24 Hours of Erock

This weekend, Ben participated in the 24 Hrs of Erock race down near Castle Rock, Colorado. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's twenty four hours of riding a mountain bike (single speed, mind you) with little or no rest.
Ben has always performed well in endurance sports--like hiking, trail running, and mountain biking--pretty much tromping all over my best efforts to maintain any activity longer than four hours at a respectable pace.  We joke (well, maybe it's just my joke) that the only way he can beat me during a run is if its an endurance race at altitude. (And, guess what? We'll find out soon.) And over the last few years he's talked a lot about his desire to compete in these types of races. Realizing where his talents lie, I supported this--afterall, I am an athlete/exercise physiologist who loves a good race of any sort--and gave him, I think, that vote of confidence that you sometimes need to fulfill your wants and desires. During the last year, things have come together for Ben: he's once again found a sport that he is passionate about, he's been injury-free for a significant enough period of time to put in the beginnings of a solid training plan needed to be competitive in endurance racing, and he's been sponsored by a local company looking to form a mountain biking team.
The race this weekend was a "sampling", as he calls it, of what an endurance race should feel like. Having a goal of hitting 24 laps in 24 hours, he packed his single speed 29er, gathered a race-support crew together to help feed him through the night, and hit the road for Castle Rock to give this thing called endurance racing, but what I call plain old madness, a go.

Here he is before the race in good spirits.

 Base camp and fuel station.

And here, Erock in action.

On your marks, get set, GO!

The riders, kickin' up dust along the way around the 8.25 mile loop.

Here are some riders who've finished the loop and are now heading into the tent to scan through and either hand-off to a teammate or continue on for another lap.

Around and around Ben goes, taking only a minute or two in between each lap to pick up food and beverages to consume along the way. Not surprisingly, Ben consistently stuck to 37-41 minute laps throughout most of the night.

The sun setting on the race.

After dark, our first round of support showed up to help Ben and allow me to get a little shut-eye. A HUGE thanks to everyone who came out and especially to Kory, Jamie, Tom, Crystal (and Hudson!) for staying through a good chunk of the night.
I picked up again around 4:30am and as Ben was starting his 11th lap. During the night, he took an hour break between laps but otherwise steadily clicked off laps.

Ben completed 12 laps in 11 hours. Halfway there by sunrise.

The blasted train... going by once or twice an hour for 24 hours (you do the math).

One of only two naps he took while riding.

More race support -- Trent and Locke. Thanks guys!!

Eventually the fatigue from being awake for more than 24 hours began to wear on B. and the rest periods steadily increased. Here, we're about 20 hours and 19 laps in and with four hours and 5 laps left, Ben knows it's possible to hit his goal, but not without a lot of effort and little rest on his part. His lap times have increased some to 45 minute laps, but in all reality he's staying really strong while on the bike.
Despite my best efforts to nudge him back on the bike, he's a little delirious and decides that a nap is in order, and after a two-hour rest (and 40 minute nap) he's back on the bike with two hours left to ride.

Looking too good for 20 laps...

With a little more than an hour before the race ends, Ben decides to call it at 20 laps. A great effort, overall!

Look at this smiling face! Twenty four hours and 165 miles of riding on a single speed mountain bike and he's smiling!

And I'm smiling too because it means I can sleep. :)

With the race under his belt, Ben feels surprisingly good. We're still catching up on sleep but he reports little to no muscle soreness. The endurance race is something very different from anything I'm familiar with; it didn't seem to be about the lap times but more about who could manage the least amount of rest between laps. Ben was 8th of 14 solo men. He learned a lot during this race "sampling" and less than 24 hours since he finished, he's already talking about the next one (God help me!).

An amazing effort by an amazing guy!