24 Hours in the Canyon, #FAIL

I "raced" the 12 hour geared solo event at the 24 Hours in The Canyon.  It's a really fun event that does a MTB and Road endurance race.  It takes place in Palo Duro Canyon which is gorgeous.  I didn't do any specific training for this race (and am 25lbs over race weight) so I had no illusions that I was going to make the whole 12 hours. I was just going to take it one lap at a time.

The 24 hour race starts at noon on Saturday, the 12 hour race starts at midnight, the 6 hour starts at 6am and they all finish at noon on Sunday.    The MTB course is about a 8 mile loop with 400+ feet climbing per lap.  Mostly pretty easy single track with a 1 mile technical section towards the end.

My brother and I got out to the canyon on Friday to do a pre-ride and get pit location setup.  It was fucking hot and there were biting flies everywhere.  Those biting flies can all burn in hell. 

We chilled out most of Satuday and went back into the canyon later in the afternoon on Saturday to get everything ready to and setup before our midnight start.  Several storms had run through the canyon and made the course nasty but it was still okay to ride.  As we are hanging out watching the race directors stop everyone and starts to yell "Seek Cover, large hail and high winds coming".  In the canyon you have no where to go.  Racing was stopped around 6:30ish.

Luckily the hail never hit the pit area but some of the rides out on the course got hit with some little hail.  However, we did get quite a bit of rain and the bikes coming off the trail were a fucking mess.

Once the storms cleared and the trail dried a little bit racing was resumed at 9pm.

So we started racing a midnight, the trail wasn't too bad.  Some of the corners were really slick and there were a couple mud holes but over all it wasn't too bad.  However, the storms left us with 100% humidity.  With the temps in the low 60s, the water just hung in the air and settling on everything.  Within 5 minutes of starting I was soaked to the bone and was cold.  Lap 1 was good, I was pacing myself within my limits and felt alright.  As I hit the technical section on Lap 2 my helmet light (my main light) just turned off, no low battery warning, nothing.  I had to ride out with only my bar mounted light.  It REALLY sucks to ride with just a bar light.  In the twisty technical shit, you want the light to be where you are looking.  So I got back to the pit after lap 2 and was completely frazzled.  I changed my battery on my light but since my batteries were not lasting the 3 hours like at home (yes, I tested both batteries at home the week before) I wouldn't be able to do more than 1 more lap.  I did the 3rd lap.  I had no clue if my battery would last another lap or not and was pretty pissed.  I knew I had a lap or two left in me but I didn't want to ride with just the bar light again so I sat down.  YOU NEVER SIT DOWN IN ENDURANCE RACES, at least I can't.  It was 3:15am and within a 5 minutes I was asleep. I was done.

I only made it 3+ hours, which is pretty fucking embarrassing.  I'm better than that, even at my current weight and fitness, I'm better than that.

I did have fun and absolutely love riding in the canyon but would like to do it more in the daylight.  I love this event, everyone is so friendly and it's just like a huge party all weekend.  The next time I go I will be in better shape and ready to kick ass.

The weekend wasn't a total fail, I got to take some selfies with plastic cows.

ADDENDUM:

I also had a awesome wardrobe malfunction with one of my jerseys that my brother thought was hilarious.  Fucking zipper broke.