) did 11 laps, Pro Women winner did 10 laps]. My buddies from the Naval Special Warfare Flyin' Frogs team placed second for the day but won the overall, great job guys! After all the excitement, and figuring out how to get all the stuff I had won back to camp, we had some delicious barbecued ribs cooked by Sean and had smores and beers by the campfire. This race was a great experience with some really great peeps and I would do it again in a heartbeat! I can't wait for the next one in January, hopefully we will see more peeps out there.

 

standby im working on it. Because, Saturday i should've been moving instead of racing, so i've been moving all day today.
As for how did we do as team? We kicked some 12 hrs xc a$$ out there! We came 4th. Wait a minute there's only 4 team on our category :beer:. i'll post my RR tomorrow. For the meantime, Jay, Donny, Duke777 and graves.z should be chiming in.

Im the river of the team, the 5th man.

 

Congrats to all the racers, especially the solos!! Awesome job :bang::clap::bang::clap:

 

dude, do it.

if you do it I will. :-s

 

Many thanks out to all those who made the race possible and a great event!

Sleep pretty well Friday night and got go early and got the team to register. Jay hammered out the first lap and then Donny came back from his 1 hour lap with one hand wheelie.....boy that got the crow wild!

Then it's my turn....felt good on the first part as my legs burned a little trying to warm up. BUT it was SOOOOO dry out there my throat was like sand paper by the time I made the first turn....it was hard just to breath. Determined not to drag the team down I tried my best not to stop. My second lap was in the dark and the cooler temp really help but the marline ridge got me a bit nervous.

Over all the course was tough, dry and sandy. Hats off to all those amazing people who just kill it. I managed 1:08 for my first lap and 1:10 for my night lap, not great but pretty happy still considering the condition....yes I'm a chicken! BUT I broke my personal record of 1.5 lap!!!!!:lol:

Had a blast still and great time was had by all.

Thanks again to the Adam's family's hospitality and letting us camp on their site.:wave:

 

Hey, Kyle -- we missed you and your pink socks out there, mang! :?: Thanks for the kudos for Wills -- I'll let him know. He had a fantastic day, that is for sure. We are so proud of him -- he really, REALLY, REALLY did not want to roll for a sixth lap, but that force called The Sawickis worked their magic on him and just after his teammate Gene came in and rolled out quick again, Willie did too (they were both on lap #6). Gene beat him by about 15 minutes, taking third place for the day (some newcomer kids were smokin' fast and took first and second). But as you saw above in Nam's pic, Willie took the Overall, which was very cool. If he had not gone out for that sixth lap, he would have lost the overall to Gene (!!).

Me? I didn't fare too well. In fact I had a plain old sh*tty day. Everything was wrong from the get go for me -- very high sugars to start the day (300+ !!!), so I didn't eat enough and that left me with nothing in the tank in the middle of lap #1 (I checked 'em again at Vic's water tent and was at 400+ -- that's just ain't good). I felt crappy after lap #1, and the high sugrs thing just takes it to another level. After a short stop I went out again, thinking things just had to get better. I felt hydrated okay, but I got the most excruciating cramps I have ever gotten riding a bike at the start of lap 2 (climbing the dam climb). I got dizzy, felt like I was going to throw up from all the water I was drinking and thought about pulling the plug when I got to the water tent again. I waited there with Vic and the boys for almost 15 minutes before I could get myself going and finish the second lap (I really did not want to DNF, above everything else!). I rolled in and sat down for a few minutes, then stood up and blacked out and fell into the course (we were pitted right on the finish -- lucky for me no one was rolling in as I went out like a light!). A little while after that Mario gave me a handful of thermatabs, and they kicked in and made me feel good enough to finally take on a third lap (not to mention an intense DMS massage session on my legs by Bernice Pierson!!). I decided to carry my Nikon with me on that lap, knowing that if I pushed myself too hard up the dam climb, I would do me some real damage, so I kept stopping on the climb to take pics instead of racing (I just knew my day was over). :bang: I'll post those up later on.

So, I rolled a hefty THREE laps (Old Guys Rule!!). Woohoo for me. I have to say this, though -- Lap 3 was by far my best lap in terms of how I actually felt. Between laps 2 and 3 it finally clicked in that I needed real food in me, and that helped immeasurably (imagine that) during my final loop. In fact, I cleaned the rocks atop that section of single track just down from the dam climb -- I have never been able to ride through those before -- always had to get off and HAB through them -- so at least I had one small victory on the day (let's hear it for small victories!!!).

I wanted to do more, but my legs hurt soooooooo bad that I just thought it might be a better thing to give it a rest and help support Willie and Gene for the rest of the day. And that worked out really well -- perhaps my best decision of the day.

It was great to see what felt like all of STR out there -- many good friends and familiar faces, and many, many new ones as well. Thanks to all for making it a great day. Even though my bod let me down, I was still real, real happy to be out there, playing a part in a great event.

As mentioned, I'll post pics later on (tomorrow hopefully). I got some great ones of riders in the sun on the dam climb!!

- shud

 

Mini RR from me.

