L4adventures: 24 Hours of Georgia (Sunday)

Cory had been flying around the trail and moving up fast in the standings. Knowing his speed and talent I had no doubt he would be in the top spot by the end of the night. But.....sometime between having his light go out repeatedly (at one point someone gave him a pen light, that he held in his mouth as he rode and one of the volunteers asked, "is that guy smoking a cigar?"), getting his arms pretty beaten up on the granite descents, then having a minor stomach issue, his mind said that was enough and he headed off to the car to sleep. He has proven that he has the legs for endurance races on many occasions, so that was a bummer.

Love this pic of Cory at Nationals. (someone needs to breathe through his nose......)

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Lap 8
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So, I was off again and I had kept the little light on my helmet and just prayed it would last. It did, yeah! Although I was a little bummed that I could have used this light from the beginning and actually ridden through the night. Ah, well, I'm still excited that they have made such a small and light weight light that shines so bright that I can use it on the trail!

On this lap I came across another guy who had crashed and broke his light. I gave him my camp light and he used it to get back to his pit.
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Lap 9
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When I got back in, my legs still felt great and I wanted to head out again. It was still dark in the woods and Kenny told me I needed to keep a light on just in case, so I made a dumb mistake and went to get my battery and changed helmets/lights instead of leaving on my little light. It was light within 15 minutes and the light change had wasted time and added weight. Oh, well I was having fun and Shey was worried about me at home, so he drove over to check on me and brought me doughnuts! What an awesome guy!! The lap was very fun and I was still feeling very good. What a pleasant surprise.

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After Lap 9 I had the choice to try to get in a lap in one and a half hours or call it a day. Shey had left to drive to the cyclocross race and I couldn't do the math in my head. I found Cory and he asked me if it would change my standings. No it wouldn't, but I did want to do one more lap. So, I had the choice to go out again and possibly not make it back in my the cut-off or take the time to pack up my stuff and be ready to leave after the awards ceremony. Cory helped me make the decision and I called it a day. Good choice.

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So, all in all, it was 108 miles of some really great trail and I felt better than I thought I would. No soreness the next day and I just feel like I need to catch up on some sleep. I got up at 5am to take Everett back up to KSU and wasn't too tired, so that was good. I had the BEST support anyone could ask for and I am extremely happy to have those miles on these legs!

Chainbuster and Dirty Spokes are amazing with their on the hour results and their timely podium. No waiting around for hours here! Nice! And the results are posted immediately on their web site. Very cool!

Huge thanks to all the volunteers that came out to work at the race. There were guys all over the place helping out. Marcia and Alan were rolling support. There was neutral support on the trail and neutral mechanical support at the start/finish. Nite Rider was there to charge our lights, Infinite nutrition offered sports drink for all the racers and there was food available. Camp fires were everywhere and each time I came through, the scoring guys had a word of encouragement. Perfect!

The Hub team won the 5 man team.