24...or 17 hours of Great Glen...Yacky and his Brain.

Hi One and All...or one and only. Not sure how many people read this. Maybe I am talking to myself. This brings me to the topic on hand. 24 hours of Great Glen is a Littleton Landshark attack. The Landsharks had 20 teams entered this year and 7 solo riders. Team LBF was part of that group by default. All being former Landsharks we still run with that school of fish...we don't eat our young however. The weekend started wonderful, it was down right hot and sunny. we had a perfect camp set up on course, tons of food, too many support personnel and good rested legs. Jamie and I headed over to the campsite around 2:30 on Friday afternoon with a camper full of gear, food, bikes, Gofast and Jamsie. We pulled into the designated Landshark area and backed her into a prime spot Dave Harkless set aside for us. We popped the Specialized tent and I went to business with gear unloading. A quick trip to North Conway for a last minute anniversary gift for Jamie's understanding and darling wife Carol put me in a friends kitchen making 4 lbs of pasta around 7pm. We were eating at 8 as the suns rays finally sank completely behind the mountain of our founding father himself. We hung out for a few with the gang by the fire and tried not to burn off too much energy laughing. For some, GG is a party with a splash of mountain biking, teams competing for the fun of a balls to the wall lap followed by several hours of relaxing and drinking a few pints with other racers waiting to go on course. For me and the other solo riders a 24 hour race is the most demanding thing you will ever do and requires 100% focus for too many hours of pain and suffering but if you take is too seriously you short circuit in the middle of the night and fall backwards like a potted palm into the depths of a mental and physical breakdown. Its a fine line really and being the 3rd 24 hour race of the season one would think we were getting prety good at it...not yet.

Jamie and I started strong and pushed the pace with some really good lap times (A little over a sustainable speed but fast enough to drop all but one of the solo riders). We rode hard for about 3 hours when I noticed Jamie salting much earlier than usual.

Salting tr.v. When a rider sweats so much that a fine white powder seeps through and collects on the outer of his or her spandex. First appearing on the lower back and armpits then traveling over the entire back and legs. Sometimes seen on the face. Said rider may also be referred to as "snowy", "sweaty", "salty dog", "sodium boy" or "dusty"

I knew something was up when at about 5PM he started walking a hill that on a normal day he would have rode until about midnight. We knew he was losing the battle of Wilson Vs. Electrolytes when his legs started cramping a bit and needed massages to keep him going. Fear not I say...we may be losing the battle but we will fight till the end of the war. We tried everything from electrolyte pills to salt water but nothing could get in what was going out. The final blow was delivered around 8:15PM when Jamie stood up on the pedals, lock up solid, and tipped over like previously mentioned potted palm. Laying there in a ball of twitching muscles riders past with a look of fear cast deep into their faces and uttered the words "are you alright man?" Jamie was responding in winced monosyllables but I came over just in time to send them on their way and start kicking my teammate’s legs trying to loosen the rock hard muscles of legs Magee. What we found out later was the narcotic he was given for pain control (broken wrist) had a little side effect of dehydration. Not knowing this he drank like normal but needed twice as much to keep him going thus needing twice as much electrolytes also. That lap was tough, we stopped a few times and got in some stretching for tender legs and pushed through till the end where Jamie was to take a break, get a massage and ultimately sit out till the final lap. I was listening to my Ipod and Moby's Porcelain was playing as the verses sung "so this is goodbye" with a faint piano in the background I left my partner at the pits and headed out into the dark along and on the hunt. I chased the little puke that was 38 minutes ahead of me for 3 hours without letting up at all. I mashed the pedals over every hill, through every single-track and down every carriage road. At midnight I stopped totally spent, ready to get some good news. Something along the lines of "Dave you made up 30 of those minutes and he's looking tired...go get him" but I got into pit grabbed some food and heard "you lost 3 minutes to him and he's looking really strong"...we have just lost cabin pressure! I looked at Jamsie with a blank stare and promptly curled up in my sleeping bag and went to sleep under the stars with no intentions or desire to get on my bike ever again.

I was awakened at 7 am by Jamie and Joe Homer telling me I had only dropped to 4th and that 3rd place was 5 minute ahead. Totally baffled by the fact that I slept for almost a third of the race and was still in podium contention I donned my shoes and placed an egg sandwich order before jumping on my S-Works and headed out like a new rider in the same clothes. The good thing with being 25 is you recover from thing very quickly and with the exception of my grundle all was well in the Dave factory and biking was fun and fast. I put out three sub 50 minute laps before getting information that I was two laps down on 2nd place and 2 laps up on 4th with 3 hours left in the race. IE mathematically impossible to move up or down without a major issue like dismemberment. So I caught up to Mel who was the first place female and in second place overall solo. She was feeling the pressure of being on the bike for so long and beating so many men (not really but I tell myself that so it don't start crying). We rode a lap together at a nice pace and chatted about bunnies, actin and myosin and what the grundles were feeling like for a bit. As we came into the pit Greg was heading out, Jamie's legs felt better so he jumped in his gear and came out for the last lap with Team LBF. Greg waited for us after the first hill and we all finished the race together as a band of broken bodies that each had put a not so few miles in the saddle over the past 24 hours (17 for me if you count my little nap).

