72 Hrs of Growth

The idea of this was conceived at mountain bike nationals and finalized the week after. Two weeks later, I'm here, sitting on my first of three flights to Virgin, Utah for the 25 Hours of Frog Hollow. My day started off normal... I was up at 7 to get ready for class, eat breakfast, and go to my Humanities class. I had the weird feeling of "it's is an average morning of classes" ...it didn't feel like tonight I was going to be with my parents in Utah prepping for the race that starts tomorrow. That is still one that hasn't settled with me fully... I'm racing TOMORROW! I knew this weekend would be a blur, but man it is starting off faster than I was expecting. The day of travel was long and well ended by getting picked up at the St. George airport by my parents! It was late and I wanted to eat and sleep in prep for tomorrow morning, even though I was excited to see my parents and I could have stayed up all nigh talking with them.

The race plan was kinda comical how it evolved. My Dad got to the race venue, Frog Town, Thursday with plenty of time to preride and update me briefly on the course conditions. Thomas, my duo teammate, got there Friday mid day, prerode the course and talked some strategy with my Dad. Who then verified and shared the strategy for Thomas and my duo over the phone as I walk through the Phoenix airport to my next flight. Talking with him, I liked the plan of Thomas putting in three solid laps to start and then me jumping in for a couple of my laps. This would give me more time to settle in and acclimate before jumping straight into the race. I knew I would be able to preride, but honestly that didn't bother me... I haven't ridden the course in two years yet I was still able to visualize the whole course, down to where the soft spots were on the first single track and the best lines through the rocks were, as if I rode it yesterday (I guess that's what happens after riding it over 30 times, haha).

I woke up Saturday morning about an hour and a half before the race start. I got to finally say "Hi" to Thomas and the Fuller clan as well as my friends the Bishop family, since I got to camp around 11:30 the night before and everyone was asleep. After a good breakfast the race started.

Thomas clocked three solid laps all under a hour to start off our race. He put us in a good spot to start and then it was my turn to go out for three laps. The course was just as I remembered it and in great condition like Dad had told me. I was pleased with how my body felt even after taking a chunk of time off the bike before this race. I finished up my third lap, passed the baton on to Thomas and he began his next three laps taking us into the night.

By the time Thomas was done with his third lap it was dark. I wired up my lights, set up some music for my ride, passed the baton once more, and headed off into the night. I forgot how fun it can be riding at night... just you, your bike, and a narrow beam of light showing you your path. I rode my first lap solo, jamming to some tunes and enjoying the cool air.

The single track decent was a blast by headlight even though I got a little too speed happy flying into multiple mean rock gardens and mashing my wheels into the rocks that were now much harder to see with my lights. I hit a few too many rocks in the wrong direction, slightly burped my rear wheel and had to ride in from my first lap with a going flat wheel.

The stop was fast! Both my Dad and Michael Fuller, Thomas's dad, worked to get new Stan's in my tire fill in back up and clean/lub my chain. I was back riding in minutes and my Dad joined me on this lap. We cruised through the lap with no more issues and passed the baton off to Thomas for his next two laps. I had two hours to eat, clean my bike, rest, and get ready for when Thomas got back.

After eating dinner I took a one hour nap, before needing to get up to get re-kited up. Waking up when I wanted to just keep sleeping and knowing I was bound for two more cold laps was not the easiest thing I've done. Nevertheless, I got up, got ready, and started riding. Dad was with me again which was helpful. By the time we finished my first lap it was midnight and time for Frog Hollow's famous "midnight pie". After grabbing a piece we were off to the second lap.

Thomas went out for the next two laps and I did another two laps after him to finish up the night laps. The sun came up as Thomas rode another two laps and I continued my pattern of eating and taking an hour nap while he was out.

We had our last baton pass and I left for the last lap. I felt surprisingly fresh for how many hours of the race were already done. It was the morning sun I'm sure... I finished the lap at 25 hours and 3 minutes, only missing the cutoff for another lap by three minutes. I knew we had won. Even though the middle of the night we were told we were in the lead, but the live timing was quite confusing and we didn't know exactly how much we won by until a little later. At one point the officials told Michael that we were up six laps on third but would not tell him about second place in response to the question of how many laps we were up by. Whatever that was didn't matter. We were in the lead and knew we would keep it if we just kept riding laps. Overall we had fifteen minutes - at most - of time when neither Thomas or I were not riding. We ended up with 22 laps total. Thomas rode twelve and I ten. We won the co-ed duo category by four laps (and would have placed second in the men's duo category).

The race is a wrap and now time to head back to school. I'm catching my first flight this afternoon at 5:00 pm and am in for a red eye flight to get me back to campus tomorrow (Monday) morning at around 9:30 for classes. Life keeps on moving along and it's time to get homework done and catch up on sleep.

During my first layover on my flight out to Frog Hollow I was talking with my Dad about my school work, what I had to get done, and my planned out sleep schedule once I got back to Milligan. What he said to me pretty much sums this weekend up: "You do something like this and it may seem like misery and you wonder why you do it to yourself, but once it's all over you will be searching out another time to do it all over again."

It's a slight addiction of mine... seeing how I can push myself and achieve some pretty sick feats. I hope I never loose that, but that it only grows stronger.