By Sean McDevitt
The Return
At noon on Saturday February 15th, outside of Tucson, Arizona, I ran down a dirt road with a thousand other bike racers. I was racing in the worlds largest 24 hour mountain bike race solo; 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. Can a product developer/designer be competitive with world class athletes? Prepared with months of structured training, seasoned with a year of 24 hour racing, I had come with the confidence that I could do more than survive riding my mountain bike for 24 hours; I was aiming for a top 10 finish.
The Preparation
I am not a full time pro-mountain biker; I have a full time day job as a product developer/designer at Mountain Hardwear. I have fallen into the pattern of doing 3-4 24 solo mountain bike races per year. My training consists of riding 30 minutes to work, riding at lunch for a hour, 30 minutes home then a 2 hour night ride on my mountain bike. I ride 6 days a week, about 20 hours, come rain, sleet or snow. The weeks of rain and abnormally low temperatures have definitely put up the question "How bad do you want it?" As I pedaled my S08 Cannondale Carbon Scalped through patches of ice and snow on the closed road of Mt Abel the day after Christmas, I guess I wanted it bad.
The Race
As the remnants of a 2 day long snow storm melted away; us riders lined up our bikes and took our place for the Lemans style running start. I ran the ΒΌ mile to my bike I trying to remember that I had to keep a pace that I could sustain for 24 hours. On the first lap I slogged through the muddy 17 mile course in about 1 and 30 minutes. As night fell I felt good getting in 4 laps/ 68 miles. After some real food, I put on lights and got ready for the gut check that was sure to come.
The Redemption
The story line in past 24 hour races is I ride all day, get tired, wreck around 2 am in some scary dark corner of the course. That is when my courage as failed me. This time I wrecked at 11pm, and then had some dark times when I fell over on a simple corner out of shear exhaustion around 3 am. This time I found my answer for crisis of faith that arises in the lonely hypoglycemic moments in the darkness. Some use love, hate or regret as motivation to get through the dark times talking to your soul. Usually I am quite the cerebral person, but in racing 24 solo, I have found solace in turning off parts of my brain, "don't think just pedal" became my mantra.
The End Game
Morning came as a relief as I pedaled round the course. I started to speed up to finish the race strongly; I figured I could do about 12 laps around 200 miles. A double century on my mountain bike, I could be happy with that. Around 7 am it started to hurt to shift with my right thumb. Soon my tendons in my right forearm were visibly swollen. I wasn't looking for a way out; I was looking for a way to be the hero. So as the pain increased, and I started shifting with my fist, I realized I had to call it a day. I hung out for a few hours chatting up my gregarious pit crew neighbors then rolled across the finish at 12:03. I ended up in 16th place, not the top 10 I hoped but that wasn't the point; the race has always been, and always will be with myself.
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Comments (2)
You are a sick, disturbed animal Sean. 16th aint bad.
Posted by Brett | March 18, 2008 4:06 PM
Posted on March 18, 2008 16:06
"CONGRATULATIONS YOU FINISHED THE RACE!" I Love your Courage, Strength, and Determination you Rock Sean! You are NUMBER #1 here at Mountain Hard Wear and will ALWAYS BE!!! Cynthia Chapple
Posted by Cynthia Chapple | March 31, 2008 5:50 PM
Posted on March 31, 2008 17:50