Have you ever looked back upon a decision made in haste and thought "I am such a moron!"

Have you ever been winning a race only to throw it away leaving you sleepless many nights and hungry for the next pain fest (24 hour race) to redeem what little scrap of hope you hold for yourself as a human and an athlete? Huh Huh...Have you?

"There's no such thing as a failure that keeps on trying" My cousin's lead singer John Popper

Top Notch Triathlon

For the second year in a row a team consisting of Jamie Myers, Dave Stiles and Charles Dona won the team division of the Top Notch Triathlon, this year under the umbrella of Team Littleton Bike and Fitness. However, like last year we were beaten by a non-human super athlete named Kris Freeman, an international level Nordic skier on the US Ski Team! I guess it puts us in our place as endurance athletes not sprinters! We didn't beat our record from last year but considering the Franconia ridge run, three mountain bike rides, two road rides and a trek up Mt Washington earlier in the week we did ok. Jamie warmed up on his trainer while Charles and I did yoga before the start in downtown Franconia with streets lined with about fifteen 20 ft tall GoFast flags flying high (www.gofastsports.com). Gofast is one of the event sponsors, it's a natural version of redbull that tastes better and doesn't give you the jitters for some reason or another. So we were pretty happy to walk away with a case as a prize! The race meeting was short and sweet Jenny Johnson and Sam Brown were getting married later that day and warming up with the race. Charles and I took off to where the bikers went into the woods to give Jamie his split time on the first wave. He went by at mach 2 and I sprinted along next to him screaming his position and time. We drove up to Echo Lake and I jumped out with my wet suit to take position while Charles went to do his warm up. A few minutes later in a cloud of dust Jamie flew into the TA with the two PRO Dudes and a few people from the first wave already in the water. I took the timing chip and sprinted to the lake, A couple dolphin dives later I was dragging my carcass a half mile across. I don't remember anything but seeing the sky and the bottom of the bottom a few time and third buoy and looking for the shore only to see ANOTHER FREAKIN BOUY! Last year I thought there was three also. I after crying underwater I regained my form and hauled as fast as I could to the exit, ran across the timing pad and sprinted up the hill with Jamie running along side cheering me on! I kept going around the corner to the hand off screaming "Charles...gasp...You...gasp...Have to...Take...The Chip...off me!" I couldn't figure out which of the two Charles I saw was the right one but as I got closer the eyes uncrossed and he became one. He pulled the timing chip off and I collapsed in the grass gasping for air. I guess I should have swam more than 15 minutes between last years race and this years ;-) We got on the tram and headed to the finish with about 20 other people. We saw Kris in the lead again and another guy about two minutes behind. We waited for them right at the flags and cheered Kris across the line. For those of you who think pro athletes don't feel pain I urge you to watch a race like this. As He cross the line after an hour and five minutes for blowing himself up this super skier was grey and wheezing for any oxygen his lungs could find...Not exactly a "Walk In The Park". Charles came over the hill 4 minutes later and secured our team victory at 1 hour 9 minutes and change. After he dry heaved in the bushes for a minute we all hugged after a job well done.

The Top Notch Triathlon had over 250 solo racers this year and not just tri junkies it is a real family event that saw solo racers from 9 to 80 years in age. It is followed by lunch and awards with a big raffle for however are left. So next year make the trip to this event in the North Country it's always the first weekend in August.

Yacky

24 Hours Of Kill..Your Body...ington!

The Granny Gear Productions team puts on a stellar race. They do a bunch a year and the 24 hours of Killington was great! There was a trials team FJ Cruisers to test drive free shwag and tons of cool people. We arrived at the solo camp area (right on course) at about 9 am Saturday morning with the shop trailer and about 10 riders worth of gear. We were right on course and in the action and thus, very happy. After about 40 minutes of setting up the tent running power cords the bike rack and stand, food table, light chargers and...lots of stuff a guy whose tent was up on the hill behind us showed up and was not exactly happy that we "totally parked in front" of him. He said we should have used some common sense and not blocked him in (he wasn't blocked in). Under my breath I was saying "well dude, you should use some common sense and not set up on a hill above the prime spot to set up the Littleton Bike shop trailer" but being the humble Northern NH person I now am I said nothing but "sorry". He then asked "well, can you move?" Carol and Jamie both fielded that question to me seeing how I parked the rig and the New Yorker in me killed the Humble Northern NH boy and told the common sense wizard to find another place to put his tent..."don't care were you stick you tent buddy but we're not moving!" In my defense I am only a jerk when such actions are necessary retaliations to some bone head trying to toss his weight because he thinks it's cool.

OK, enough of that...the race was straight up brutal. It is a horrible combination of Conyers and Pats Peak that makes to wanna cry. The short course we rode was a mere 9 Miles with 1,350 ft of climbing that started 50 ft out of the pits. So if you want to know what eating a bunch of food and then putting your HR into your throat feels like you could dine and dash at a doughnut shop with it's regulars...or come race at 24 hours of Killington.

