6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships. (2023)

 

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.

 This would be my 5th time doing this race. My first time was a solo tandem bike in the 60-69 tandem division, and the second time was 24 hour solo 60-69 division. In 2019 I did the 24 in the 2-mixed standard bike division with my friend Teresa, who was my tandem partner in 2016, and in 2022 I did solo 24-hour in the 70-79 division. It was quite the challenge in my 70s but I was able to surpass my goal of 300  miles and do 325 miles.

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. 
Whether you decide to do the 24, 12, or 6-hour event,  the idea is to get as many laps in as you can in your time period. 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 5 p.m.

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.

This year, I decided to go back to the tandem bike and do the 12-hour race with my good friend Margaret who has been riding tandem with me for a few years now. 

I have known Margeret for quite some time. 

She is a corporate healthcare attorney, has a great coach, and I have no idea where she finds the time to train for these events. 

I first got to know her in 2014 when she was on our crew for the Race Across the West. She was brought on as our navigator by my good friend and fixed gear legend Tony Musorafite, who was our crew chief. 

We both crewed for Tony when he did the 1,000-kilometer Race Across Oregon on his fixed gear in 2020.

After our experience at RAW, she went on to race it 3 times as Team Moab/Specialized Moab. I think they won their 4-person mixed division each time and set some course records. They are a fast team!

She also did the Silver State 508 on a 2-person mixed team with my good friend Victor Cooper as well as Solo and team at The Hoodoo 500.

In 2020, she won the standard bike, women's division, of The Natchez Trace 444 in 27 hours 27 minutes. She did the Race Across America in 2022 as part of the 8-person mixed Team Skipper.

Margaret was also part of my 4-mixed "Team White Owl" at the 2022 Silver State 508 along with our friends Ron and Peg. We had a challenging but fun time.

She is a California Triple Crown Hall of Fame inductee with over 50 double centuries ridden.

I

We did not really train very much for this race. We did do several rides with a century ride a few weeks from event day. None of this was what we would call real training for this type of event which should have included some long rides in the desert in the wind on hot days and cold nights. 

The 18-mile loop on the course is very deceiving!

There is under 400 feet of elevation gain on each loop.

We traveled to Borrego Springs on Friday and arrived just in time to check in and get our pit location set up for the race the next morning. 

In hindsight, I think if we were really serious about getting some good miles in during the race, we should have arrived a couple of days early to do some riding in the area and get acclimated. 

All that said, we really did this race to just have fun and enjoy the camaraderie with other ultra friends who come out every year. 

Again this year, our awesome friend, Ron came along to support us as our crew chief. He crewed for me last year and we had a great time. 

The prep time required in the pits to get the pit set up is really draining in the hot desert sun. I felt like a dried-up raisin when we got done, just from being out there exposed in that heat. 

We got our pit area all set up and then went to the pre-race meeting which was held a 4 p.m. for the 24 and 12-hour race. 

The 24-hour race started at 5pm right after the meeting and our race started early in the morning at 5am.

We hung around to watch them start and then left the pit area for our hotel and hopefully, a good night's rest. 

We all went to bed early hoping it would not be too cold in the morning. 

 Race day

We arose at 3:45 a.m. and made it pretty quick to the race start. 

I barely slept as usual which is normal for me before a race. For once I wish I could get a good night's rest like I do at home before a long training ride. I generally feel better on my long training rides than I do on my races. Maybe I should try a sleep aid.

We started in the second wave of 12-hour racers. There were 3 waves in this race. 

The temperature said that it was 50 degrees in town with about 2 hours until sunrise, but we didn't let that fool us. It can drop by 10 degrees out in the low areas on the course, not to mention that the coldest part of the day is right at sunrise. 

We dressed accordingly and figured we would pull into our pit when we needed to strip off layers when it got warmer.  

Just before starting, I took a puff on my asthma inhaler. 

The only time I need it is with cold, dry air that is below 55 degrees. It helped some.

Off we went and right off the bat, I had a hard time breathing. Our first lap was our fastest of the race but I could not breathe most of the way, feeling like I did not have my second wind. I used a buff to cover my mouth which helped a bit. 

My heart rate is another story.

Due to the lack of oxygen, my HR was pretty high at over 140 BPM on the first lap. Even though I could not breathe well, I did not feel like I was pushing all that hard.

You would think the course is really flat but it isn't. You always feel like you are climbing except for one long stretch on the course and the final little descent to town. Neither of these is a true downhill with a tandem bike. (We would have liked to just have a relaxing fast descent to make up some time and rest).

We decided to spin the whole race instead of pushing the big chain ring. We only used the large ring once on the first few laps. 

I believe that part of my issue is the meds I am on for the AFIB incident I had just about 2 years ago. 

My cardiologist has me on a Beta-Blocker which keeps my HR low. I think the lower HR makes it really hard to push at a hard intensity. (You really need to get your HR up if you are going to perform well in a race)

All that said, I don't think it affects me much on the long steady stuff where I go at a steady pace.