Did 2 man team and we were going to try and get in 10 laps so I figured if we average 1:10 on our laps we would get it with a little time to spare. So My buddy does the first lap comes in and I got out for lap 1. Take it easy because I hadn't pre-ridden the course. I paced myself off a couple different groups at differt spots on the ride. Ended up with a :58. So I head out for lap 2 and take it even easier since I am ahead on my times and don't wanna burn up or anything. Lap 2 was good, came in at 1:05, still a little ahead. After my buddy comes in from lap 3 he says he feels like crap (literally I guess, his skin was starting to take a brownish color from all the dust) so he didn't know if he was gonna go out for his 4th lap after I finished my 3rd, so I said ok, get me a bottle of accelerade ready and I will do 2 in a row. So I take my 3rd lap even easier because I know I'm gonna have to do 2 in a row. So the 3rd lap was good, finished in 1:15. Still have better than a 1:10 average so I feel like im doing ok. Get back from the 3rd and my buddy hands me my light and a bottle of what looks like just plain water and I'm like this isn't accelerade and he says, "Yeah it is, I put in like 1 scoop!" So I guess he doesn't ever mix drinks because 1 scoop is so not enough. So I ride back down to our camp site and add in 2 more scoops and also mix up a bottle of clif shot electrolyte drink stuff, hook up my lights, and head out for lap 4. Lap 4 was what did me in! I don't think I was taking care of my electrolytes early on in the race and my oil light went on but I ignored it. I started cramping right up that first little sand hill. Then I basically inched myself along that fire road over to the dam climb. Somehow I managed to ride the whole dam climb without cramping. Made it down that first downhill and up the next little hill and paused to take in the nice panoramic view and see all the smoke from the fires I would have to return to tomorrow . Then I kept going and at the bottom of those little switchbacks, my chain jumped off the cassette inbetween the spokes and the cassette. I spent like 3-4 minutes trying to get it out, but couldn't get it. So I walked a bit and tried again and couldn't get it. Walked some more and tried a 3rd time and couldn't get it. Then I remembered I was almost at the aid station at the top so I just carried my bike up there to see if they could get it. They tried for a while and finally Vic got it. He is my hero!! So I started riding again and slowly made it to that new little single track before you go to the tunnel of love. My light had gotten loose so I had to stop and take a couple minutes to tighten that, but then it was fine and I continued on and finally finished the lap. Lap 4 was 1:40 which was way off my goal time, but atleast I finished and I did 2 in a row (a first for me). I could have had time for lap 5, but when I finished lap 4 I felt so bad. My stomach was killing me, my head was pounding and I felt like everything I drank that 4th lap was going to be seen again, so I didn;t charge my light, but after laying down for like 30 minutes and eating a sandwich, I started to feel better.

All in all it was a great race. I had a ton of fun like always. Leared a BIG BIG BIG lesson!! Electrolyte replacement needs to start on LAP 1! Lap 1 I drank like 50oz of fluid and only had 1 hammer nutrition gel. Lap 2 I had probably another 50 oz of water and 1 pack of clif shot bloks. Inbetween laps 1 and 2, I had a cookie, some pineapple, and I think that may have been it. It wasn't until after lap 2 that I started to have my clif shot electrolyte drink and lap 3 I took a bottle of Sustained Energy and then lap 4 I had accelerade and the clif shot stuff, but I think it was too late.

 

Here's how my weekend went. I camped out with Adams family, Trizz, Pho'dUp and Team Molasses. It'd be my last race in Men's Beginner Solo. There were at least 14 Beginners pre-registered, but I'm not sure how many more registered the day of. I had a goal in my head of 8 laps.

I was expecting it to be warm, but the winds and the low humidity made it tougher. I don't recall any moment where I was actually dripping sweat on the climbs like I normally do. Instead, my sweat would evaporate immediately and just leave the salt behind. My throat still hurts today from the dry air and dust.

I think I went out a little too quickly again and despite my heat fueling plan, I started feeling twinges of cramps early on around lap 3. I never got full on leg-locking cramps, but just twinges in my calves, hamstrings and inner thigh (groin?). At that point, it was more about cramp management.

I finished up with 7 laps at 10:42 (7:42PM). There just wasn't enough gas in the tank left to crank out an 8th lap in 1:15 lap to beat the 9PM deadline, so I called it a day. Plus, I don't think I would have been able to gain a spot in the standings (and beer was calling).

My 7 laps were good enough for 3rd place. Congrats to Trizz on doing 8 and taking 2nd (or should be 1st??).

Later that night, I received affirmation that I should never race in the Beginner class again.



And just for kicks, here's what I consumed during the course of the race.

• 420oz of water w/ Elete
• (3) 22oz bottles of Vanilla-Orange Perpetuem/Fresh Apple Cytomax Mix
• (3) Clif Bars
• (3) Gu Gels
• (3) Hammer Gels
• (2) Packets of Clif Bloks
• ( 8 ) SaltStick Tablets
• (1) Coke Zero
• (1) Gatorade G2 - Thanks Amanda!
• (1) Pickle Juice Sport
• (1/2) Monster Energy Drink - Thanks Shannon!

See you guys next year in Sport!

 

12 Hours of Temecula!!

Hey Gang! Great to see the STR ez-ups and jerseys at the race. Saw 1x1Clyde (Neil) as he passed me on the Damn Climb. I posted a ride review on a blog thing -

www.nimrodsracing.blogspot.com

Check it out if you can. I think I did it right. All that rode the 12 hour congratulations! I was the guy cramping and crying on the side of the trail.

Lkn2ryd - out:beer:

 

I have a red quick chair that someone left at the STR EZ-UP area.

 

Where are all the photos from the photographers out on the course? Anyone know?