“I have always struggled to achieve excellence. One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you can achieve something without a struggle it's not going to be satisfying.” – Greg LeMond

I have struggled to write this report. Sure it was a struggle, but it was more fun than should be allowed at times. 109 miles is no walk in the park by any means but I do not think I have ever truly enjoyed just existing as I did out there that day. I always loved the socks that they gave us at the 24 Hours in The Old Pueblo ride, they read “a good day on the bike” that’s just it. It was a damn good day, on the bike.

It all started Friday afternoon. The week of chaos had me really contemplating whether or not I could even do this ride. Sure we had trained, sure I was excited but stress, sickness and other thoughts were getting in the way. It was all forgotten as soon as we hit the road with Chris in tow and chatted away about what we were about to endure. I got even more exciting as soon as we got to the restaurant with our ESCKTC buddies: Cora, Harry, Jerry, Rick, Sterling (welcome!), Tanya, Mat, Chris and of course my faithful Josh. We were lucky enough to be staying with Cora’s fab parents. After a delicious meal (wahoo for mac and cheese) and delicious conversation with friends we headed out for our first try at staying together on the trek to Cora’s parent’s house. Yeah…good omen for what was to come! HA! We all just took off, some ended up a little lost but luckily we got behind Jer who unbeknownst to us had navigation.

Once at the parental’s house typical antics ensued. I made out with a boxer, Harry gave Daryl some lovin, Chris and Jer tried to figure out how to hook their cots together – the usual. It was getting late and a 4AM wakeup call loomed.

After hacking up bits of lung all night 4AM rolled around. I actually felt excited for the first time in 2 days. Josh and I looked at each other like “LETS DO ‘ DIS!” And the morning rush began. Shockingly we made it to the start line about 5 AM for a decent spot in the silver corral toward the front. Had we known we would be going off straight gun time I may have made a better effort to poach gold, but hey…who cares? Got reamed at the porta pottie line TWICE, got back in line to hear what the guys had decided was the logo shined on the wall (an alien eating a mouse in a sombrero???) and then it was pretty much time to go!

The start was FAST and chaotic, I LOVED it. Was so neat to hear how road bikers work. So much chatter. “Turning, slowing, tracks, stopping, left, passing, etc.” I smiled huge just thrilled to be a part of the experience of such an amazing event. We started behind Tanya, Harry, Chris and Jerry to start with and we lost them pretty much right away. As soon as we caught them they were gone again. Dawned on us that it was going to be TOUGH to stick together. Got to the first wash at 8 miles, started singing “Let my people go” as it looked like a MASS exodus. Peed in a bush, looked for ESCKTCers and emptied my shoes. Those crossings took forever, but they were a fun adventure! Josh and I got rolling again, saw everyone at an aid at 20ish. Regrouped for a little bit. Got lost again in the hills. The hills around 30 were uber fun. Rolly and then the longest best downhill EVER! Smiling huge and just having the time of my life. We would find people here and there. At the next wash we were all together again and had fun snaking through the loooong wash. They were even taking pics in there. Then it was time for HILLZ. Seemed like from mile 50 something on there were gradual climbs for a long time. Right after the wash was the shortest steepest hill and people were practically falling over. I made it up it really no probs and worked to catch back up to Josh and the other crew. Somehow we got separated again. Made it to pancakes and looked at the watch and realized we may be cutting it close. Didn’t see anyone at the entrance and carried on. From there on out we would see spatterings of friends but we never regrouped fully.

Caught onto an AWESOME pace line after the long downhill and were working fantastically. Communicating, sharing the work, etc. Until DUMB me decides to take a second pull. As I move to the front I tell the lead guy that my pull would be short (we were averaging 19-20 and I was worried I would not be able to stay out front in the wind and keep the pace steady for long) I got out there and kept it at 20. I looked back a little while later and I was ALONE. I blew the group apart. OOPS! I actually felt really stupid. I sat up and waited for them to catch up and the guy said “you just took off!” He laughed and I latched onto the back as he passed. I felt like a MILLION bucks toward the end. I joked that I just take a long time to warm up as I started pacing in groups for a good amount of time. Josh and I would drop a group (pull ahead) and chase to another. We were working beautifully together and finding nicely formed packs. Unfortunately the roads were beating us to death but it was okay. We did this all the way to the climb at mile 90 where, I must mention, I dropped my husband and stopped at the top. OK OK never would I mention this but it was a HUGE victory for me. For those who ride with us will understand. YES I will forever talk about this! HA! We took aid again at 90 (even though I wanted to keep trucking HA HA!) That aid station SUCKED! No one to hold bikes and no one would come near the road you had to walk way back to get aid and they ran out of water and had to go way back to get more. I just was ready to be done!

Back on the road and 1 mile later “ding ding” HARRY!!! Wahoo! It was good to see him, he told us how hard he had worked to catch and I believe it on old skool Daryl! We knew we would make our sub 7 goal at the point so we were just the three of us heading on in. I told myself to really take it in. We were so blessed to have had such a good day: no flats, accidents, major mechanicals (even though I think between the noises of Harry and I’s bikes we were making some pretty music!) I was sad to see it coming to an end, and then RRRRRRTTTTT – STOP. They stopped us RIGHT before the finish! DANGIT. We had to wait for traffic for a little bit. It was then that I was antsy to be done. Swung around the corner and there was the finish. I reached for Josh’s hand and we finished side by side. PERFECT.


Now that I know the course and know how this race is run next year I will try and get to the front so the wash lines are not so long and so gun time does not add so much time to my actual which was 6:3X.

Got out of my biking clothes ASAP and looked for buddies! Everyone finished strong - it was AWESOME!!!


Experience. Just started road biking 7 months ago.