Bakers Dozen... er, Half Dozen?

mixed weekend... baker's dozen started well, at least until my first lap triple flat. well, make that one flat where i didn't see the thorn leading to the second flat on which i broke the valve stem on the first donated tube and had to go begging for a second donor tube.

we had a pretty cool setup with 18 or so dcmtb riders in the main camp, and another few spread out in other teams. kent brought out his new solar camping setup so we had that powering an xm for tunes and charging up light batteries (as well as charging up it's own batteries so we could power some lights at night).

after my 55 minute first lap my brother went out on his first lap. since we were riding duo we decided to start on double right after getting the first rotation out of the way. since i wasn't quite ready to go for lap 3 (i was grabbing an extra tube) when he came in JJ went back out and started the doubles straight away.

laps were fast.... sub 30 for the super fast guys, low 30s for the fast but mortal types. my fastest were in the 32 range, but got slower as time went by. my first set of doubles (team laps 4 & 5) started strong but by the 2nd lap i was suffering a bit. i had a headache setting in, and my legs were suffering. a little too early for that, i thought, but the pace was fast so i notched it down a click or two. the course was a lot of fun... fast and twisty i didn't want to make you suffer so much as make you want to ride faster.

the 2nd rotation of doubles went by much as the first did but by the time JJ was starting the 3rd rotation he wasn't sure that he'd be able to do another double. i got myself ready to go when he came back around but he took some more water & food on board and went straight back out. since i had a little more time before starting i ate an instant noodle pot (my endurance race super-food) and by the time he came back i was feeling a bit better and was ready to go. JJ, on the other hand was pretty sure that he was done.

i went out on my lap a little worried that he'd pushed himself way too far and was going to be back in the pits getting worse instead of getting better. after seeing a guy at the campground behind us taken away in an ambulance right before i started my lap i was worrying. my last lap (6 for me, 12 for the team) my legs actually felt better than they had for a couple of laps but i had a splitting headache by the end of it. coming back through the pit JJ gave me word that was done, so we decided to call it a day. since heather was there watching we stuck around for a bit to hang out and watch and then headed home.

JJ eventually recovered to the point that he rode a 'guest' lap for one of the other city bikes teams (2 injuries on one team). it was his first real endurance race, so there's a learning curve to dealing with recovery & nutrition (and suffering) and this race was a hard way to start. the course was so short & intense (all pedaling all the time). team foley will ride again (lodi? 12 hours of cranky monkey?) though maybe as a part of a 3-man team instead of duo.

congrats to the other dcmtb/city bikes teams, especially the solar ring blingers and velocipede who took 2nd and 3rd in the 3-man class.