6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships. 2018

The 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships put on by the Race Across America (RAAM) organization is one of the best-run events in the world. Great people, great venue location and perfect course for a long time trial.

Borrego Springs California is the location.

Borrego is an amazing place to visit any time but it’s especially nice in October/November when the event is held.

I did the 24-hour event in 2016 on my tandem bike with my friend Teresa. We didn’t get quite as many miles done as we had planned due to physical problems but we still had a blast. Teresa did the 12-hour event this year in the tandem event with our friend Richard. They set a course record in their division. 

2016 race. Mixed tandem division with Tiger

This year I did a specific ultra-time trial training program to see if I could do better.

I signed up for the event fairly early, I thought, but the event was sold out so I got on the waiting list. A few weeks later I was invited to race in the event. I was really happy.

My training went really well with a break in the middle so I could work as crew chief for a friend on the Silver State 508.

The event is 3 different races within one event.

The 24 hour time trial that starts on a Friday evening at 5pm and then finishes Saturday afternoon 24 hours later. The 12 hour time trial starts at 5am the next morning, 12 hours after the 24 hour and the 6 hour then starts 18 hours after the long race at 11am. All races ride the same course and finish at the same time.

The course is an 18-mile circuit with a pit area for support. The pit area is at the start/finish where the tracking device/lap counter is. 
For the 24 hour race, the idea is to get as many laps in as you can in 24 hours. At about 1.5 hours from the 5 pm finish they put you on a short 4+ mile loop till finish time. That way racers will be able to be closer to the lap counter and get as many miles as possible and not be stranded out on the long loop, not making it to the finish in time. All racers must be done and through the Shute by 5pm.

In 2016, I left home at 4 in the morning for the 4-hour drive to Borrego on event day. BIG MISTAKE!!!

There is so much prep to be done before the 24-hour start at 5 pm that I was totally burned out before the race even started. I think this had a lot to do with my physical problems that year.

This year I left early in the morning on Thursday so I would have time to check into a hotel and relax/rest a bit before the race.

When I first drove over to the race area in Christmas Circle I met a couple from Norway who were doing the 12-hour race. Really nice people. They were there to pre-ride the course as I was. We talked for a while. Before our conversation ended, he mentioned that his wife, he predicted, would win the 12-hour women's race and he was correct, that is exactly what happened. She won with an amazing 253 miles in 12 hours!!

I was invited to do a meet and greet, friendship ride by ultra-cyclist Marko Baloh on Thursday afternoon with some of the other racers. We just did one loop of the course at a fairly leisure pace. It was a lot of fun. 
Below are some pictures of the Marko Baloh friendship meet and greet ride:

Marko Baloh pre-race friendship ride group

Ultra cycling legend Marko Baloh.
Marko has done over 500 miles at the 24-hour race many times.

The "easy" social pace was a little brisk for this older guy. 

After that I tooled around Borrego a little to look at some of the sculptures in the area. An amazing artist does these sculptures out of steel. His name is Ricardo Breceda. Click here for a link to info on this amazing artist. 

A little video of the famous Borrego Dragon/Serpent. An amazing sculpture made out of iron. These types of sculptures are all around Borrego Springs. 

Friday

Now it was race day and I was getting a little nervous.

I walked from my hotel room over to get the hotel continental breakfast. When I walked in I saw some familiar faces. Some notable racers were staying at the same small ranch hotel, The Stanlunds Inn.
 I really liked this place. It is an old hotel from the 50's I think. Really simple and clean with easy access and a nice family who owns it.

My friend Mark from Minnesota who I first met in 2015 at the Hoodoo 500 in Utah and a few other very well-known Ultra-racers. 
When I told Mark that I was going to self-crew for my race he offered to help. Such a nice guy. Mark was crewing for his friend in the 12 hour race. Instead of sleeping, he would just stay up all night and help me out before his friend starts his race at 5am. What an awesome guy!!

 I met Dex Tooke, a RAAM finisher and the man who runs “No Country for Old Men”, a very tough RAAM qualifying race in Texas. Also in the conversation was very accomplished Ultra-cyclist Dave Hasse.

