It was another great race weekend in Hurricane, UT. This was my first 24 (25) hour event. I loved it just as much as I suspected I would. KC & I started talking about this a few months ago and we finalized our team just a couple of weeks ago. It was great getting to know everyone better and I'm hoping they all want to show up next year to defend our championship!

In the end we did 25 laps. The second place team got in 16. Our friend Dan was very disappointed that we didn't double their laps, he told us we really needed to try harder next time! Our whole team pulled really consistently fast laps, really unmatched by any other female racers except the SS crew (Lynda & Heather).

KC was gracious enough to do the Lemans start, so that meant when there was just 27 minutes left on the clock and we had all done 6 laps, KC was up again. We were all exhausted and knew we had the win in the bag, but KC said " you NEVER leave time on the clock". I suited up and asked if I could join her for the last "picnic" lap. We ended up pushing each other super hard and had we not stopped for our picnic, it would have been my 5th fastest lap. Yes, we are very competitive with each other, but that's what makes us good friends!

While warming up for my first lap I flatted, my sidewall patch didn't hold. So Chris threw a tube in there for me and we hoped for the best. My intention was to get fastest lap and I planned on that for my first lap. But my Crank Brothers pedal broke (it collapsed, so there was no way to clip in) near the end of the last lap. Then Lynda Wallenfells time was posted and she of course had the fastest lap. I tried again on lap 2 but ended up 48 seconds short and had the second fastest lap. Oh well, at least I lost it to Lynda, a former Scottish National XC Champion and former USA 24-hour SS solo National Champion.

Lap 3 was at dusk and amazingly beautiful. My 4th & 5th laps were pure dark and really hard to wake up for. On the 5th lap I ran into Kiki, (a solo female rider) she was standing on the trail looking quite lost. She had lost power to both of her lights, so I threw her my handlebar mounted one and took off. It was slightly harder to ride with just one, since you lose your depth of field. Lap 6 was the sunrise and once again, breathtakingly (literally, ha!) beautiful. Then we rolled out for the 7th lap (story above) and it was over. With the sun up and race over it was just happy clean up/eat/awards time. The race had Durango's catered for all of us, what a perfect touch.

Jen's husband, Shannon (co-director of PCP2P and founder of MTBracenews) was a huge help to all of us. He boiled our water, kept the bikes running, kept track of time among many other things. He wrote a great article about the race.

I drank a few redbulls in order to make the drive home and it was still sketchy. I slept 11 hours on Sunday night and now I can't wait for my next 24 hour race!