Results are in - SHIFTLESS! rocked co-ed duo

For two non-pros on singlespeeds, team SHIFTLESS! rocked 24HiTOP. The down and dirty is that we placed 7th out of about 30 teams. The top 5 teams were comprised of 4 full on pro teams. The 5th place team - Kim and Jan Bear, from Santa Fe, NM was essentially a pro team. Kim sandbags the local NMORS series as a sport rider, but always turns times consistent with the experts and pro classes. My understanding is Jan was a former pro rider and now races other classes to avoid real competition. Regardless, SHIFTLESS! was the only team in the top 10 co-ed duo that were racing one gear!!
We ran 15 laps, and had a 16th in us, but were not going to displace the 5th place team, so decided to enjoy the noon hour instead of kill ourselves. Marc and I have this elaborate excel spreadsheet with 7 different lap scenarios in it. We decided pre-race on one scenarion and hoped for a second one where Marc had himself a little faster on average than last year. We never changed the average lap times for me in any scenario. Much to our delight we ran about 30 minutes ahead of our chosen scenario - putting us in a position to get 16 laps. We had only one missed transition - and that's because on my 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. double I called in as I went out for the second lap from the port-o-let sick as heck. I was sure I'd run VERY slow, blowing all the ground I had gained with decent first 4 laps. After walking all the bitches because I was in a serious pain cave, and have some mysterious female rider follow me, stop every time I stopped, and watch me like a hawk through the Corral and Rattlesnake trails up to the begining of his/hers trail, I ended up with a lap within what we though would be my worst time of the night. I was pleased, Marc was surprised I was in the exchange so fast after calling in struggling. The mystery lady we believe was one of the many medical personnel riding the course looking for people just like me - puking, delirious, and clearly not coping. Whoever you were mystery rider, thanks - After you saw me stop to eat, I came around the otherside and got another wind.
Also thanks to the geared guy who silently rode up behind me on the 3rd or 4th bitch and gave me the little tiny push that prevented me from bailing and walking the last 5 feet of that second hump on that bitch. As I yelled out to you - you rock!!
I have to say that this was the hardest race for me ever. I've had some tough times at 24 hour races, but this beat them all. I once again got nauseous. I think it was the whole on the bike, off the bike, trying to eat and digest before having to ride again thing. Solo is much easier for some reason. Marc was WAY faster than I, so my "rest" times were very short compared to what he got due to my relative slowness. Moreover, I had almost no support, so I got little rest. Marc's gal Sandy was a saint and stayed up to help me several times and my girl did what she could while riding for her own team and managing her own team. Despite their help, I got like 12 minutes of shut-eye and little time to just sit and rest.
I have declared - probably just to go back on my declaration - that I will not race 24 hour races for awhile. I'm watching all these pros and all their support. I'm tired of going early to get a spot close to the venue, tired of riding my butt off and taking "rest" time to change lights, wipe down chains, change gears, make food, eat, etc. I'll race a 24 again, as I do enjoy the torture they provide, but only if I get some dedicated support. Until then, I'll come crew for friends and teammates. See you all at the "shorter" races!
And a huge thanks to Marc for making this a truly good experience! I can think of no other guy I'd ride with (other than El Freako from Rico) and I still feel that way!! You were one hell of a teammate!!

Countdown

Well, it's the final hours before I head over, car packed like I'm fleeing with all my worldly possessions, to Tucson to 24 HiTOP. Not sure weather we will go in Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning. Appears Oracle (closer to venue than Tucson) has been getting some very wintery weather. As usualy the weather looks likely to be crap for this event.
Everyone can "watch" the results from the website. Just click the link for realtime results. I'm racing in the co-ed duo category, team name SHIFTLESS! J is racing a 4 person female team named the Hooey Voodoos.
Spent the entire last 2 weekends prepping gear, spening too much money on gear, and packing. The amount of crap to do for these is ridiculous. This could be the last 24 for me for a little while. I may just race the NMES events and 12 hour events. Less preparing, more fun.
Today I have a long list of odds and ends to wrap up. Getting things done for work - both the practice and teaching. Blood draw in preparation for my three month check-up to see if these meds for the thyrois disease are working at all at the higher dosage. Most importantly I have to go get P.I.T.A. from the shop - P.I.T.A. is the new name for the Siren. Every ride on that thing has been one problem or another. Currently the chain tension will not hold with the Ahrens sliders. It either goes too slack dropping the chain into the rear spokes or too tight. I have yet to figure out what I did to destroy my new bike karma, but its got to be something bad for horizontal sliders to move backwards and tighten tension. I have yet to understand how thats even possible, although Physics was not a strong subject for me. Still -
Hopefully the guys at Bikeworks got it figured out and get me in running order so I can ride the darn thing worry free and mechanical free. Well, my list of things to do is not getting shorter, so I better quite playing around here. See you next week after the suffer-fest!

A good night's sleep

A good night's sleep, or even a crappy one, will clear the pre-race stresses. Team SHIFTLESS! has narrowed down their plan of attack. My most excellent race partner, who has most excellent math and excel spreadsheet skills created 8 scenarios for lap times.
Now I know we all know these are mere predictions for what we would like the perfect world to provide us during a race. And I do carry Buddah in my jersey pocket.....
But regardless, we have identified pros and cons of lap times, traffic, transitions, and changing of light batteries. We are back in sync now. See ya on the starting line.

My momma always warned me

Reason # 104 not to "do" boys: My momma always warned me.. or maybe it was my Dad. Oh, wait the last warning came from my sister. Yeah that's right, my sister warned me about boys. She's married to one, so she ought to know, right? So, this week despite what I though was a very simple contract with a bunch of local boys - I now realize boys can't read - I was asked what camp kitchen I was providing 6+ boys. So I had to repeat myself, I'm no boys mom, sister, girlfriend, or mother. So at 24HiTOP boys bring their own gear and care for themselves. I will do my best to "hold" camp space, but I will NOT do anything else for boys.
Finished with boy drama - no wait, just when you though you were in the clear...boy thinks you can ride faster than him, despite lots of online statistical information (boys live by that, correct?) and your telling boy (we all know they don't hear girls, but they should get the stats right?) boy wants me to ride faster than him. So at this moment I declare 24HiTOP off next year's ride list. If I could I would beg out this year - well, ok we all know me, no I wouldn't - but come on.
So, gals - please redeem my love for 24HiTOP for next year.....