This past saturday Barry and I headed down ti fisher farm park for the 2008 Cowbell Challenge.This was the first solo 12 hour event I had done and it was pretty obvious from the get go. I decided on some maniacal whim to go rigid and singlespeed even though I had only ridden single speed once on about a two hour ride before and Ihad only ridden rigid a handful of times on short tangle wood rides. The race started at 10 am and I know Barry and I both felt underprepared, I was still yawning like I just woke up. The race started and I went out pretty hard for the first three laps, I was feeling suprisingly good so I decided not to stop and eat quite yet (this turned out to be really dumb). After the three laps I stopped and ate some food and I still felt pretty decent. Then I started riding! The food deficit was obvious and I had one of those "I dont think I want to finish" laps. I forgot to mention that at the start of the second lap Barry got a flat, we had fun joking around while we got him rolling again. Once I started the fifth lap I was feeling pretty good again but I knew I would need to stop more often for food so I made stops every lap after this point. The rigid fork didnt feel bad until I started getting really fatigued, then I started wrecking..... Alot. I started having to walk the hills on the eighth lap, there were guys there that were running 2/1 gear ratios that didnt walk once, that was impressive to see. At the end of the tenth lap my spirit and mind were about broken. I came back to the tent to find Barry had hurt his knee( this was very unfotunate because he was riding well ). He was very encouraging and was trying to get me to go back out, we still had two hours of race yet. I was looking for reasons to stay in my chair and finally one came. Lightning started hitting close to the race so they called it early. This was a huge relief because I was hurting bad. All in all it was alot of fun, I am definately sticking to singlespeed rigid. It was harsh but the simplicity has its draw. I think I am going to stay away from lap races for the most part and do more epic types(60's and 100's). I definately thrive more on the change of scenery and adventure that goes hand in hand with the epic type rides. Check out the pics above of me and Barry suffering!
