PA 24Hour MBike Race, Warsaw Indiana 2012

PWild and JZ decided to drive 3 hours north to do another 24Hour MBike Race.  Weather look to be perfect, slight chance of rain, but sunny and could drop to below 30's at night.  Brr......we came with a Plan.  Read on to see if it worked! ;)  Got to the race sight in time to sign up....I waited in line to sign up as JZ put up our house of a tent and got all gear inside with heater ready to keep us warm during transition times.  I waited in line for a LONG while as they were not ready for the crowd that showed up for the KCV Poverty 24Hr Challenge.  Start time was Noon.  They had 6, 12, and 24 hour racers as well as relay.  They called all racers to the start line at 11:50.  They had us put our bikes in the shoot close the entrance to the "hole" as racers call it into the woods.  The race director told us to all walk back to the start of the shoot and he would then give us the "starting" directions for the mass start.  We were all talking about what it could be. He then said over the PA system that we were to drop our helmets at our feet, run to our bikes and grab a wheel, run back for our helmets, then run back to our bikes, all while jumping over 3 ropes at different heights in between.  You could hear the mumbling of the riders ...and laughter that this was nuts.  LOL  I agree.  Anyway, the gun went off and the masses started.  We were talking to an experience 24hr rider and he told us to just walk that it was a long day and let all the crazy madness go. :)  We agreed.  And it WAS a long day!!!  The course was technique, up and down short steep hills, over bridges, down hills that had drops at the end, over a creek a few times, switch backs, a rock garden, over a down tree, more switch backs.....we came up on a sign at the top of a hill that said "STuds this way" pointing right and "Skirts this way" and pointed left.....of course JZ went right and PWild went left.....all in 6.5 miles.  5 Laps went by quick for PWild and JZ was on his 6th.....with this event they gave us 3 meal tickets.  One for around 6pm, Midnight and again at Noon.  We decided to break at 6pm get some real food.....pasta and chicken....yum.  Changed our shirts for some dry cloths and warmed up for a few minutes in the tent and made sure we had LUPINE lights on bikes and helmets to light the way when it got dark around 7:15pm.  Off on our bikes again.....we could not wait too long as other riders were gaining laps on us if we were not riding.  Darkness seem to come quickly and the trails seem to lighten up with less riders as the 6 and 12 hour racers were done.  Midnight came and racing hard it got cold fast .....cloths were soaked from sweating.  Stopping close to midnight to change all cloths for warm dry cloths was the best thing ever. It saved both of us, something that hurt us in the last 24hour race, staying warm with dry cloths(Point Six socks and Go Light jackets rock!).   Lesson learned and it paid off.  We had some more food and decided to shut our eyes for a few while we got warm.  The temps drop so fast it seemed and you could see your breath in the air.  Back up at 5am I went to the bathrooms....it seemed pretty quiet out and I was wondering how many laps we were down now.....boy the sleeping bags warmth really did feel nice........we were looking at the electronic standings board and it appear all but one lead male rider decided to take a "nap" during the cold early morning hours.  JZ was down one tap from 2nd and knew he need to go out, PWild was up one lap on second place and need to go out to hold first place female.  Off running to the tent to change and go as we saw the second place female enter the trail on her bike.  JZ was approached by the second place male rider and some smack talk was exchanged but with big friendly smiles as we are all friends.  Reload of Honey Stinger products and more fuel, off to ride we go!!  We had 5 hours to make up laps and keep the heat on the other racers.  JZ was riding strong and had one of the fastest laps and PWild was pushing thru passing the second place female rider.  JZ stop to check the lap counts, decided to go light and took all gear off bike and no pack and went out for another lap.  In hopes to catch second place rider.  JZ came up on  PWild, in passing her Knee was killing her but she was pushing past it knowing she couldn't stop.  JZ told her that the female second place rider was still riding!  JZ came to the finish at 11:15, 45 minutes to do another lap?, pushed in to the hole and 1/2 mile in cramped up to the point of knowing that 45minutes was not going to be enough time and turned around and called it.  Waiting at the finish he found out that PWild went for another lap even after her knee pain.  Riders were crossing the finish line one by one as the clock ticked away.....11:20...11:35.....weres PWild.....11:50! Here she comes....crossing the finish line~~!!! JZ finished with 118 miles, 3rd place Male Solo...PWild finished with 91 miles, 1st Place Female Solo.