We started with a grunt up a few ski trails that had a little plateau then another grunt followed by a few short single track sections. The next grunt was the big one and from when you started climbing you didn't stop for more than about 100 meters which I used to stretch out my aching back. All in all, the climb was about 20 minutes long and a combination of grass, rocks and stone dust. Once at the top of this beast you turned sharply into the woods and tore through this steep, winding, rooted, muddy single track that was similar to the highway to hell at Pats Peak. We got about half way down it the first time and Jamie looked at me like a puppy dog who just hand its tail slammed in the car door. My only reply was "here we go again!" After the plunge into the depths we had a few more turns through the single track and into a nasty muddy trail that tossed you all over the place before getting to a 50 meter head wall of mud. Another traverse across the mountain and we were at our last climb, this one was short and shallow, it's only purpose was to bring you to another winding trail through the woods (it also was another good place to cut a couple minutes off your time! Which I think happened a few times looking at some of the lap time discrepancies). Then it was across the flats and back into the woods. 10 more minutes of single track, a ride across a foot bridge and we were done with lap one around 1:10 PM.

We stayed consistent with our laps throughout the afternoon bringing in times around 1:10 to 1:20. The top three guys would hammer for as long as they could and they bonk for a few minutes then get back on and hammer for and few more laps then rest. It seemed crazy and by 7 pm their times were beginning to fade after each rest. We moved up to 3rd around 8 PM and stayed there until the end of our 7th lap at 9:30 PM when the stress fracture in Jamie's right wrist forced us to stop. It was a hard decision to make but weighing all the options and the circumstances it was the best. We curled up and went to bed only to wake up feeling like losers. We got a good hard ride in and by pulling out of a race for the first time in the history of Team LBF made us hungry to ride at Great Glen.

Major Call for Help!

To all you race fans...if reading my blogs is fun how about coming and joining us on a race? This weekend Team LBF is in a major pickle and needs a driver for the support truck and trailer. If you can be in Lisbon, NH Thursday, go to Canada (no outstanding warants) and return on Sunday night you are our Guy or Gal. Please Call or Email me ASAP if you can come.

Yacky
AKA Dave Stiles
Cell 603-728-8642

Littleton’s Legs of Steel Dominate Pats Peak 24

Team LBF was easy to pick out through the crowd in our red skin suits at The Pats Peak Mountain Bike Festival http://www.patspeak.com/summer/bike.php. Jamie and I were standing with a couple Littleton Landsharks, Greg Jancaitis (24 hour) and Marty St. George (6 hour) lined up for the lemans start. In 2 minutes we would be trotting across the lawn heading for our bikes only to jump on and mash on the pedals for 24 hours. Jamie was very firm in his demands that I not pull an “EFTA” and take off at mach 2 only to leave him chasing me down and pulling on the reigns. So off we went at a snails pace with a bunch of other yahoos hell bent on hurting themselves. The firsts lap was a little crowded, there were a bunch of 6 and 12 hour racers chugging along in the midst of the 24 riders. So we marched along to the beat of Legs and his opening pace. This was our first time on course so every corner was like a little surprise of dirt, root or rock that jumped out as if to say “surprise”. A lap consisted of a little pitch to warm up the legs out of the pit, then a stroll around a snowmaking pond followed into a ditch and some single-track, traverse across the mountain back by the start to more single-track and up the first major climb on a grassy ski slope. A not so quick teeth chattering descent down to the base of the downhill course left fillings loose and quads burning, then it was back up the slope for another highway to hell, this one was a bit longer and had a long single-track climb through the woods just after you blew your legs on a steep ski slope called "Dead Mans Drop" or something cheeky like that. After the legs were toast the upper body was due for a good pounding and that was just what they set us up for us on the run down the mountain. It was about 10 minutes of wrist breaking, shoulder traumatizing, quad cooking, deep fried forearms kind of fun. To tell you the truth after we got to the bottom of this combination of Old Webs (Kingdom Trails) and The Flume (Mt Lafayette) we said “oh crap…we have to ride that 27 more times!” Who knew we would be so accurate in our predictions? After the descent we had a little leg loosening climb to the base area by a house with 8 people drinking beer and telling us to “hit the sweet jumps we made for you”, then it was down a chute and into the timing tent. Jamie and I had received bike numbers 1 and 2 which was funny the first 20 times we came in and said to the score keepers “ one, two buckle my shoe or, two, one...Blast Off!” But we got a lot of smiles and cheers as we would pass through the tent, pitched our selves back on the bikes with food and new water then disappear only as “1 and 2 those fast red guys from Littleton”. We rode hard throughout the afternoon and did a couple laps with Marty and Greg here and there but come 7 pm we welcomed the fading light and heat. Night brings out a whole other element of racing; from managing light systems and riding in the dark to puking up everything you eat and falling asleep only to wake up while on a collision course with a tree. It’s a side of racing that one can’t see from the cozy support tent because if one did, support crews would tell us to sleep not “get back out there and tear it up slackers”. 4 AM was the worst time for me; my heart rate wouldn’t rise above 110 regardless of effort (150-170 is normal for an endurance event) and I was ridding like a wet noodle. We had a solid lead on the field but only a lap up on Greg who was proving to be the snake to my mongoose or the mongoose to my snake…whatever…anyway I was bonking and the sleep monsters were running me down. I begged for a 15 minute nap at TA after lap 19ish but settled for 10 in an emergency bivy that I’ve slept in in three countries for a total of 28 mins over the past year. Those ten minutes were like a decade and just enough to reset my head and get me mashing again. We jumped on the bikes and out the door, we were in the early light with almost 75% of the race over, it was the best time of the race. We started putting time on our competition and felt great as long as we weren’t climbing or descending which was the whole course except for the 200 meters around the snowmaking pond but man oh man…those 200 meters were awesome! People started waking up an hour or so later and were pounding out laps after their little snoozes but as long as we didn't stop we were just too far ahead to catch. Greg was one lap back on us and just out of reach to the next competitor but he was coming on strong so Greg had to ride all morning to keep his lead thus, we had to ride all morning to keep our lead (talk about the trickle up effect). All in all the morning was what a bipolar cocktail party would be like, some people crying and puking while some laughing and riding :-o At the end of it all, we put in 28 Laps totaling about 190 KM of biking and at 850 vertical ft per lap a total of 23,800 feet of climbing (and likewise 23,800 vertical feet of horrid descending). Team LBF and Maine Landshark Gerg came into the finish just as the skies opened up, the lightning struck and the race was called off early at 11:36 am exactly 28 Laps, 23 hours and 36 minutes, 153,234 pedal rotations, 17,000 Calories and 3 up chuckings after starting and thinking “this is gonna hurt” well...it did.

