Crave To Race: 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.