Rolling through the pits early on.

It got pretty cold out on the course in the low areas. I think we saw a low temp of 40 degrees on our computers. It felt much colder at times though. The coldest was just as the sun started to come up and then it warmed up very quickly.

I don't think Margaret complained once out there in the cold.

I would say, that I felt the best this year in the first 5 hours of the race even with the breathing issues. Our lap times would reflect that. 

Margaret was incredibly strong as usual and I have no doubt that she was carrying this old guy on much of the race.

     We went 3 laps before coming into the pits shute for a fluid pickup from Ron. We then went one more lap and had to come all the way into our parking spot to strip our warm layers off. It was getting warm fast.

My breathing had come back and I was feeling great at this point. 

We still were just trying to pace ourselves by spinning instead of pushing large gears like I am used to doing on the tandem at times.

As I have said, this course is so deceiving. It just makes you feel like you are fighting the road to get more speed. It feels like you are on a gradual climb most of the time. Others have mentioned the same feelings about the course. 

It was really nice once the sun came up and we had the layers stripped off. We had a nice break when we did that. I wolfed down some food and we got a good rest. Probably more than we should have, but good nonetheless. In hindsight, I think we rested a bit too much but we needed it.

Round and round we went, just marveling at how fast some of these racers on their time trial bikes were going as they passed us. (Maybe next time, I should see about borrowing one of my friends, high-tech carbon fiber tandems. My 50+ pound Cannondale is nice but a bit heavy.)

It was early on, that I started thinking that maybe I had not taken in enough fluid during the early morning hours. 

As it started to warm up, I was getting a very slight tinge of a cramp here and there. 

I was using my usual Tailwind Endurance Fuel mix which has a lot of electrolytes so I figured I was ok. I just could not push all that hard. Still, I kept wondering if it was the meds or just the desert. I could push if we were spinning to spin faster but I did not have the strength to push a bigger gear to make us go really fast like a tandem can do on a flat course.  I hate to say the age thing again but maybe it's as simple as that.

At the first glimmer of light, it was so amazing seeing all the giant sculptures lurking out along the course. 

Rather eerie at times to see the shadows of the sculptures made by the famous Ricardo Breceda.

As it started to warm up, we would stop every lap to get a water and fuel refill from Ron in the pit shute. 

It was great going through there with all the spectators and other racers' crews cheering you on as you came through. 

Rolling past the famous Borrego Dragon sculpted by the amazing artist Ricardo Breceda
Photo: RAAM media

Cranking through one of the flat areas
Photo: RAAM media

As the day wore on, the temperature rose quite a bit. I think I saw a high temperature of around 98 degrees registered on my bike's GPS unit. I would say it was in the 80's but the radient heat coming off the blacktop was in the 90's.

We both started suffering in the desert heat after a while so we needed to come in for a full stop in our pit. 

I started cramping when I clipped out of my pedals! It really worried me so I sat in our shaded area under our tarp, took my shoes off, and stretched a bit. I also took some Advil and guzzled a whole bottle of electrolyte solution. I sucked down another Ensure protein drink and recovered pretty quickly.

The long stop really felt good but it hurt our time. I think it was about a 30-minute rest. 

The clock does not stop when the racer stops, so every minute lost in the pits subtracts from the number of miles you can cover in the allotted race time. 

After that long stop, I believe we had about 2 hours until they put us on the short course. 

We got 2 long (18-mile) laps in after that before we were routed onto the short 4-mile loop.  

We were both feeling pretty good at that point but knew we would not make the 200-mile goal.

We reset our goal to 170 miles and pushed hard to get over that mileage.

Flying down the back stretch on the short lap
Photo: RAAM media

I think we got about 4 of the short laps in. We wanted to get as many as we could in so we pushed hard. 

Making the turn on the back side of the short loop
Photo: RAAM media

  As it grew close to 5pm, we had about 15 minutes left so I was wondering if we could get one more lap in.

We were at 176 miles and one more would get us to 180 miles. 

After calculating in my head that we had taken just over 16 minutes to do a short lap, I realized that we would not quite have enough time in 15 minutes to make it, so we came in and finished.

 

Should we have toughened up and picked up the pace to gain that minute and get that final 4 miles?

I am positive, that if I had asked Margaret to step it up a notch, she would have obliged. 

She is a beast on the back of the tandem and I feel like I have an afterburner on the back when she decides to put the "pedal to the metal" back there. 

That said, I am not sure we had it in us at that point. We were both beat.

It was a great day in the saddle.

A huge thanks to our friend Ron Iseri, who again was a crew extraordinaire. It was great fun to have him with us. 

A big thanks to all our friends who rooted us on at the event and from afar!!!!

Ron, Margaret, and I posing with the Ranchita Yeti.

Thanks for all the great support, Ron!!