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.