24 hours of afton

At 5:00 pm on Friday I started a race that didn't end until 5:00 pm Saturday. It's an annual race held at Afton Alps called the Salsa 24 Fest. It's a 24 hour mountain bike race that zig-zags up and down the mountain.

I was on a four person team. You could only have one rider from your team on the trail at a time. The loop is about 8.5 miles, and takes the average rider about 1 hour to complete (the really fast guys do it in about 40-45 minutes!) I made a personal goal to get in 6 laps, and I did it!

Because I was the last person on my team to hit the trail, I didn't take my first lap until 9:30, so my first lap on a new trail was in the dark. I did have my high powered head light, but even still, it was a bit crazy at times whizzing past trees and over rocks and ledges.

I finished my first lap and then went out again at 2 am and rode a double lap (I was tired and hungry after that one). After some food and sleep, I took to the hills again at 10, 12, and 1:45. I contemplated doing a seventh, but my neck and back were really sore.

My friend Terry and I have already started talking about doing it solo next year, which means we would see how many laps we could each get in personally in 24 hours. I can see how people get into racing, it's a real rush!

This was the view of the start/finish from the chalet.

This was the start. The riders stage their bikes a ways away from the start line, then run to their bikes at the sound of the gun. This helps spread the riders out and avoids painful pile-ups on the trail.

This is my tent, and where I took some glorious, well-need sleep.

This was our "pit" and these were my teammates.