Final Podium
1st Place (Tied) 28 Laps Jamie Myers and Dave Stiles (Team LBF)
3rd Place 27 Laps Greg Jancaitis (Maine Landshark)

Ride On -Yacky

NO "HORROR" AT HARDING HILL ROAD FOR LBF

So they tagged the race "THE HORROR AT HARDING HILL ROAD" but for Team LBF it was anything but. The experts took off in the mass start across a field and into the woods around 10:05 am, while the sport class gathered at the favored end of the line for the mad dash into the woods. Jamie and I were sitting on the line full of race jitters for a full 15 minutes while Mel was on her way around the first of four laps. We had disscussed that seeing how this was a tune up race and we were doing it for fitness that we would "take it easy the first lap and let the race come to us" which I managed to throw out the window 10 ft off the line as I out sprinted the field and led the pack into the woods. Jamie's exact words cannot be repeated on a public blog but in the process of trying to run me down he rode a few people off the trail that tried to squeeze him out the back door. He caught me in a minute or so screaming "what about the game plan?" I replied with "ok lets just go easy and let people catch us" And thats just what we did, if by easy you mean an average heart rate of 191 then yes we went easy. Half way around the first lap my 1st place led was tranfered to Jamie as my saddle bag opened and emptied it's contents across the trail. I had to stop and let him pass while I unwound my spare tube from my brake disc. At that point I thought I heard someone coming up behind me so after throwing whatever was left in my bag off into the woods I jumped back on and told Jamie to drop the hammer. The noise from behind faded into the distance and we saw no other riders until the middle of the second lap when we passed some of the expert riders then lapped a few sport riders. Jamie tried to break his other wrist a few times on slick roots and a few rocks but wasen't able to and I went cross eyed a few times following legs magee up a few pitches. The third lap was a little more chill, we knew we had a led and rode tempo to maintain it. We came over the last hill one two and crosed the line together an hour and eightteen minutes after my little deveation from "The Plan". The next sport rider came in 7 minutes later mumbling something along the lines of I was trying to stay with those red guys by that wasen't happening.

Mel was 2 minutes into her fourth lap when Jamie and I finished. She was in the lead by half a lap and was going strong. She came into the finish and was greated by about fifteen Littleton riders shouting her name. All smiles she says "did anyone else come in before me?" "no Mel they didn't" I said. She didn't believe any of us until she got the official results and the "queen on harding hill" award for the fastest woman in the race.

Over all every Team LBF member finished 1st in their division and looked darn good doing so.

Dave

Spills, Chills and Canadian Thrills- Quest for a Cure 2007

It started out like any adventure race, show up the day before a little frazzled from a long drive, meet up with team mates, pack enough carbohydrates into your stomach to feed a small under developed country and get a little sleep before the start. But, this would be no walk in the park, after 32 hours of nail biting, leg pounding, gut wrenching action packed racing Team LBF had declared war on their bodies, minds and Canada’s #2 Pro Team Salmon River Sports only to come up 50 minutes shy of their ultimate goal; winning an entry to Primal Quest 2008.

The mass inline skate start was down a gentle grade and turned into a mass decline shred to get out in front. Apparently Canadian races, regardless of duration, all start with a hammer fest to get in the lead. So we bolted off the line with two relatively new skaters and their stone cold faces eager to get the first of three skates over without a crash. Third place into the Rafts and we were paddling down the Ottawa River to the first of half a dozen rapids. We had had a 5 minute lesson what to do in case you swim and I don’t know about my partners in crime but I was going to stay in that raft regardless of whatever unforeseen circumstances arise while paddling through 3+ foot walls of water. We moved through the rafting section with ease and arrived at the pull out first with 5 other teams. Our nimble feet and sharp Nav put up out front again on the 7 KM run to the nearest paved road where we donned our skates for round two of “Wilson vs. Gravity”.

