Race: 24 Hours of Adrenalin mountain bike race
Place: Winter Park, CO
Date: August 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2002
Another year, another 24 hours race called our name… This time, we decided to check out the course and event in Winter Park, Colorado. Given our love of Colorado, and half our team and support crew residing there, it seemed like the perfect and logical choice.
Well, despite a trip to the hospital and 9 staples in my right forearm, we had a
great time!
It all started on Friday when we all converged on Winter Park. Competitors and support crew as follows:
Solo competitors:
Dan Franklin, Boulder, CO
Katrina Jensen, Detroit, MI
Keri, Detroit, MI
Team Moon Over My Chamois (in order):
1. Eugene Yen, Boulder, CO
2. John Van Order, Auburn, AL
3. Shige Honjo, Atlanta, GA
4. John Patillo, Glenwood Springs, CO
5. Bryan Holloway, Atlanta, GA
Team volunteer:
Kristen Holloway (not one, but two shifts! “since the first one was so much fun”.
Shift 1: Checkpoint #2, 12 – 4pm Saturday; Shift 2: Transition Tent, Midnight – 4am, Sunday). What a trooper. Thanks for volunteering, Kristie!
Team support crew:
Michelle Franklin, Boulder, CO, the den mother
Eric Coppock, Boulder, CO, the wrench
Amy Honjo, Atlanta, GA, the looker-afterer of Shige
Kris, Krista, and Grace Drobeck, Steamboat Springs, CO, the looker-afterers of Amy…
Other assorted friends of Dan and Michelle’s…
I trust the others had an easier time than the Atlanta contingent getting to Winter Park, as we struggled with lethargic airport check-in ladies and redundant rental van seats…
First order of business: move the big sailboat For Sale sitting in the middle of our campsite…
It rained on and off all day Friday and Saturday, turning the trail into a
muddy mess. Time to ride!
Saturday Noon rolls around, and Eugene got the race underway with the LeMans start and prologue lap. Our team stepped through the order, each member putting in a solid lap time. And then it came my turn…
One quarter of the way into my first lap, my bike slid out from under me on a turn in a mud-slicked descent, and I ate it. There was a muddy slope, the trail banked right, and my bike decided it would rather just lay down flat. Rapidly. I hit the ground hard, quicker than I had time to yell "Oh, Mama!" One strategically placed rock found it's way into my right forearm and sliced a nice, deep 2-inch long gash just below my elbow. It was nice. I could tell I was cut and bleeding, but I didn’t know how bad, since the entire right side of my body, including the wound, was covered in mud. So I pulled a water bottle off my bike and washed the mud away from the wound. Then I witnessed the blood flow like a river out of my forearm. I thought, “Uh oh. That’s not good.” Immediately thereafter, my usual trauma-induced light-headedness kicked in, and my vision darkened. I lay down in the weeds for what must have been about 15 minutes, waiting for the light-headedness to pass. “Man, this is going to kill my lap time…” Actually, at that point, I didn’t think I would finish the lap. Figured I should cancel my lap and get to first aid as soon as possible. So I tried to get back up the hill to Checkpoint #1. But every time I stood up, I got another head rush and had to lay right back down again.
Eventually, the light-headedness did pass, and then I felt fine. The wound was numb, so it didn’t hurt, and the bleeding slowed a little. I needed to get back to the transition area anyway, so I figured, “Oh well, might as well finish the lap.” So that’s what I did.
I passed the baton to Eugene and said, “Be careful out there, it’s slick.” Showed him my arm. A couple pictures later, my sister took me to the hospital while my buddies continued the race.
I didn’t lose too much time. The doctor patched me up by 8pm. No prob. Doc said, “You’re gonna go back out there again, aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, I was thinking about it.”
“Ok.”
Cool! I got the thumbs-up from the Doc!
I returned to find the team chugging along no problem, turning lap after lap. Ask Shige about the rain. Each time he received the baton, the skies opened up and it started to rain. Pour. So he rode in the rain. And as soon as he finished, he handed off the baton, and then it quit. He was quite pleased about that.
I jumped back in around midnight and did a night lap. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden so slow. I was so timid from my crash that I stopped and walked my bike over the slightest of obstacles. And there were plenty. One after another, guys and gals came bombing by me on the steep descents in the darkness. After my lap, I pondered to Amy, “How can they go so fast down those treacherous hills in the dark like that?!” And she replied, “They haven’t been to the hospital yet.” That helped me feel a little better.
All in all, the race was brutal. The course was much tougher than Conyers. Lots of climbing, lots of altitude, and lots and lots of slick 45 degree tree roots. But we made the most of it, and still managed to have a great time. By Sunday, the trail started to dry out and actually became pretty fun. After the doctor patched me up, I jumped back in to do 3 more laps, while the others put in about 5 each, so we went on to complete 23 laps total, for a middle-of-the-pack finish of 10th out of 18 in our category. Given the toughness of the course and my little detour to the hospital, we were very happy with that performance. Good job, guys!!!
Major kudos to Dan, Katrina, and Keri for giving that race a solo effort!!! It was so tough, I don’t plan to ever attempt 24 Hours of Winter Park solo.
And Jon Van Order wins the Animal award of the weekend, putting in the fastest lap times of sub-50 minutes! Outstanding. Like Shige said, “Jon, you need to slow down!”
We decided my crash was a result of the Curse of #5. In Moab, Shige rode in the 5th slot, and wound up “looking for his teeth, and finding his number” on his first lap. In this race, our first team effort since that ill-fated Moab trip, I was lucky #5 and pulled a Shige on my first lap, too. Coincidence?? So, who wants to be #5 next time? Maybe we should just go with a 4-person team next time… At least we only had one trip to the hospital this time (Moab had 2). So we’re improving…
A couple cool quotes from the weekend:
Doctor: “Take it easy…(pause)…I know you won’t.”
Eugene: “It’s East Cost conditions, you’ll do fine.” Then I crash on my first lap and wind up in the hospital…
And yes, my staples set off the metal detector in the airport coming home.
I’ve had a good time with them, and enjoyed grossing out my co-workers Monday morning. Shige thinks it would be cool if I crash again, on the road next time. Because my staples would make sparks on the pavement…
Ride On!
-Bry