Mission Project

Sean McDevitt the morning after the race.

The Race Is With Yourself
This is about my experiences foray into endurance mountain bike racing. The first race I will be taking part in is called "24 Hours in the old Pueblo." The rules are simple, ride your bike around a 15 miles single/double track mountain bike trail through cactus invested desert hills as many time as you can; most laps wins. I am a 36 year old avid lifelong cyclist and member of our design team here at Mountain Hardwear. Some time during the past year my cycling habit became a full fledged addiction. What used to be a weekend thing became a daily thing, then twice a day on the weekends. Suddenly I found myself on long brutal rides with skinny people in team kit wearing heart rate monitors. So when a friend asked me to join a team racing at "24 hours in the Old Pueblo in Tucson Arizona." With so many hard northern California epic rides under my belt, I figured, how hard can it be?

See more photos of the race on Flickr

The March 2007 winner of our Mission Project contest is Bryan Gilmore! Bryan's challenge won the most votes due to his "core" "adventure and looniness," as well as his "perfect focus" when tackling his project. Big congratulations go out to Bryan and thanks to everyone who submitted their Mission Project story this month.

For those of you who haven't done it yet - pick your adventure and blog about it here. Simply doing what you love could net you some great prizes!

Honorable mention goes out to Eugene Buchanan who came in close in the voting due to his "creativity and funny attitude." Nice work.

By James Coleridge

Ok, don't laugh - I was desperate, frustrated and focused like a climber with A.D.D. Well, not that bad, but does there not come a time in an adventurers life that you go from gear which you can barely buy, to gear you think is fashionable, to gear that you put your hard earn dollars in knowing that your life is on the line. Well, count me in, as I went through the 3 phases of gear (sounds like a new mantra) and am now in a place and space that is a bit like Nirvana, but with out the chanting. So my story starts around a pair of Synchro Pants, but in fact started a long time ago, so let's start there!