Success at my first 13 hour race

                At the peak of my fitness and with a month of altitude training at my back, I decided that it was time to try a true endurance race in Florida. The race was the 13 Hours of Santos; located about one hour south of Gainesville.

The race consisted of a nine mile course that was extremely fast with very little technical trail. There was a strong turn out of around forty 13 hour Solo riders. Among them were two strong endurance riders in the Southeastern region with much experience behind their backs; Bear Naked Cannondale member Bob McCarty and Kona member Eddie O’Dea. Last year’s winner, Chris Janiszewski, also decided to defend his title after winning by over a lap in last year’s 13 hour race. I knew that it was going to be a long and tough day of racing.

My plan for the race was to get ahead early and put as much pressure as possible on the other riders. By putting out consistently fast laps, I was hoping that I would eventually take away all chances of any other riders catching me by the time the sun went down.

My plan worked very well except for the fact that Bear Naked team member Bob McCarty decided to do the exact same thing that I had planned. He and I went back and forth throughout the entire race. We kept a blistering pace just below that of a cross country race. He would be ahead of me for a few laps and then I would catch him and be ahead of him for a few laps. Stops at the feed zone were literally non existent due to the constant pressure we were putting on each other. But things changed 6 hours into race.

At the time Bob and I were back to back when we came through the feed zone and saw a fierce lighting storm approaching the trail. We both realized the danger and knew that the race could be cut short with that type of a storm.

We went into that next lap as if it were the last lap of the race. We both knew that this lap could determine the winner of the race so the pace was raised. At that point the closest rider to us was last year’s winner Chris Janiszewski. But he was 20 minutes behind, so the race was now just between me and Bob.

The storm hit us hard and fast about half way through that lap. Lightning was all over the place and the rain came down hard covering most of the trail with about an inch or more of water. At that point Bob pushed the pace as hard as possible and I held on for as long as possible. With about three miles to go we started to approach some riders and needed to pass. At the time I was about a bikes length behind Bob and he managed to squeeze by a rider on a section where the trail was expanded and then went back to single track. That was the deciding point of the race. I was stuck behind an aggressive, slower rider and was not able to pass for about 10 seconds. It was a short period of time, but enough for a large gap to be formed by Bob.

I pushed and pushed to catch Bob, but he was nowhere in sight. I came across the finish line to find out that the race had been cut short and that I was second in the 13 hour race. It was a disappointment, but also a feeling of accomplishment at the same time. I was happy to get 2^nd place, but desperately wanted that top podium spot.

After evaluating the race and recovering from the excruciating pace, I realized that my fitness was the highest I have seen it. I felt that if the race would have kept on going then I would have come out as the winner. Being that this was my first ultra-endurance race, I felt that a 2^nd place finish was a great start in that discipline of mountain bike racing. I hope to go through an entire 12 plus hours of racing in the future and hope for a solid performance in my next ultra-endurance race.