24 Hours of 9 Mile race recap...

Well, here it is. The good and the bad. I had 2 goals for this race: do as well as possible, and not to fry my body for 24 Hour Solo World's.

For those of you who have not raced at Wausau, here is alittle course overview. The laps are 12 miles in length, not 9. The "9" in the race name come from the fact that it is held at 9 Mile Forest Recreation Area. 60% of the course is rock'n single track, and the other 40% is rage'n fast XC ski trail. There is no extensive climbing, but there are some short power climbs. On average, Solo racer laps are in the 1 hour range, plus or minus a few minutes. The hardest part of the entire course is the 3 or so sections of rocks. The rocks just litter the course, and they are about the size of baseballs and basketballs. There is really no good line. You just get your speed up and roll over them. Well, sometimes you just roll over'um

As for the race, I new which locals would be tough. The non-local racer who showed was Cameron Chambers (CC). The latest 24 hour stud sponsored by Gary Fisher. I new if I could ride near CC, this would be a gauge as to how I would sit for World's cause I see him as a Top 10.

My plan for the race was to ride towards the top, then push the pace hard come night fall. CC lead from start to finish. From the start of the race till dark, I rode within 1-5 minutes per lap of him. I was feeling pretty good. I was pushing hard, but not my 100% 24 Hour pace. Come night fall, I put on my Cateye Stadium 3's and started turning laps. My night laps were consistent, and faster than the other solo racers except for CC.

At about 11:00 PM, I was riding through one of the rock gardens, when I hit a rock the wrong way, and went off balance. I went to catch my self by putting my foot down, but it slipped off one of the other rocks. Now the bad part. As a result of this, I tweeked my lower back. This was bad! Very, very bad! When this happened, I was in 2nd place overall. As a result of the lower back strain, I was unable to push hard on the cranks. Pushing the 2 x 1 hurt!

Here is the mathematical equation:
Force On Pedals + Pain + Darkness = Slowness, Possible Long Term Damage, Unable To Recover For World's

I got back to my tent, and my Mom massaged in some Ice-E-Hot. That did the trick for about 2 laps, but after that I was a hurt'n unit. I suffered out a few more laps, before I came in on my 16 and final lap. I decided to sit till the end of the race to keep from doing further damamge and risking not being able to recover for World's. So I sat for the last 6 hours, watching all the guys that were in 3rd place and below move up the standings. As for CC, he did 22 laps on the 12 mile course. If I would have kept my pace, I would have ended up at 21 laps and most likely in 2nd place. As for me I finished with 16 laps for a very disappointing 10th

Oh well, that is just how things go. Now I have to recover, train, and prepare for World's. This race just goes to show that anything can happen during an endurance event, and If you're not doing well to keep pushing hard cause something might happen to the guys ahead of you. Everything else worked flawlessly. The Giant NRS with the Fox F100X was plush, and my Cateye lights lit up Nine Mile Forest, so I could dodge the rocks and Gnomes.

Gnomes you ask? They have a Gnome festival in Wausau. It's a Wisconsin thing. I guess we'll never understand.

Up next.....24 Hour Solo World's in Whistler, B.C.