February 15th

This year I took a departure from my usual virtual cycling doldrums courtesy of Minnesota’s winter and instead flew down to Arizona for a quick jaunt with my friend and former teammate Noah.

Earlier this winter I managed to snag a spot at 24 Hours of Old Pueblo, one of the longest running 24 hour mountain bike races in the country. Because it’s in Arizona during the middle of my semester there were going to be some logistical hurdles. It was my first time flying with my bike (thank you Bruce for lending me the bag) and it was also only my second time flying by myself.

I hadn’t seen Noah since he left Minnesota and now he definitely looked like someone who lived out in the desert in the best way possible. He picked me and all my bags up in his van and we drove back to his house in Phoenix where we built up my bike. We also managed to sneak in a ride on some trails before we lost all daylight on the way back into the city. Desert riding is completely different and it took my skills a little while to catchup from all the time on the trainer. I also managed to catch my first case of food poisoning over some old rice while I stayed with him, the repercussions would affect me for the rest of the trip.

We drove down to the race venue to find it already packed with folks who had been partying the entire week. After some serious orienteering, Noah and I found a perfect little spot next to my coach’s van, set up our tent and cleaned off our bikes from the dirt road we had to take to get into the venue.

The race itself starts off with a Lemans style start and I got blisters on both of my heels as a result. Then after weaving my way through the crowd of people, the race actually begins and everyone including myself is riding way too hard. But, it was fun to work my way up into the top 5 for the Solo category and be in sight of the leaders. That was before my stomach said, “whoah buddy, you just had food poisoning and we aren’t ready for the carbs yet”. I made it about 5 laps of the 16 mile course before I had to take a break and attempt to get some calories in. I would follow this pattern of doing 1 or two laps and then taking a significant break until about midnight and then I went to bed.

Only, Noah had also gotten food poisoning and we had already put our tent away thinking we would be up all night. He was already asleep and I had to scramble to find somewhere to sleep too. I ended up sleeping on a cot open to the elements with as many layers as I had and a lightweight sleeping bag. I woke up the next morning at around 6 am at the same exact time that my coach did as well and we both looked at each other knowing each of us had a rough go of the race this year. I did a couple of more laps to round out the weekend but I definitely left a lot out there on the table. I will be back for sure.