I had a great time talking with all these guys.

Thanks Mark!

Dex on the left with Dave Hasse. 

 My bike was all ready to go with exception of my race number placard.

I got parked in the pit area, got inspection and then went out to a great lunch before coming back to relax for a while.

Lots of fiends at the race.
Next to me my friend Tony who helped me also during the race while crewing for Margaret next to him, doing the 12 hour and Rick who was racing with me in the 24 hour race in the fixed gear division.
Tony set the course record at Race Across the West this year in the fixed gear division. He was the first to ever do the 930  mile course of that race on a fixed gear bike and the first ever 60+ fixed gear finisher of RAW.
Tony also was our crew chief during our 2014 RAW, 4-man race. Margaret was our navigator for that race. As far as I am concerned, anyone who crews for me are family!!

With a real ultra-cycling champion Seana Hogan. She has won Race Across America many times not to mention so many other ultra races. I first met Seana in 1993 when we both did the LA Wheelmen Quad century event.
As usually we have some photo-bombers in the rear.....

My old Roubaix is ready to go.

It is my opinion that part of this 24 hour race is all the prep that needs to be done in the blazing hot pit area prior to even starting the race. 
If you don’t drink enough you will be dehydrated before you start the race and that is not a good thing.

The really serious racers who did it right, had their crew doing all this prep while the racer was back at the hotel resting in bed in the air conditioning. …………….Not me!!!! I wish I had a motor home to park near the start like some others. That would be great.

The pre-race meeting was next and then it was time to go out for a little cruise on the bike to see how far I could go in 24 hours.

Pre-race meeting.
Race Across America CEO Fred Boethling giving racers and crews a final message.

5pm……time to race.

It was still pretty warm and my feet were already bothering me from all the walking I was doing all afternoon. I was worried because I have been having a problem with hot foot nerve pain for years. I was trying a new molded insert in my shoes and was hoping that it would work. It worked well in my shorter training rides a few weeks prior but I still had some pain.

Some of the bikes that were being ridden were amazing. Very expensive road and time trial bikes. I was on my inexpensive, very old, Specialized Roubaix. I did have some really nice aero wheels which my friend Francis was nice enough to let me borrow.

I started in the second wave of riders at about 2 minutes after the 5pm first wave.

Immediately out of the start, my feet and my sciatic nerve pain started acting up. I was hoping that it would cool down quickly. I do much better in cooler weather, even cold weather.

Here is a map of the course showing the long and short course.

I really like the 18 mile lap on this course. You go past many of the sculptures in Borrego and it is pretty flat.

This is a very deceiving and humbling course though, especially on a 24 hour event.

It started cooling down shortly after the sun went down. The temperature change felt so good but I still could not believe the sciatic pain I was having.

I had two bottles of “Scratch”, electrolyte drink, on my bike. My plan was to do 3 laps before getting more bottles. I did two and had gulped down all the water since it was so warm.

I pushed pretty hard in that first 50 miles doing it in about 2.5 hours. Maybe a little too fast for me.

I averaged about 20 mph for a while and then started slowing down a little and got into my rhythm. My heart rate started to equalize also and I settled into a good pace for my age.

I was still in a lot of pain and after 3 laps and about 54 miles, I actually was toying with the idea of calling it quits due to the pain.

                                                                              Rolling through the night.                                                                                     

   Photo: Jen Magnuson Photography

My left eye at this point was acting up and starting to go blurred on me. Due to facial nerve damage on my left side, I cannot blink my left eye all the way. This wreaks havoc in the desert sometimes. The same old story from last year....I dont get it. This did not happen in many of my very windy double centuries in the last few years.....why now?
This is why I wear glasses with a gasket to keep out the cross wind. My eye would not clear up until early afternoon. It sucked big time!!

My spirits were pretty down at this point but it is not in my nature to show it. I just sucked it up.

Every time I rolled through the pits or stopped there, my spirits were raised. Everyone including other peoples crews were so encouraging. Ultra-cycling is just awesome!!!!

