weekend report: 24 hours of 9 mile

saturday was the national 24 hour championships at nine mile in wausau, wisconsin. it was hot, dusty, and a completely good time. as a bonus, the participating wednesday mtb girls all made it to the podium.

we (me, dana, janet and nicole, in that order) got a respectable 2nd in the 12 hour women's team event. good job us! we came home with some awesome mugs and swag.

i was happy to be the starter; i like running, even if it's in bike shoes. i got off to a good start, only to play the waiting game at the entrance to the first bit of single track. the first couple sections of singletrack were slow, but eventually everyone got spread out and riding was good. there were only a couple of places where i had to get off the bike and walk, so i was pleased with my riding. riding first in the order meant that i was done first; we each did 2 laps, going through the rotation twice. i was really glad to be the first one finished, but then kind of felt like a weenie because i was putting my bike away when some people were racing for 16 more hours. but it gave me time to concentrate on "rehydrating" and cheering, so it was all good.

valerie got an awesome 2nd place finish in the 12 hour women's solo event. to do that, she rode about 100 miles. wow. good job, valerie!

lynn, husband josh, carrie and husband barry totally annihilated the competition in the 24 hour coed open division. they did four more laps than the 2nd place team (note: these are 14+ mile laps). four. wow. if you had blogs, i'd e-stalk you! ;)

as has become custom, i randomly adopted someone to be my pony (think horse racing) and made a concerted effort to cheer for her.* this time it was #2, a women's solo championship racer whose camp was across the way from us. "you finished another lap already? way to go!" "woo hoo! nice job 2!" "you're heading out for another lap?!" "good job!" "go #2!" from the race results, i see i was cheering on stacey la presta, who got 5th place. good job, stacey!

we also provided extra amounts of cheering** for #130, the solo freak man racer who was next to us. race results show that he is adam beien.*** we owe you a cake, i guess; we'll have one for you next year. good job, adam!

artifacts from the race include: sore muscles, exhaustion, dehydration, sore throat (from all the dust and cheering), sunburned ears, black snot and good memories. i can't wait to do it again.


*she actually thanked us on sunday for the cheering, and said it really helped.
**not to be confused with heckling ("we baked you a cake. but we ate it.")
***adam thanked us for the support, too.