The 24 Hours at Chamberlain Ranch

Drew and I just got back from his 4-man 24 hour mountain bike relay at Chamberlain Ranch. It's a cattle ranch near the town of Los Olivos. The race started at 11am Saturday and ended 11am Sunday. Needless to say it was a very very long day... Much longer for Sean, Todd, Drew and Keith, than it was for me. My job involved serving as team mom, cheerleader, and helping out the timing tent for 3 hours from 7p-10p.

Drew and Sean had the opportunity to try out the course early Friday evening right before dinner. It was an 11.4 mile course full of steep switchback climbs, descents, and plenty of singletrack. Friday night dinner kicked off the event with a big feast at Mattie's Tavern in Los Olivos. Nothing like some good 'ol pre-race protein and carbohydrate loading. Then it was back to the campsite for some rest and relaxation for the 4 guys.

The morning started out chilly, gray and cloudy. We all had hopes that it would burn off in by the afternoon. 100+ racers, men and women, from recreational and to pro racers, gathered together at the start, and at 11am on the dot the race began. It was a LeMans start where the front wheel is removed and racers run to their bike and put the front wheel on. Sean, the lead off man, didn't have a front tire that came off easily so the race organizers agreed to a 50 second delay start. Here he is patiently waiting to go... the announcer felt so bad that everyone was so far ahead that he let Sean go 5 seconds early.




The weather was okay for the first few hours of the day for Sean,

Todd and Drew.

Unfortunately, Keith had to deal with the worst weather & course conditions of the day. The skies opened up toward mid-day right before his part of the race. It began to sprinkle a bit, and then sprinkle turned to rain toward the end of Drew's loop. By the beginning of Keith's lap the mud was so thick & the trails were so slick he couldn't even climb and reverted to carrying his bike up and down the hills for 11 miles. Cold, bleeding and miserable he came in close to 2 hours later. His tires were so caked full of mud that they wouldn't even roll. They would just slide through the muck. Finally, toward the beginning of Sean's 2nd loop, the race organizers decided, for the safety of the participants, to shorten the course and remove a few of the muddy, steep hill climbs and descents. This shortened the course to 6 miles so many of the teams were doing 2 loops back to back toward the late afternoon and evening. I had the opportunity to help out at the timing tent and record the starts and finishes of various riders. It certainly made 3 hours go by quickly.

At around midnight, I was starting to think about how crazy the whole thing was. I couldn't imagine riding 30+ miles during the day and being expected to keep it up until the next morning. I fell asleep around midnight, Drew and company were trading off shifts in the late evening/early morning sessions and trying to rest in between. Sean, having started the race off at 11am, ended the race with his final lap at 10:30a.

IMHO, this event certainly puts the challenges of a marathon into perspective. In a marathon, a person is done, fed, and resting after 4-5 hours. I couldn't imagine getting up every 3 hours to bike 12 miles after already having done it twice or three times before. All in all, they fared pretty well against the other teams who all had at least one sport-pro class rider on them. Cheers to all of them for going through this grueling 24 hours of racing. My only hope is that they liked my contribution to the team... a pumpkin, decorated with their team name.



For more pictures of the race, please go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sarasarmie/ChamberlainRanch07