N8's 24 hour mountain bike race

N8's 24 hour mountain bike race

On November 7, 2009 Nate entered his first 24 hour mountain bike race. We loaded up the whole family (and Elam) and headed out to Arizona. The race started at noon and ended at noon on the following day. Whoever completes the most laps in 24 hours wins.

Nate did the race on his single speed (one gear), rigid (no shocks of any kind) mountain bike.

As you can see in the video Nate started out in last place, he was in no hurry at the beginning. He knew that he had 24 hours to make his way to the front of the pack. And that is what he did. Every hour throughout the night he kept creeping up on people. He only slept for about an hour and it paid off. When the morning came around he was in 3rd place. And as you can see in the video he was awarded 3rd place for the single speed category.

Now for the spoiler . . . the next day when the official results were posted Nate was dethroned. It turns out they messed up on the times (they used timing chips and they weren't all working) and Nate got bumped to 4th place (Of course he is already plotting his return). So... that's what it looks like to accept a third place trophy.

Here are the stats. 14 laps (140 miles) completed in 24 hours, 1 crash (at night), 1 broken light (rode the rest of the night with LED flashlight), 1 fever (after 9 laps, see video), 1 flat (on lap 14, preventing a lap 15 and 3rd place), 3 wardrobe changes, and last but not least 1 broken bike frame (didn't notice it until we got home, Nate wondered what that noise was). Overall, good times and memories.

P.S. Hard to get good video and manage a pit crew, sorry.