   September 3, 2000 |
| Sarah Frost's |
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24
Hours of Allamuchy
Stanhope, NJ |
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 Aaron Redsicker ACR (Amber Cycle Racing) 134 miles - 12 laps by 10:22 am!! |
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1st
Place Solo |
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INTERVIEW
Who
put the Albatross around our Neck? Old
man and the mountain 24 Hours of Allamuchy There seems to have been a pretty good turn out for Allamuchy this year. Sara Frost and her crew kept things under control and ran a perfectly organized race. The course caught a lot of racers off-guard. It was much more difficult this year as there was a boundary problem with adjoining properties and the course had to be rerouted at the last minute. It was very challenging with several tough sections including a treacherous high speed gradual downhill complete with a rocky stream crossing at the bottom. Also there were a few mud sections to keep things interesting. The climbing didn't seem too bad except for the first hill out of the transition area but there was actually plenty of climbing to be had. It was subtle climbing at different points throughout the 11.2 mile course. There were whispers of "this is almost as tough as Snowshoe" from some racers. I think Snowshoe was tougher from what I have heard but Allamuchy had it's share of slippery off-chamber roots and rocks. Towards the end of each lap there was about a mile of high speed fire road with a couple of rocky sections which made the end of each lap exciting. This, combined with the cheers from the spectators and the fatigue of a 24 hour race was intoxicating. I apologize for the limited number of pictures from this event (I was busy racing). We'll do better next year. We did an interview with the 1st Place Overall Solo Men Aaron Redsicker ACR (Amber Cycle Racing) who won the event hands down and probably could have done two more laps! We hope to track down the solo women winner and catch her interview along with perhaps a few other team captains. Sofa King Fast (Craig
Shaffer, Lyn Shaffer, Nick Shaffer, Dan Lachman, Tim Kane)
won the 5 Person Team event in a very close race (at one point they
were only 4 minutes up). Check out team captain Craig Shaffer's interview.
Under the circumstances, the coverage of this event will be different this year. I wasn't going to write about myself ( I won my age group 45-49) but it was such a weird race for me that I am writing this to entertain fellow racers and mountain bike enthusiasts and of course, to brag a little bit. There will be other stories from other people included on this news page as we receive them. I met Sarah Frost for the first time as I was lying down on the walkway between the start line and the pavilion before the start of the race and she suggested I move so as not to be walked over. By the time I got up (I was tired because I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before the race) it was time to go to the starting line anyway. Sorry about that Sarah. This was my first 24 hour race and the plan was to ride a well-paced, smooth race and stay on the bike as long as possible. The first lap I thought I was going as slow as I could clocking in at 1 hour 32 minutes. I hadn't pre-ridden the course and told Tyler Keith (my excellent support crew) that I could maintain this speed all night, and whomever said this course was easy was out of their mind. I had been extremely busy with my day job lately and building this site and had trained very little this year. I doubt I would have attempted this race if I knew how tough the course was going to be. |
I changed shorts and socks and took off on my second lap with 3 GUs and two bottles of Cytomax. I was on the way to another evenly paced lap until I tried the wrong line out of an extended water crossing that had rocks on the other side. I have ridden for many a mile on the trail and never had a crank arm break completely off. That's what happened as I took the wrong line and smacked the pedal on a rock. The left crank was now about 2 inches long. I pulled the pedal off my shoe and put it in my jersey and a fellow racer suggested I go backwards a few hundred yards to a fire road and save a mile in the trek back to the transition area. Not thinking I went backwards for about 200 yards then realized (duh uh....) that I was still racing as I had brought a spare bike. So I turned around and pedaled with one leg on the flats and the downhills for a little over 3 miles. This took a lot of energy but kept me in the race. It seemed like forever but I finally got back to the transition area and switched bikes. I intended to only scavenge parts from my other bike and hadn't ridden it for a while not realizing that the gears were skipping due to sprocket wear. For the next 100 miles I would have a governor. Anytime I pushed too hard..... I would have to get off and walk instead of overexerting. I had knobbies on the replacement bike and a newer Headshock (I ride Cannondale 2000s) so it was much smoother than my race bike even if it was a bit heavier. My tool pouch which attaches to my seat was ready to fall off before the race so I had purchased a new Blackburn. On lap 3 or 4 Tyler noticed that it had not been zipped-up and my superflate, tube, speedstick and extra CO2 cartridge fell out. He managed to find me one of everything and we reloaded taking great care to make sure the zipper was zipped-up next lap. To our amazement, when I pulled in for my next lap the bag was totally empty again and had unzipped itself most likely from the vibration of the technical course. I then did several laps without a superflate or tire levers but did carry an extra tube in my jersey. On my second night lap I was able to borrow yet another superflate (thank you Paul Gassler) and all that I was missing at that point would be a tire lever. Needless to say I rode conservatively so as not to flat for several laps. I was trying to do nice even laps but when I saw different team mates from my former team (Wooden Wheels) pass me I would try to hang with them (if it was on a downhill) for a little while. Then I would come to my senses and back off to a more relaxed pace. It was interesting how I went through feeling great to hitting the wall like I never hit it before..... we'll get to that. I made the mistake of not bringing my camelback (especially for the night laps when one water bottle holder was taken up by the battery) and had to stuff everything into my jersey pockets. I actually