24 hrs of MO-WIND-AB

jeez. where do i start. i decided to do the 24 hrs of Moab for the first time with a team of pro women, which the lineup switched around at least 3 times. finally by a week before (and even some doubts of doing it the week of) our team was set: Becca Blay, Nina Baum, Kristin Johnson, and me. Team SoBeBella. wicked. we were gonna be smok'en. i had heard horror stories about this race, about the weather being so awful that its not worth the physical and metal anguish.. but we pushed on, and got'er done.

i drove down friday and the weather was amazing- sunny, no wind, perfect temps. this was gonna be a great year. but then we overheard rumors of rain through the night, with temps dropping into the 30's. wow. suck-o-rama. i had brought all of my worst weather/cross racing stuff i could find and shoved it into my car along with 2 bikes (my hei hei supreme and my kula lisa HT-didn't end up using the HT but it was good to have just in case...)better to have extras than to fix broken stuff, especially when its that freak'en cold in the middle of the night...

i stayed in chris's camper with the other girls in tents scattered around near the cannondale tents. they had a sweet setup so we used to escape the torturous winds. and i have never been in a real sand storm before- this was nuts! my dog casey had tears running down his eyes from the sand and most people were walking around with surgical masks (i got one thanks to troy from cannondale) or hankies around their faces. EVERYTHING was covered in a fine, red sand that was so hard to escape from- it took 3 showers to get it out of my hair, no kidding. every crevice of everything was clogged, including the bikes. talk about crunchy drivetrains!

the race started with kristin on the line for the run. she got voted first, then nina, becca, and me bringing up the 4th racer. kristin unfortunately had a rough go, and double flatted and walked for a LONG time. which put us back almost a lap on the other team, Utah girls. dang. nina did an awesome lap, and so did becca to try to make up some time. my lap was going super well until i took a wrong turn (i have NO idea how..) and went off course 2 miles. so, that put me back about 15 minutes. we had some major time to make up over the night. we all rode as hard as we could but couldnt make up the hour we lost. but i did have a blast using my new light and motion lights- i got a Stella (lithium) for my helmet and a Seca Race for my handlebars. wow, they pretty much lit up the entire trail like a christmas tree! i needed that though, since i had never ridden such a technical course at night before. by my last lap, and the final lap for the team at 11:45am sunday morning, i could ride parts of the trail with my eyes closed. ok maybe not but i knew it better than before thats fursur. but we made up all but 20 minutes by the end. we got so close!! the whole team did awesome, had good consistant laps and was upbeat and cheery (as upbeat as you can be in crazy winds and freezing temps- oh it was snowing i guess early sunday am, i was taking a nap though..) but looking back now it was a good time. i would rather do a 24 hr race in warmer weather i think, all the clothes changing/drying/putting back on wet is not so fun. now that i have the lights, i better use them. perhaps some indurance racing might be in the cards.... :)