12 Hours of Sundance Mountain Bike Race

12 Hours of Sundance

Two weekends ago I got a call from a friend asking me if I wanted to race in the 12 Hours of Sundance mountain bike race. I was pretty excited about the race knowing that 24 Hours of Moab was just around the corner and a solo race would prepare me for Moab.

We ended up camping at Sundance which was odd because we had to camp in a parking lot. We pitched our tents and set base camp up and went to sleep. Around 1 a.m. I woke up due to the rain, rain, and yes more rain, I thought my tent was going to float away down Provo Canyon. I haven't heard rain like this since I lived in the Caribbean. I kept thinking maybe we should go home, they are going to cancel the race. I tried to fall back asleep but couldn't because the rain and the wind was so loud. My alarm went off around 5:30 a.m. and I maybe got 2 hours of sleep. A truck drove by as I was making breakfast and announced the race has been postponed for 2 hours making the race "10 Hours of Sundance." I was a little relieved knowing how much sleep I got the night before.

As everyone was getting ready I think everyone was really wondering how washed out and slippery the trail was going to be. My first lap was wet, and muddy, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I arrived into camp to refuel and quickly went off on my 2nd lap. The race website said that each lap was around 1200 feet of elevation gain, but my garmin read a little over 1600 feet of gain. Each lap felt different and I quickly fell in love with areas and absolutely hated a few areas as well.

After my 6th lap I came into base camp and ate lunch and took a 5 minute rest before I went out again. The weather throughout the race was pretty consistent till I was on lap 7. On lap 7 the clouds set in and started to rain, I was smart enough to grab my vest and arm warmers before I left camp, the temperature changed fast and quickly got cold. By the time I started my 8th lap the sun came back out and I had 2 hours left of riding. I kept a consistent pace on laps 8 and 9 and arrived into camp at 6:15 with 15 minutes to decide if I wanted to do a 10th lap. I told myself in the morning after they delayed the race 2 hours that I could do 10 laps. My legs were tired and my neck was starting to hurt, but I knew I could do one more lap. Everyone at camp cheered me up and told me I could do it. I'm glad I went out on my 10th lap, I don't know if it was all mental knowing that this was my final lap. I saw a few riders on the trail Dan Zvirdin (Overall SS Winner) on the final climb as we both pushed it to the top, as I made it to the top and could hear the crowd I felt like I accomplished something. I finished the race with around 80 miles of riding and over 16,000 feet of climbing.

I finished the race in 5th place overall (10 laps) in the men's solo division. Our camp was awesome! Willie and Chris had a solid duo race, Jamie, Jason, Jason H., and Ahmi had great solo races as well.

Here is a link to an awesome video of the race. (I'm at 1:08-1:12)

http://vimeo.com/29242414

Park City Point to Point

Back in February I had a few friends who signed up for the Park City Point to Point. The race sold out in 7 minutes and one of my friends from Logan wasn't able to lock in spot for the race due to the number of riders trying to get a spot. I felt like Charlie with a "Golden Ticket" when I received my confirmation!

The PCPTP is an 85 mile mountain bike race with 14,000 feet of vertical climbing which starts at Round Valley in Park City and eventually ends at the Canyons ski resort. Throughout the early summer we road sections of the trail and I raced the PC50 which consisted of a lot of the same mid-mountain trail in Park City.

As August came to an end we spent the first weekend of September in Deer Valley at the Condo over Labor Day weekend. As I woke up on Saturday morning we met over in Round Valley about an hour early so we could warm up and getting everything set in place. About 20 minutes before the race I panicked and realized I had left my timing chip at the Condo back in Deer Valley!!!! I jumped in my truck and zipped toward the condo driving 75 mph in a 25 mph zone. As I ran into the condo, I slapped the timing chip on my leg and drove off. I arrived at the start of the race with 12 minutes to spare. I pulled into the parking lot and had 2 minutes to tighten my shoes and spring to the front line.

As the race started, I found myself within the middle of the first pack as we went through Round Valley. The first 11 miles went by so fast as we were already approaching the "Lost Prospector" trail headed towards Deer Valley. My pace was great and as I approached T1 (mile 26) on the top of the Deer Crest trail, one of the volunteers handed me my bag and yelled out, "you are only 5 minutes off of the lead group!" This gave me a good boost as I left T1 and headed up towards Silver Lake, which was an extremely steep ride up the fire road.

As I approached the bottom of Park City, I rolled into T2 (mile 56) to refuel. Another volunteer yelled out, "your only 30 minutes off of the leader." My legs felt great, but I knew riding up Spiro would be tough trying to make it back onto Mid Mountain. I left T2 in a hurry trying to set my own pace and 5 riders took off and followed me up Spiro. I kept yelling back, asking if anyone wanted to switch to take the lead, but nobody responded. I kept moving and as soon as I hit the last switch back I jumped off of my saddle and pushed forward to get a consistent pace on Mid Mountain. As I looked down, my Garmin read 61 miles and 10 minutes later my Garmin turned off, which really upset me. I was riding solo for a good 45 minutes with nobody in sight and my power started to slow way down. I started having a meltdown as other riders began to pass me, giving me encouragement to keep pushing forward. I knew T3 was close and I knew food would help me make it to the finish line.

I finally pulled into T3 (mile 68) and I needed food; I ate whatever I could grab and kept moving toward the Canyons Resort. The Mid Mountain trail around mile 70 is horrible, thats the only word to I can use to describe having been on my mountain bike for 70 miles. The trail is basically a bunch of loose rocks and I could barely grip my handlebars, and my toes had no feeling in them from how bumpy the downhill was. I eventually made it down the mountain and pushed into the finish line at 8:52:00 which put me 35 in the Open Male and 66/350 overall.

I had a blast and I am excited to see you again next year PCPTP!!