24 Hours of...Rain?
A few weekends ago, our mountain bike team competed in the 24 Hours of Adrenaline race in Whistler, British Columbia. (That's in Canada for those of you following along at home.) If by "Adrenaline" one thinks of non-stop rain, mud, and suffering, then that was the right title for the event.
Here's the short version about this race: teams or individuals attempt to get as many laps as possible completed on a specific set of trails over the course of 24 straight hours. For a team, that means teammembers trade off laps, resting in between laps for approximately 3-4 hours. For an individual, that means riding as many laps as their body, brain, and bike can handle for the entire 24 hours. In fact, the Whistler installation of 24 Hours of Adrenaline, a race that travels all over North America, was also the Solo 24-hour World Championships. Winner Chris Eatough (pronounced 'ee-toff'), pulled of 22 laps in 24 hours. He was riding 55-minute laps on the 9-mile course at the start, and managed to keep nearly that same pace for the entire race.
Local Seattle biking phenom Brett Wolfe was also in attendance, putting in 8 laps as a solo rider. Seattlest has friends who ride with Brett, and what is most amazing is that he schools half of them on very difficult trails and the man only has one leg. We're not worthy.
Our racing group comprised 5 of our 8-woman team. Seattlest wasn't one of the five actually racing in this event, we were the support crew. That means we helped get racers ready for their laps, troubleshot a neverending stream of unexpected problems (like how the hell we were all going to manage to stay close to dry the whole time), got food/drinks ready, and generally ran around like assistant producers on a reality TV show. Or something like that. Regardless, we had it easy compared to those in our ranks actually racing, as the course proved challenging to begin with, much more so when paired with the tropical-caliber rainstorm that hunkered down at the start of the race and did not let up the entire time.
The Seattle Team LUNA Chix entered this race with absolutely no intention of competing to win. Really, we just wanted to survive the event and say that we made it. Our intrepid racers rode through 24 hours of non-stop pissing rain, on trails that degraded significantly as the race progressed. Mud and slick roots and rocks became increasingly treacherous, one rider going down on some nasty steep rocks in the middle of the night. (We ride with bright lights attached to either helmets or handlebars, or both). Another woman on the team actually developed the killer cold during the race that had affected other teammates the week prior--she rode 4 laps total and was entirely sick by the time she came in from her last lap.
Each lap was approximately 9 miles, comprising technical singletrack trail, dirt road sections, and a couple difficult climbs. The altitude gain per lap was nearly 1,000 feet, meaning that each member of our team rode at least 27 miles over 3,000 feet of altitude. In case we haven't truly hammered this point home: it was REALLY muddy. After each lap, racers had to change all their clothes and attempt to dry off as much as possible while downing food until they felt like they couldn't possibly eat any more. The showers in the nearby ski resort facility (an unexpected bonus that we hadn't anticipated) were in constant demand. 
The elation we all felt at the end, once everyone had survived the night and struggled through their final laps, was immense. Also, starting in on the Kokanee at 9am really helped keep us going until finishing at just 1 minute 55 seconds after 12pm on Sunday. And finally, the fact that we managed not to come in dead last was cause for much celebrating.
Our next adventure takes us to Moab, Utah for the 24 Hours of Moab race. Following a similar format, we'll start the race at 12pm on Saturday October 15, and finish at noon on Sunday the 16th. Seattlest is actually racing in this one, with a longer race course and more altitude gain per lap. If we're not back the following week, please do call out the posse.