That is when I rode into the pits and took some anti-inflammatory medication, went to my van and cleaned out my scary looking eye and got eye drops. I cant believe the amount of stuff that was clogging up my eye. I asked Mark how my eye looked at one point and he showed me a picture of a cat with an eye infection where the eye was glued shut with puss. He said that is what my eye looked like!! That grossed me out and I almost fell off the bike laughing!!

I rolled back out feeling much better after a good stretch and a little massage by my friend Tony who was helping Mark when he could.

I have so much respect and appreciation for these guys. Such amazing ultra-cyclists in their own right, crewing for someone else, but still stepping up and helping me so I would not have to self-crew.

Mark is one strong rider. He set a course record at Hoodoo 500 in the solo category the year I met him in 2015.

Tony, in 2018, became the first person to do the long, 930 mile, Race across the West, on a fixed gear and he is also in his 60’s. His record will stand for years at RAW I believe if it is ever broken.

I started to feel better as it was getting cooler. There was no need for leg warmers or even arm warmers until the wee morning hours just before sunrise where it got a little cool out in the low areas but never below 50 degrees.

The full moon rise, a few hours after the race start, was just spectacular. What an amazing night to ride in the desert. This is one of my favorite places to ride at night. Death Valley area and Borrego are just amazing at night.

Round and round I went. There were media people everywhere it seemed.

I would be riding in the middle of the night and see a flash thinking it was lightning or something. Then on the next lap I would see a person sitting on the side of the road kind of hidden, snapping pictures and video in the dark as we passed.

                         Rolling through the pit area in the middle of the night.                           
Photo: Vic Armijo

There were some amazing and fast riders at this race. You have to really try, especially at my age, to keep from chasing people.
 Everyone is in a different division or age group. You have to just race your race or you will be in trouble.

Through the night I went.

The giant Borrego dragon was so cool looking every time I passed under that full moon.

There are no traffic lights on the course and one area where a course martial flags you through a 4 way stop. There were never any cars to deal with when I went past that stop sign though. A great course.

One thing that I noticed about the course is this. Although there is only 380 feet of elevation gain on the 18 mile loop, as you get more tired through the race, it feels like it’s all up hill. I think this is just a figment of the imagination but it sure felt that way. There is only one area of the course that has anything close to a hill and that is the slight rise you go up before the gradual descent back to town and the pits.

Shortly I started to just carry one bottle. For the longest time I drank close to 2 bottles per lap. I was really thirsty but only had to relieve myself once during the night.

Once I got settled in and got focused on racing and not dwelling on the bodily pain issues, I started doing pretty well. I still had to slow way down to stretch on the bike which temporarily helped the nerve pain caused by the piriformis muscle pinching my sciatic nerve.

I did the first 100 miles in about 5.5 hours.

As 5 am came around, it was cool, and I was moving pretty well. I did the first 200 miles in about 11hrs 45 minutes. I was already starting to stop more than I needed too.

 Instead of just taking a hand-off for a bottle in the pits, I would stop and drink some food, finish a bottle, stretch a little. I really needed to stop at my age though. When I was younger, I could just keep going and nothing would ever bother me until I needed food or water. Now…..I just needed a break from time to time.

5am and now the 12 hour race was starting. I now had a whole new large batch of racers passing me. Wow there were some fast people. Again…..you still need to just ride your pace and not be tempted. I learned the hard way many times when I was younger. Just stay steady where you can.

                                                                 Dawn while climbing the little rise before town.                                                           
Photo: Jen Magnuson Photograpthy

It was absolutely beautiful outside as the sun started to come up. Dusk and dawn are just amazing while riding in the desert.

It was its coolest when the sun was just about to come up and then we were in store for some real heat I was thinking.

Sunrise
Photo: Vic Armijo

We had Santa Ana conditions so the winds were opposite from 2016 when I did the race. As the day wore on, the head wind was encountered on course when riding more in a southerly direction. We had a tail wind on the hardest part of the course when riding back toward the finish on that slight hill which made for some very hot and blazing conditions. The prevailing wind on this section is usually a head wind in Borrego.