Team SRS with their carbon clad race skates were quickly out of site as we stumbled our way to the water and TA2. 800 meters before arriving at the waters edge we started descending down a steep hill, I was oblivious to the fact that my team mates were not super comfortable on skates when the angle of the dangle increased and took off down the hill with three backpacks and a big old smile on my face. I get to the bottom and peel of the road into a parking lot to bleed off some speed and take a deep breath after a nice little rush. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Jason was squaring off his wheels while slowing Laura down and Jamie was squaring off with his arch rival, Gravity. I didn’t witness the impacts but I hear they rivaled his best diggers to date. One was a quick edge catch and smash onto the pavement leaving a little (4 inch diameter) souvenir on his right thigh. He lost that battle but was determined to fight another day, so he picked himself up and before he was able to dust himself off the fight was on again as he build up speed and was “above my comfort zone” he said. He flew by Jason and Laura waiving the white flag of defeat he veered to the right and hit the grass screaming
”legs don’t fail me now!”, three big strides later they did and legs Magee was airborne. I was sitting at the bottom of the hill thinking ‘maybe I should have stayed with them.’ when I saw everyone jogging down the hill with all their limbs attached, a good sign.

We arrived at a dock where we got in a boat and were transported across a 300 meter wide river and told to get out 60 meters from shore. We all jumped in with a scream and swam our way to the bank. It was 60 degree water and 55 degree air so getting out was a shock to say the least we dragged our dripping bodies to the TA and got ready for a 50 KM bike and our first lead of the race. Five minutes into the bike we were warm and pacing down the PBJ rail trail at a brisk 26 KMH. We passed the fist on three teams ahead of us then. The rate of closure was about 16 KMH and the team out front got a little confused with our instructions of “on your right”. A quick swerve of the group and we went by in a cloud of dust. Like people say “you are sponsored by a bike shop”.

We arrived at TA 3 in first place only to find out that a road we took was off course even though…how about we just leave it at that. After a long discussion with the race director on the radio we were giving the option of riding that section of the course over or taking a time penalty that a jury would decide on. We promptly grabbed our canoes and maintained our lead going into a long paddle. We jumped into our boats and stated up the river with our new Mitchell Leader Paddles, now these paddles are the BMW of canoe paddles, smooth fast and light. We kept our lead despite being caught and waging a battle on the river with Team SRS for almost 90 minutes. We would draft, they would shake us, they would draft, and we would shake them. We finally solidified our lead on the last of three portages through the woods when they took off up the wrong trail as we found the put in and started hammering away as the dawn approached. But after a CP was plotted in the wrong spot we were caught once again and passed just before coming into TA 4.

There wasn’t a huge concern at the Team LBF camp as the next 50 KM were on two wheels and mostly fast roads. We were pretty the next battle would hurt like hell but we would at the very least tire them out while riding and at best drop them like a sprinter on Alp De Huez. As we were packing the RD came up to us and assessed our penalty for the previous bike leg. “2 hours! Are you insane? That’s a little harsh don’t you think?” Our hopes of going to Primal Quest were slipping away with every minute of the conversation. Upon hearing that a race official was at the intersection we were supposed to turn on and said nothing to us they agreed to cut the penalty down to 1.5 hours. Better than 2 hours was the way I looked at it. The kicker of it was we had to serve it right then and there. We were stuck in TA for 90minute from the time we checked in, which actually was really nice, we were at the Race HQ were our cars were along with a camp stove, sleeping bags, showers and bathrooms. So it was a mandatory rest for us and the 3 place team was still an hour away. We watched Team SRS leave the TA as mashed potatoes were being cooked and showers were being taken. A quick nap, splinting of Jamie’s then thought to be broken wrist and drying of some clothes filled the remainder of our penalty and we were in the starting blocks at 8:04 am rested and ready to take off.

We cut their 90 minute lead to 40 coming into the next TA where we jumped in our canoes and hammered down the river. It was about 11 am when the sleep monsters started catching us and the four portages and Laura barking orders to eat and dumb water on us were the only things keeping us awake. It was five hours later that we pulled turned the corner and saw the zip line across the river and our carrots sliding across it. We were now only 20 minutes behind but really tired after pushing so hard for so long.

We got to the dock were we would ascend the cliff to the TA and were about to step out of the canoes when a race official said “Not here. Park your canoes over there and swim with all your gear to the dock” Jamie’s response was the typical “HUH?” while I was thinking ‘what the heck is up with these guys and making us swim?’ Laura the grittiest of us all was half way to the dock at this point was telling us to hurry up and get in the water. The ascent was about 100 feet and as Jamie’s wrist was really messed up I offered to take his pack along with my soaking wet carcass, pack and dry bag. I was now hauling 60 lbs of extra gear hanging below me and really feeling it. It was five minute after getting to the top that I realized, in my delirium; I had detached the map from the canoe then reattached the map to the canoe instead of my pack. So I scrambled down the wall, got it and scrambled back up just in time to nearly puke up the Ensure I had drank and plot the orienteering section of the course.

