12 Hours of Dauset

Whew! What a fun day in the woods! Carey, Julia, Kim and I decided that instead of racing for 12 hours straight, that it was much better to only race for three and then sit around and relax for the other nine. With that in mind, we signed up as a 4 person team in the coed division, as the all female teams were tossed in with the mixed teams. No worries though, as we figured we could hold our own.

My choice of weapon for the day was my IF Titanium Singlespeed. The laps were fast and twisty, with only a few climbs on the back half of the course. The singlespeed turned out to be a great choice, as not only did it keep my efforts consistent, I was able to haul ass up the climbs and on the flats.

I did the first lap, including the run to the bikes. There was a prime for the first man and woman to their bikes, so I picked up a cool pair of Tifosi glasses. Pink even to match the pink kit I donned for the day. The first lap was pretty intense...as I was pretty close to the front of the race with lots of fast guys behind me that didn't run fast enough. I followed along in the train, and my singlespeed gearing was working quite nicely. A couple of guys made some dicey passes but I guess that's the price you pay when you hang with the boys. When I hit the climbs, I was amazed at how fast I was able (or I should say HAD to) ride up them. I flew by a bunch of guys at about twice their speed. It was freakin' awesome! My lap time was 49 minutes and change, so after that I decided that I was definitely going to keep doing laps on the singlespeed. I felt good the entire race, and had very consistent day laps, all in the 49 minute range, and a night lap that was only a couple minutes slower.

We had a pretty good battle going on with another team, however, they had 3 guys that were riding a minute or two faster than us every lap. Their female was not very fast, so we gained time back when she rode a lap. Unfortunately she only rode two laps, and by the last lap (after Carey and I had turned our final laps...some pretty fast night laps) we were still 5 minutes down. We sent Kim on the final lap thinking they COULD have a flat or mechanical, you never know, but had kind of figured we'd end up in second place. Apparently the other team's rider double flatted about halfway through the course. Kim passed him as he was on the side of the trail, and took off excited and all in a frenzy. Shortly after, her light crapped out, so she was worried about being caught. Meanwhile, we were all standing at the finish line filled with anticipation as to what was going on. Finally, after being out for over an hour, Kim came through and secured us first place in the Coed division.

Victory sure was sweet!