had to stop after fatigue set in just to be able to reach around and pull out my second water bottle from my jersey to take a drink at night. I had brought 8 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a few peanut butter Cliff bars but got sick of the peanut butter and jelly after managing to eat about 4 1/2 (or less) in between laps while lying flat on the gravel road for a few minutes. Tyler was essential as there is no way I could have kept myself organized once serious fatigue set in. He would tell me the simplest things like.... go get your light checked and deal with your baton... and he would service the bike each lap making sure I had everything I needed to continue. We were both new to this game but he seemed like he had been doing it for years. At one point during the night in the transition area, I was asked how I was doing and it took me several seconds to respond. After that Tyler decided that he would force me to take a break next lap even though I insisted that he bring my stuff to the transition area so that I could continue without a break. He said he'd cook some noodles and since I had been starving for the previous 3 laps before my break, all I could think about were those noodles towards the end of whatever night lap it was around 2:00 am. |
When I got in he was empty handed and therefore I had no choice but to take a break which I anticipated would be only 30 minutes, however it turned out to be one hour. I walked up to the tent and a friend prepared a waterbottle of Metabolol II and chef Tyler served up his noodles. Then I tried to sleep for an hour but just laid there resting my body inside the tent. Realizing that I wanted to do 4 more laps I figured I better get back into the race and start my 8th lap. After walking up the first hill (I had been able to ride it for two or three laps) I had to start pedaling the bike again, my legs were OK but my butt was so sore I thought I would have to stand up for the whole lap. I slowly allowed my butt to touch the seat but it was like testing an electric stove burner to see if it was hot. Eventually I just sat down and strangely enough by the last two laps it was as if I was sitting on a sofa watching TV..... I guess the pain was greater elsewhere or I just got to that next mental level and focused on something else. Before the race I went out and got another whole lighting system because I was told by Niterider that I had to have the exact battery for my system. Kelly Keith just about forced his battery on me although I didn't think I would need it. Good thing! At the 3 mile mark my light (Digital Pro Dual Light) went on reserve. That caused me to run into mud and take the wrong lines for 3/4s of a lap. Kelly's battery saved me in that I had proper lighting for the other night laps thanks to having two properly functioning batteries. I was starting to get annoyed at these strange mechanical problems throughout the race. Then my most serious problem occurred at the end of the 9th lap and I had no one to blame but myself. I ran out of my Cytomax because I had not brought enough (I brought 3 gallons) so Tyler switched me over to pure Gatorade. I found out later that a friend could have mixed up plenty of Cytomax for me but I didn't think to ask. During lap 10 the Gatorade and GU mix almost made me sick. I drank as little Gatorade as I could but forced myself to drink it for fear of dehydration even though I knew I was in danger of getting sick. When I came in for my last lap I told Tyler to give me pure water so I could flush the Gatorade out of my system. I drank a lot of water at the transition area and Tyler sent me off with two full bottles of pure water. Problem was I didn't drink enough the lap before and tried to make up for it on this lap. I ran completely out of water at the 5 mile mark and started getting dizzy and stopped perspiring. I felt so bad and was going so slow I thought I would see someone back-tracking on the trail any minute to see if I was still alive. I had also run out of GU as I was downing everything I could to get myself through this last lap. Dan Chopko very wisely offered me extra gels and water before I started my last lap but I turned him down. That was a big mistake. I had visions of someone sweeping the course hours later and finding me unconscious, so at the next creek crossing I filled up my water bottles with water. The water was very green but was at least running and less green at the point where I filled up my bottles. I drank one completely down immediately and went on my way with two full bottles. This revived me enough to finish my lap. Much to my surprise close to the end of the lap from behind came two racers.... male and female. I asked the first one (Beak or Peak) I can't remember his name if he had any GU or Power Gels and he was very kind and had me unzip his camelback and spill half of the contents on the ground while trying to get a Power Gel. I wasn't able to zip it back for him although I tried as hard as I could. He apologized for asking me to do such a technical task and said he could do it himself. Then we all three trudged in towards the finish not knowing that we were the last three racers on the course. After being revived by the Power Gel I felt like I could have dropped one of the racers but held back thankful just to finish the lap. When I pulled up to the finish the crowd had assembled for awards (I thought they would have already gone home by then) and the whole crowd was on its feet shouting my name and clapping and yelling "put the bike down". For ten laps I had gone past the location where they were telling me to do this and in my fatigued state I wasn't sure if I had died and this was an illusion. However, I finally figured out that I was supposed to walk to the transition area and turn in my baton. Sarah Frost shook my hand and congratulated me and Tyler found the need to run (not walk) and get me a lawn chair. I stayed on the bike for about 22 hours and covered 123 miles. The last lap was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It was also inspiring to find out that Aaron Redsicker finished his 12th lap at 10:32 (with a 10 minute credit for helping a fellow racer which really means 10:22) taking only 5 minute breaks and covering 134 miles and could have done two more laps if necessary. It was an interesting experience and I hope to do more of these solo endurance events when I recover 5 years from now. Feel free to send in your 24 Hours of Allamuchy reports to bill@mountainbikeracer.com
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