We were at the zip line shivering for ten minutes waiting as each of us took turns flying across the river and skipping across the water like stones before dragging our selves the rest of the way across. This was by far the hardest sections of the race. Pulling yourself the last ten feet up to the embankment caused the most severe pain and fatigue in your forearms that I have ever felt. So hard it was Laura had come to Jason’s rescue when he reached what I would classify as “total muscle failure” 5 feet from shore.

We shivered on our clothes and headed up the 80 meter rock scramble and through the woods to find a series of roads that would take us to our 4 Orienteering CP’s. A slight error in Navigation put us at the wrong end of our trek and caused us to double back once before returning to the river and the rappel. We past Team SRS on their way out after they got the last CP and really gave them a scare. Unknown to them we were getting the CP’s in the opposite order and after seeing us they took off at full race pace.

We got to the rappel 70 meters above the river and in the thickest cloud of mosquito’s I have ever been seen in my life. It was so bad that Jamie threatened to jump off the cliff before he got hooked up to the rope. Luckily the RD was again being tricky and had us rappelling straight into the water and swimming across the river and to our boats. There were a number of teams coming in to the ropes in their canoes looking at us with astonishment and saying things like “what” “huh” “why” “are you”. It was getting to be dusk at this point, the temps were dropping and the realization of a midnight swim was a little much for some of the teams.

We shivered clothes from my dry bag back on and took off down the river with no chance of catching SRS as they were far better skaters and an hour ahead of us again. We paddled hard and pushed our way to the final stage and one more inline skate to the finish back and Race HQ 7 KM away. We took our time and made it there in one piece at 10 past midnight to finish 2^nd in 32 hours and 40 minutes. We were all pretty spent after a long hard race that more resembled a battle. Team SRS was at the finish with cocoa, a few extra slices of pizza and a firm handshake for a team that gave them a good run for their money.

We changed and hit an all night pizza place to refuel and clean them out of the best recovery drink of earth (chocolate milk) before crawling under a table in a hanger and passing out till morning. All I could think of while falling into bed was there are some poor souls bobbing across that freaking river right now, man oh man am I happy to be warm and dry.

Quest for a Cure Live GPS Tracking!

Hello to all,

Just to let you know come Friday at 4pm while Jamie, Laura, Jason and I make our way throught the Canadian wilderness you can sit at your desk or couch and watch us wander around and hopefully go the right way in the 2007 Landrover Quest For a Cure. Just go to www.questforacure.ca, click on the GPS Tracking link and keep an eye on Team Littleton Bike.

Enjoy the show!

And to all who donated to the Ottawa Cancer Research Fund thank you for your support!

Dave

NEARS VT 12 hour AR: "HUH?"

June 9th 2007 Team LBF packed up the rig and headed to West Dover for a nice short race. We arrived at the Lodge at Mt Snow around 9pm just after they packed up registration. So with a little begging and pleading we got signed up and ready to go. Jamie arrived with our support crew, the incredibly patient Carol Myers and son Craig, around 11:30pm just as Mel and I were packing up the last of the gear for our 6 am start. That night I met up with a few friends from the AR community and got a low down on what normally takes place with this race director. We were awakened at 4am by 15 alarms that were set in case we slept in. Starting the day with 3 cups of coffee, two pancakes and one big pile of eggs was the best way to welcome the sun and a day of slogging up hills. We received our maps and UTMs 15 minutes prior to start and after plotting our paddle CPs. We trotted down to the launch and picked out a boat. We, being not so fast paddlers pulled the boat up on shore in 6th or 7th place. After looking around we realized that the support cars would not be at this TA like we thought. Not a huge deal other than the fact that, because of the rain our gear was in a dry bag and we had no backpacks! So after a moment of slight discontent we packed the dry bag with only the mandatory gear we needed, plotted the CPs on the nine mile trek, grabbed a water bladder and set out of the TA as the 12th or 13th team carrying everything in our arms. Now if you haven't tried running with a 6 lbs dry bag and/or a 70 oz water bladder in your hand take Jamie's word for it, "Wilson, this is not too much fun". However, we blew through the trek like the big bad wolf and the first little pigs straw house. It was beautiful, I'm talking rhapsodic! We hit ever nav point dead on and made huge gains with a few cunning bush whacks. The only issue we had was Jamie at full speed rolled his ankle and nearly ate dirt in a ditch. That was followed with a labored and Jamie specific high pitched voice "oh Mr. navigator...I think I broke my ankle" If you haven't heard this voice ask him to demonstrate it is one on the most hilarious things on the planet. So, in true team spirit Jamie bit his lip and pushed through the run without even a whimper. We got into TA 2 back in 6th place only to watch the teams in the distance stay in the distance. 4 miles later with a few sore arms and hungry belly's we pulled up on shore and carried the boat over head to the TA where all our gear was laid out ready for the ransacking. When adventure racers come into a TA they support crew has everything out and opened up so we can just grab whatever we want, it often is a little crazy and things get tossed a bit but after a nine mile trek with little to no food and two paddles that were an all out effort to stay with our competition TEAM LBF resembled Tasmanian devils, we rummaged through gear and food bins eating and drinking everything in sight dug out new sock, backpacks and towels for wet feet. We had received our new maps and 15 minutes later the course was plotted. As we checked out the volunteers at the TA said the next team was only 3 minutes ahead of us and with "Mt Goat" Mel Brown, Dave "Nummer" Stiles and Jamie "The Mule" Myers rearing to go on our Cannondale and Specialized hard tails we were fairly confident in our response to them being "Not for long!" We headed out on our favorite discipline at a blistering pace hammering up the Vermont dirt hills. There was only 23 miles to bike a a huge deficient to make up so we planned on ridding as hard as we could for the fun on if and to see how many teams we could catch. The course was mostly paved and birt road with a few double track trail sections. The thing I remember the most was the climbs there are these three distinct 3-5km climbs that were just brutal especially because I have the worst power to weight ratio of the three and chasing Mel and Jamie up hill is like being a dog on linoleum, lots of action but no movement, they are always just out of reach I just can't get a claw in the rug and catch them. One thing is fur sure we hauled through the bike in record time. so we picked up a couple spots and finished in 4th place. Sat down in the finish area and took off our packs. Jamie and Mel started Hoovering Oreo cookies and oranges while I was writing down the TA questions on our passport. For those of you who don't know when an adventure race happens in a rural area checkpoints that are or roads or somewhere in the open people have a tendency to steal the pretty flags we use for Check Points so the race directors in this race wrote numbers on the back of street signs and asked us to answers a few question at the CP instead of punching the passport. So back to the finish...I'm transferring the answers over when I get to CP 18 and I realize...there is no CP 18 on my answer sheet but...OH NO! The next conversation went something like this: Dave "hey guys. can you hand me my map?" Jamie "why?" Mel (blank stare) Dave "we're going back out to get CP 18" Jame "HUH?" Mel (blank stare) Dave "we're leaving now!" Jamie "HUH?" Mel (blank stare) Dave "lets go its only 3 Miles. Come on guys" that 6 miles was a blur. We time trialed out and back at 90% thinking another team was right behind us and going to zip across the finish while we were playing dumbo the adventure racers. We got back to the finish without seeing anyone on course but the road biker were passed. So I apologised to the gang a couple times and we all decided that "Check Point 18" was now a new verb and could be used so if necessary. ie "are we going to CP 18 this one?"

