Burn 24 hour Race - Part 1

A few months back our friend Skip had the notion of competing in a 24 hour mountain bike race. At first I wasn't too keen on the idea but Skip pleaded with me. He said they needed someone with boobs to complete the team of 5. I reluctantly said ok....I didn't want to be the slow poke on the team and hold them back. Skippy just wanted to race for fun to see how we would do.
We assembled our team of 5....Skip, Chris, Adam, Hubby, and myself.
As time drew closer, we put together our list of stuff to take. Lots of food, water, Cytomax, snacks, more food, sleeping bags, camping gear, bike stuff (extra jerseys, shorts, socks, cool weather gear,helmets, lights, chargers, extra lights), bikes, tubes, tools, chain lube, ibuprofen, etc etc.
I generally stress out over details and this was no exception. It seems like it took a week to pack & get ready. Here is a pic of some of the stuff we had prepared:

Around Tuesday or Wednesday of the week of the race my hubby informs me that we will not have to bring tents. I asked how was that possible. Adam hooked us up w/ a 36 foot RV... Up until this point I was still not too thrilled with the idea of doing this type of event. When I heard about the RV..I was stoked! No sleeping in a tent on the hard ground w/ lots of noise all night, cold temps, no where to keep clothes dry& warm, etc, etc. This RV was the shiznit. It was so nice that we didn't want to race...we just wanted to hang out in the RV all day and watch dvd's. This thing slept 9 people comfortably, had a toilet, microwave, a/c, sheets, fridge. It was hooked up! When we arrived at the sight...I was a little on edge. My legs did not feel good all week. We had raced in Bedford the week prior and I just didn't recover right. When I rode Tuesday, the legs felt heavy and on Thursday they felt even worse. I was really dreading having to go out there & race for 7 1/2 miles at a time. My biggest fear was I would not be able to recover in between laps and my legs would just plain give out on me.
The racers meeting was at 10:45a.m. with a noon start. We decided our rotation would go as follows: Hubby, me, Skip, Chris, Adam. We would each do one lap until the overnight hours where Hubby & Skip would do 2 laps per rotation. The race started as a lemans start..meaning you have to run to your bike. We were allowed to designate a runner for this portion. Skip would be our lucky runner. Starting the race this way enabled some distance to be put in between the riders before entering the singletrack. Most people jogged lightly around the path before handing off to the riders. Most teams knew you can't win the race in the first 1/2 mile...but you can lose it!

Each team member was equipped w/ a timing device which we wore on our ankles. We also had to keep track of a baton. Each rider kept the baton in their jersey pocket. At the conclusion of each lap, you would enter a transition area where your time would be tracked w/ the ankle bracelet & then the rider would pass the baton on to the next rider .
Hubby was the first one off. I'd be next. We gauged each lap would be roughly 40 -45 minutes so once he took off, I ate, changed, hydrated & started to warm up. I kept track of the time so I would be in the transition area as hubby came through. Skip & Moe spotted hubby coming through so I got ready to go. The lap started off in a grassy area which turned into a woop section. They a slight uphill over a culvert. The culvert was lined w/ rocks which I stared too long at and ended up having to foot out. It caused 2 guys behind me to get all screwed up. They were not at all happy with me...I apologized profusely to them. Then I quietly reminded myself that you cannot win a 24 hour race in lap 2. We took a left hand into the singletrack. The left hand turn was pretty loose so you really had to be careful. It wound back & forth along a creekbed, then it seemed like switchback after switchback. The first section was a gradual climb. I wasn't quite warmed up so it was a bit of a struggle at first. Eventually you dump out on top of a hill where you can look out & see the campground. Then down a fun downhill, through some berm turns, a crazy rock garden which really wasn't bad if you kept up your momentum, more switchbacks & burm turns. Then more gradual climbing. I kept getting passed by people so I was feeling bad b/c we were losing ground. My legs still didn't feel great so my pace was a little slower than I wanted.
About halfway there is a checkpoint where you called out your number. Then comes the second half of the course. This was sooooooo much fun. All of the gradual climbs & switchbacks paid off. There was some fireroad, more switchbacks, rock gardens, log jumps, etc. This is where you could really make up some time. You had to be careful though because some of the turns put you into obstacles & things that if you were not paying attention, you could really get hurt. At one point I ended up on this log ramp when I wanted to go around it. That's how quickly some of these things came up. The second half of the course took you down near this lake. There was this deafening sound the whole time. I thought they were spring peepers...but spring peepers stop peeping from time to time. This noise was constant, loud & deafening. (I think I said that already)...Turns out they were the 17 year cicadas..& they were everywhere.
There also must have been farm nearby because I kept hearing a rooster in one section. Weird. Towards the end of the lap, the course was winding and fast. more burm turns & you could get some serious air on a couple of jumps. Then you dumped out into the camping area, rode a pea gravel road which dumped into the grass...then you meadnered for a bit on the grass until approaching the transition area. The last couple of miles was my favorite part of the course because it was so fast. As I neared the transition area, I grabbed the baton out of my jersey & handed it off to Skip. Off he went.....Now I had to rest and get ready for lap 2 in a few hours.