Poor TBB

24 Hours of Nine Mile has come and gone and, unfortunately, it kicked Team Brown Bear's ass. Trent and I got there decently early on Friday and picked out our campsite for the weekend. We also did a pre-ride of the course. It was the same distance as last year (14 miles), but featured a lot more singletrack and hand-numbing rock garden sections. Later on that day, Rick, Vino, and Jen arrived and then on Saturday morning the rest of our support crew, Tonia and Heather, arrived as well.

Here are the four wide-eyed Brown Bear's right before the LeMans start. Vino took off in a full sprint like we expected. :)
The first lap went well...a lot of congestion in the singletrack but eventually I caught back up to sprinter Vino and we finished the lap together. The second and third lap went by smoothly (I think it was the 3rd lap where Eatough lapped us for the first time and where Vino cracked his saddle rail).

Here's a pic of Vino and I before taking off on another lap. Notice the nice new EZ-Up canopy tent and Team Brown Bear banner that Tonia made.

On the next lap, Vino snapped his saddle completely off. Pretty humorous. Luckily Rick packed a spare seat, so Vino got to ride the rest of the race on a sweet Velo Plush saddle. Here's Trent gulping down a Starbuck's double shot while support crew member Tonia gazes lovingly.

On the sixth lap was where it went down the crapper for me. Just like last year at Afton, my knee started to flare up to the point of where it killed to push down on the pedal while standing on a climb or powering thru a rock section. Oddly enough, it was my right knee this time...last year it was my left knee. I really didn't want it to be like last year, when I pushed it to the point of not even being able to pedal at all, so I decided to end it there. 10 hours into the race after already completing 6 laps and 84 miles, and it was over for me. That sucked! The rest of me was feeling strong; legs, lungs, mentally, etc. Oh well I guess.

Vino did one more lap after I called it a race, and then cramped really hard in his leg. His race was done as well after 7 laps.

Rick went out for an early morning lap and was having cramp issues as well. He called it after 5 laps.

Trent was going strong for awhile but then hit a wall and needed a break. He went out for a lap in the morning after a good nap and ended with 6 laps.

Here I am after my sixth lap, icing down my knee and squinting at the bright ass camera flash.

The results on the 24-9 website for some reason don't list one of the laps that Trent, Vino, and I did, so the 3 of us all show up on the results page with one lap less than what we really did. So with that, it shows that I finished in 26th place.

That sucks that for the second time I had to end a 24hr race when I was otherwise feeling fine because of my knees. It feels better now, so I don't think it should affect any other races this season, but I'm not sure what to do with 24hr races now. I love the camping atmosphere and being able to meet up with friends and family. I don't know. Maybe I'll do more of them as a 4-man team instead of solo or something. We'll see I guess. We've already signed up for 24 hours of Afton for later this year, where the 3 of us will be taking it easy and having fun because that course is uber hard. Maybe we'll take a picture of us having a picnic on the course like we planned. :)

Big thanks go out to Heather, Tonia, and Jen for their great support! The best support crew out there!! Also, Sears and Kim made an appearance on Sunday morning, so it was good seeing them as well.

Up next is a WORS race near Milwaukee on Sunday.