Over all the race was a lot of fun, we raced hard and did very well. Mel had a great first AR and we are looking forward to competing again with these race organisers at the NEARS final at Gunstock in September.

Thanks again to our sponsors for helping us compete at the level we do.

Team LBF

New Addition to Team LBF

June 5th 2007 Melanie Brown, one of the regions fastest Mt. Bikers, has been added to the Team LBF roster. Mel is well know in the Littleton area as a super biker who in last season, her first at Mt. Bike Racing, won the womens solo division of 24 hours of Great Glen and shattered the female record at the Top Notch Triathlon. Mel is an astounding athlete and a welcome addition to Team Littlton Bike and Fitness.

Roller Blades, Potholes, Cabs and Cramps

So I did my first Inline Stake workouts today. In the Quest for a Cure we will be on skates for some undisclosed amout on time and with a previous coaches ingrained rule "train like a pro race like a pro" I decided to grab some blades and hit the pavement for a little 14 mile glide. Well at the moment I'm living in NYC and skating to class is a great 7 mile run and bike so, why not skate it also? 10 minutes into it my legs, back and ankles were so cramped I could barley move and my freshly shaved legs were being rubbed raw from the low sock high boot combination. I made if over the 59th st bridge and into Manhattan where the cabs own the road. I only grabbed ahold once and it was to make a soon to be red light where a pothole the size of a small car nearly ate me for breakfast. I nearly hit 4 people that pulled the typical NYC walk into the street 10 feet to hail a cab and had a few close calls with quick moves by busses and cabs that happend to have me in a "New York Blind Spot" which is the area around a car, behind the front bumper that drivers don't care what's in it before making some amazingly stupid swerve, weeve or sudden stop. By the time I got to class I was pretty pumped on a adrenalin rush and very sweaty for an intense workout. My form got better on the ride home and I started really going to town and riding like I was racing. However, after getting to work this evening I found out that I was really tired. My Calfs were smoked and knees felt like they had been hit with a ballpeen hammer repeatedly for 3 hours. But I'm feeling stronger on the skates and after tomorrows recovery bike ride to class, work and around the park, Thursday will be filled with skating in Central Park.

