Hurkin, Laverkin

This past weekend, I spent 4 days and 3 nights in the Desert southwest of Virgin, Utah. In the shadow of Gooseberry Mesa and Zion. I arrived early to set up the Team base camp for the 25 hours of Frog Hollow. The pups came down with me, along with a few thousand pounds of tents, tables, stoves, heaters and food. I got the camp partially complete and went off on a ride of the course. Same course as the 6 hour race giggly fun. The temps were in the high 60's and it was a bit windy, a front was moving in. After teh ride, I got some more of the camp put together and went ino hurkin for alame dinner, back to camp for bedtime.

Friday, I woke up, temps were a bit cooler, in the 50's, but the wind was whipping. Went back into hurkin for a great breakfast and then hung out with Quentin and DJ at Over the Edge for a bit. Went back and finished putting the camp together and went out for another ride on course. Ty, Brooke and Drew showed up, along with Chad and Stacey, so we went for yet another lap on the course. Too much fun. The wind was still blowing. Lyna and Sally and Ellen and Ste[phanie and Leslie and Whitney all showed up as well, several of us went into Hurkin for mexican, came back to camp (half of the teams stayed in motels or homes the night before the race) About 11pm it started raining and the wind was still howling.

BTW, i was not racing, I was supporting, 2 4 women teams and a Duo male team.

I woke up around 7:30, the rain stopped for about an hour, the temps dropped to the low 40's, the wind picked up and then around 9 it started snowing. The race started at 10 and it was looking bad. Miraculously at 9:30 the clouds started to break and at 9:45 the snow stopped falling and the race was on. Very little mud on the racers coming in from the first lap, the course was pure hero dirt.

the rest of the day was spent shepherding racers to and from transition, heckling racers, hanging out in the tent. The wind was brutal, even though the temps were in the low 50's the wind made it freezing out of the tent and the riders had to climb into the wind. Chad and I went out and did a lap with Ty in the afternoon, boy was it cold.

Ty and Drew gradually built a lead in the Duo male category. The 2 Revolution ladies teams were pretty close (they were the only womens teams) sometime in the afternoon, disaster struck for the Knobby Knymphs, Jennie double flatted and needed a teammate to come out to rescue her, losing 40 minutes in the process. So the Fast & Dirty girls had a large lead.

Finally as night fell, the wind died to nothing and even though the temps dropped, it seemed much warmer. I helped everyone with their lights and other needs, Lyna flatted on her first night lap, but still pulled a 1:30 time, even with going through 2 Co2s and having some light malfunctions.

Ty and Drew were stilling hammering it out and growing their lead. Chad did a night lap with Drew and I took 2 four hour naps, separated by an hour.

I got up Sunday am around 7, checked in to be sure everyone was ok and Drew was getting ready to go out on his last lap (23rd for the team) and asked if I wanted to ride it with him, I said sure, and thought I had an hour to get ready, had some pancakes and coffee, went to change and got back to the tent and Ty was back, So I went out to chase Drew down, I had to go XC pace to catch him on the dirt road leading to the Hurricane Rim bathroom. We rode the lap out and I decided to go out on Ty's last lap with him as well.

Meanwhile, the Fast & Dirty Girls had a 3 lap 'cushion' and after Sally went out on her 5th lap, no one really wanted to go out a gain, Leslie was filling sick, Whitney was blown and Lyna was sleepy, however, Lyna, being stubborn as she is went out for her 6th and the teams 20th lap. She went out 15 minutes before Ty and I and we saw her a few times in the distance a few times toward the middle of the lap, but she pulled away at the end and finished around 15 minutes before Ty did.

Ty made it in at a bout 1 minute to 10am, meaning, they could of gone out for a 25thlap, however, 24 was their goal and they had a 3 lap cushion, so they called it for the W, The Fast & Dirty Girls got the W as well.

We teamed up to break camp in record time, Hung out for the podium and headed home.

Great weekend in the Desert. Fun and inspiring. Awesome to see Dave Byers crush it for 20 laps and 2nd place. Always great to see the Southern Utah peeps, Kim and Danny, DJ and Quentin, Cim and Bryce, Lynda and Dave, Fixie and all others.

The Frog Hollow race had over 250 participants, which, I believe is as many as the 'National Championship' 24 hour race back in October. They also had more out of State participants than that 'Championship' race. USAC what's up with that?!?!?!?