Sunday, June 29, 2008

Cranky Monkey 12 Hour Race at Quantico

(Story from Andrew's Perspective)
Friday 6/28/08 - Day before Race.

We all decided to stay the night before near the base since we had to be there at 7am for race briefing the next day. Lindsay and I left around 4 and took us two hours to get there. Traffic was horrible! When we got there, tons of people were already there. Austin was already setting up the tent. We wanted to see what the trail was like so we went for an easy ride. Unfortunately, we didn't start until 7 so we only got to see a 3 miles of the trail before we had to turn back before it turned dark. Didn't want to get disqualified for getting stuck in dark :) We headed to the hotel afterwards. We were all starving and got some chinese food. We were not called "3 Grains of Rice" for nothing:) We also worked on Lindsays bike. We were also concerned because Austin had a fever and his leg was hurting all week from insect bite at work. In addition, he messed up his shoulder the week before.

It was Saturday 6/29/08 - Race Day.

We got up at 5:45 am. Freezing from blasting the AC all night. We packed up and got to the base around 6:30. Unloaded all of stuff at tent and met at the main tent for race briefing at 7am. From 7:15 to 7:45 we got Austin setup since he was going first. The start of the race is Le Mans. This means, for the first lap, you run a certain distance before getting on your bike. I guess this helps spread out the racers so it's not so crowded at the start. The countdown starts and all the racers are off. For the run, Austin is somewhere around 10th place. Andrew starts getting his bike ready and I head over to the transition area about 30 minutes in. I was thinking I would just relax at the tent for another 1/2 hour. Then I get announcement on PA says, "Team 235, please report to the tent." It took me a few minutes to realize that it was us. It was so unexpected. The guy tells me that my teammate had broken his crank. So we had to cancel his lap and I would start. Unfortunately, when you can cancel a lap, they give you the start of time of the cancelled lap. In this case, they already tacked 30 minutes onto my lap before I even started. Also, the lady took 10 minutes to get me setup. It seems she was shocked also or didn't know what to do.

I started my First lap. I was excited. I was also fortunate in some ways because of the cancelled lap, my lap didn't have anyone around because people hadn't finished their first lap yet. I couldn't believe it but after the first hill in
the race, I was already tired. Not sure what it was, but I was struggling already. I went ahead and popped a GU pack immediately. It took about 15 minutes before I got surge of energy and then took another 15 minutes to get into a groove. This course was really hard because of the combination of short steep hills and 1/4 mile long hills. In addition, it was around 9am and started to feel the humidity already. It was going to be a tough day. Halfway through the course, I was shocked to see some riders. I thought they would've finished by now. But these people were walking down the hill. I started to feel surge of energy because I felt really fast to catch up with someone and I was starting 30 minutes back. I was realizing biking through winter had paid off because I was able to rebound fairly quickly after a tough climb. Around mile 9 though, I started cramping which is unusual for me. I had to walk any hills on last mile. After finishing my lap, I was so tired that I didn't know if I could do another one.

Lindsay and Austin do their first lap. My second lap was more exciting. I felt more energy and was familiar with trail now. I start going fairly fast pace and passing several people. However, around mile 6 started really slowing. Realizing that I went too fast first 1/2 of loop. I also started cramping again around mile 8. Had to walk several sections of last two miles.

Before starting lap three, my wife, son, and Austin's wife came. It was refreshing to see them. They brought some refreshment and boiled eggs. I was taking nutrients from all over the place just get more energy. Oh, on the last lap, I needed to be in by 7pm because it was the cut off time for last lap. I started cramping and had to stop and rest several times on last couple miles. It was funny because there was a group of us just hanging out because eveyrone was cramping and couldn't move. When I came in, I missed the cut off by only 3 minutes. Oh well.

After all the results were in, we still got 3rd place....Yahoo!!!

Picture of top 4 teams getting awards in our division. Lindsay had to leave early so he wasn't in picture.


Austin and Andrew smiling with their trophies and prizes.


Austin, Andrew, and Lindsay


Our Tent!




The beginning of the race. For the first lap, one person from team must run 400 yards, then pick up bike and start riding (Le Mans Style). Austin kindly volunteered :)


After the run, they pick up their bikes in this field.


Video of area.


Video of start of race


Cam Videos while during the race. I divided into two videos because of size. Warning: It's a little shaky.



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