-Crack on
Yacky

Florida Coast to Coast

Sun, Sand, and Swamps
Team Littleton Bike Shop
2007 Florida Coast to Coast Adventure Race

On May 24th a truck set out of Littleton NH bound for Jacksonville Florida and the starting line of a 280 mile adventure race that would end four days later in a small town south of Tallahassee. The truck was loaded to the brim with bikes, packs, food, tents, a kayak, two support crew members and a couple athletes that were rearing to go. The week prior to their departure was full of packing of, organizing and re-organizing gear, eating loads of pasta and strangely enough winning the first event of their season, the Kancamagus Team Time Trial. After twenty four hours of driving south Team Littleton Bike Shop arrived at race HQ, checked in and began race preparation. At an adventure race teams of two to four racers receive instructions and correlating maps of an area. The athletes are given UTM coordinates and have to plot on the map their Check Points or “CPs” and Transition Areas or “TAs”, they are told what discipline will be use on each leg and given a start time. That night I was handed the smaller of two map packages containing nine 9x17 inch topo maps and six pages of instructions. With the help of one support crew, two pizzas and three hours, I had the first half of the course all planned out. The final packing was done and my teammate Jamie was fast asleep. I got to bed just before midnight to catch a quick four and a half hours of sleep before heading out on the first big race for this newly founded team.
“Thirty seconds everyone” the race director shouts. I look at Jamie and give him the “Let play ball” look and the whistle blows, 200 spandex clad warriors take of out of the parking lot and head down the road. We start off on foot for an easy 25km (roughly a half marathon) before jumping on our new Specialized bikes. We quickly build a lead after CP 3 and hold it through TA 1, TA 2 and half the paddle when we scared a couple Manatees in shallow water who, in trying to get away from our Kayak, nearly gave Jamie a heart attack and filled our boat with 100 gallons of water. TA 4 we had been passed by two teams who had the unfortunate luck of being the “carrot” for two fast bikers that had 50 miles to reel in a measly 30 min lead. A bit to eat and a clean pair of shorts after our sea cow encounter was it before heading out to tear the legs off a few well trained paddlers that had gotten the best of us.
Back in the lead we are now working with Team Tools from Canada to find some well hidden CPs in the middle of nowhere. Because four riders are faster than two we made a packed to stay with each other till CP 6 and we would go our separate ways but at TA 5 (CP 11) we rolled in again in first place and all still together. Having lost ground after a mis-marked road through us off course we decided to prolong our parting and take a few short long cuts on the road to regain our lead. Most of the mountain biking was to be done on dirt roads but here in Fl there is no dirt, it is all sand, 4 inch deep bloody sand that makes training ride up the Mt. Washington auto road seem like an easy spin.
Twenty hours into a race is not a time to dilly dally and do something silly like sleep but after the days of traveling and hours in the hot sun and sand we all fell asleep for a little over an hour. I was in the bed of the truck eating mashed potatoes and sifting through 23 new maps and 6 more pages of instructions when the sleep monsters caught me and pulled me into a deep state of unconsciousness. Meg, our lead support crew, attempted to wake me a few times verbally before resorting to violate shaking and yelling. It was light now and we needed to get a move on. After plotting the next four sections we headed out on a swamp trek with our new found friends right beside us. Jason and Laura worked well with us and going into a bushwhacking section two eyes are better than one and eight are better than four so we stuck together. Also, we were four of the fastest athletes there and knew we could benefit from racing together.
The swamp section was good until we spent 7 hours in the thick bush looking for SP3 (Swamp Point). After a few hours we were on the phone with the race director and asking for more water on the course and going in for our last attempt. At this point most teams were skipping SP3 and heading to TA 6 without it. We, however, were dead set on getting this point which if obtained would automatically make us overall winners because the other teams passed it. But at 8:45 pm we cashed in our chips and left the bush like broken gamblers that just lost their fortune at the craps tables. We were still the leading Duo teams and high up in the standings but the lead team was far off in front and we had little to no chance of getting the overall victory that we were hoping for.
The next few sections were completed with another addition to our group, Team XS, and the six of us began to be known as a combination of our official team names “Wilson’s XS Tools”. From that point on we extended our lead on all the other duo teams and caught a bunch of other racers that had moved passed us while trying to find Swamp Thing 3 the day before. We ran, biked and paddled another 110 miles before pulling into the finish at Sea Hags marina on the gulf coast all three boats tied together. Over the past 48 hours non of us had slept and we all came really close as people do in Adventure Racing, we crossed the line together with mixed emotions of how we managed the race and how the race was managed but the one thing we all knew is we were all fast tough racers that united in the true spirit of Adventure Racing.
We ended in a three way tie for first and took home first in our division with a time bonus from early in the race and left the race site with new friends to race with next month and few prizes and a %50 off entry for next years race. Be sure the watch the leader board at next years C2C because Team Littleton Bike Shop will be there and gunning for an overall victory.
Many thanks are extended to our title sponsor Littleton Bike Shop for our clothing and equipment and our support crew Meg Skidmore and the young James Myers, you kept us moving fast, clean and well fed.

First Race for Team Littleton Bike Shop!

This just in! Team Wilson consisting of Jamie Myers and Dave Stiles has received new title sponsorship for the summer of 2007.



May 19th Team Littleton Bike Shop made their debut at the annual Kancamagus Hill Climb. Team LBS took part in a new catagory this year, the team time trial. A cold soggy morning of fog and drizzle over shadowed the 21 mile hill climb from Conway, NH to the top of the Kancamangus notch. The team made quick work of the course and the competition by finishing the race in first place in 1 hour and 10 minutes, two minutes ahead of the next closest team. An all out effort that paid off in the first win of the season.



Stay tuned for more updates from Team Littleton Bike Shop.

-Yacky