As the day wore on, it got warmer and warmer, topping out at about 96 degrees. I think my Garmin registered close to 111 degrees on the bike at some point from the radiant heat coming off the pavement.

This is where you really have to plan properly about pacing in this race. If you go out way to hard and don’t hydrate well when it is cool during the night, you will get behind and be in big trouble when it gets hot. You will not be able to recover from this.

I did pretty well at this. As far as hydration goes, I never had a problem. No cramps and I actually kept up a pretty steady pace through the morning and afternoon. I did have to stop much more due to the nerve pain problems but when I was on course, I did not slow down that much.

At one point in the late morning Mark told me I was doing well and that I was in second place not too far behind first. The next time he told me that I was in the lead.

This perked me up and I started thinking that maybe the pace I had picked to maintain was good. At this point I decided to see if I could maintain that same pace. I would still stop as needed but try and minimize the time I stopped.

Once it got really hot, I needed to ice my feet. Mark and Tony set up an ice bath for my feet. I sat in a chair and just put my feet in. Socks and all. After about 10 minutes in the ice I got back on course. That little thing just made all the difference in the world. I was able to push hard again and after each time doing that, I was able to do a faster feeling lap with less pain.

During one of my way to long of stops in the pits. Icing my feet down.
Photo: Tony Musorafite

HOT....feet! And icing one of my protein drinks at the same time.

As the afternoon wore on, the desert was taking its toll on people.

The desert was my nemesis for many years. It is the one thing that scared me from doing the long ultra-races like The 508. I would always get cramps in the desert. Through all those years doing double century events, I was hindered with cramps.

Not till my early 60’s did I find the solution and do my first long ultra-event.

For the time trail I drank nothing but “Scratch” electrolyte solution as my main fluid source. No plain water other than a few swigs in the pits. It worked great once again.

You cant tell but I am really suffering at this point in the race!!
Photo: Jen Magnuson Photography

I was able to keep up pretty close to the same pace until about 3:30pm when we were put on to the short course for the finish. I was really getting tired but was able to get in 4 laps on the short course.  I had time for one more short lap but called it quits with just under 380 miles.

What a fantastic and fun race!!

There were racers from 16 different countries and dozens of different states. All really nice people. 

I had a fantastic time. I really wish my family could have come along on this one.

At the end I found out that I had won the 60-69 age division and finished 16th out of 58 men in the solo standard bike division. Not to shabby for an older, sore and achy guy who wasn't really even trying to win anything.

My goal was just to do 350 miles which would have made me happy.
In hind sight, if I would have done just a few things different while keeping the same pace, I could have surpassed 400 miles. I ended up with about 380 miles even though I had 2 hours off the bike and all that slowing to stretch when on the course. If I could have just whittled that time down a little, I think I could have done the 400. I really dont care though. I just say this as I like to analyze my effort and see where I could improve next time.

Thanks to the Fred, Rick and everyone in the RAAM organization for putting on such an epic event. I love this event and will be back every year if possible in one way or another.
Click here for the link to the race Facebook page for more info and pictures.

A big shout out and thanks to all my friends for being so supportive over the years knowing my life situation and such. I would not have been able to do anything if it were not for all my amazing friends. I owe everyone big time.

Thanks so much to Tony and Mark for crewing for me!! You guys just made it such a memorable race for me just by being out there to support and encourage me. Tony cracking the whip and pushing me and Mark making me laugh as well as being there in the blink of an eye when I came into the pits.

Thank you to my Adobo Velo buds for all your support, especially Francis for the amazing race wheels. I have never even ridden carbon race wheels in my life and I feel they made a bit of a difference especially on this course.

I was again riding representing BQE Core for World Bicycle Relief. Here is the link to donate to a great cause if you feel so inclined.
 https://teamwbr.worldbicyclerelief.org/bqe

Finally to my wife, Ginny, my girls and all of my family for all your support. I know what I do takes a lot of my spare time.

Here is the link to all the pictures from my Facebook photo album:

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10158003039029546&type=1&l=2a0f8f1c99