2006 12 Hours of Razorback
We arrived in Reddick, Florida at about 9am Friday morning. My travel companion, my cousin Marc and I were one of the first people at the Razorback MTB Park and quickly found an ideal pit/camping spot located within the Solo Pit. My goal for the race was to complete 12 laps which based on prior years results would place me within the top 10 overall. This would be a significant achievement compared to my 10 laps and 27th place showing last year.
The 12 hour solo division had 80 participants, who along with another 150 racers started the race at 10am Saturday morning. The prologue run was long at about ¼ mile and at the start the front group sprinted away. I tried to pace myself, but at one point looked at my HR monitor to find my HR at 181. That was the highest it would be all day.
My first loop around the 10.25 mile course would be my fastest at around 50 minutes. The fastest within my category was around 48 minutes. The course conditions were perfect and the high for the day was around 75 with a nice breeze and clear skies most of the day. I was going pretty hard the first 3 laps (50, 52 and 53 minutes), but quickly settled into a pace at around 60 minutes per lap. I tried to keep my pit stops as short as possible…new bottles, chain lube, hammer flask, etc. The first 4-6 laps were fun. Lap 7 was ok, but I kept in mind this was where I felt apart last year.
Determined to not let that happen again, on lap 7 or 8, I sat down once in a chair for 4 minutes to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Later on lap 8, I would feel bloated/gassy as I think I ate/drank too much in a short time period. After lap 9, I felt better. Simply knowing that I only need to do 3 more laps somehow reenergized me....that and my I-Pod jamming Lenny K., Grateful Dead, ZZ Top, Silver Chair and Bob Marley. I never knew where I stood in the race, just went as hard as I could for as long as I could. As it turned out, I finished 6th in 12 hour solo division, 1 lap down on 1-4 place, a few minutes out of 5th and few more minutes ahead of 7th place. In the end I did 12 laps with 122.5 miles and 11:56 of ride time with a 10.3 mph average.
Nutrition. Overall, for the day I ate 2 peanut, butter and jelly sandwiches, 6 flasks of hammer gel, 9 sport leg capsules, 12 large bottles of Accelerade, 2 cans of red bull, 8 small bottles of water.
Bike. The new Epic worked great, no mechanicals, stopped to lube the chain twice. I only fell once, in a low speed left turn the front end washed out. My hands did give me some problems, with blistering on my palms and some numbness and fatigue in my hands/fingers.
Fitness. Overall, I felt pretty good. Had some minor leg cramps but worked through it. My lap times were indicative of my consistency. I could save a little time in the pits, but am pretty efficient. The way to do better is to go faster....wow, what a statement. Really though, if I could keep the 50-52 minute pace for a little longer, that would allow me to stay on lead lap. Later, BRD
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