Who Needs Sleep?: WEAVERVILLE ~ WORTH THE DRIVE FROM THE OC!

Some people ask why I race and what I get from it. Well,,,,, 11 hours in the car, 12 hours on bikes, 3 days away from home, and this is what I have to show for the 12 Hours of Weaverville: a medal from the race and a congratulatory bouquet of flowers from my best friend Miss Gilly. But honestly, my true reward cannot be hung around my neck, or on the wall, or even put into my bank account. What I win, no matter what place I get, are great friends, precious memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.

Hammer Josh, Princesa Bern, Super Mario, La Ruta Lou, and Fuzzy John

The enduro freaks of Team Sho-Air/Rock N' Road Cyclery represented at the 12 Hours of Weaverville. Josh, Lou, and Fuzzy rode solo while Mario and I teamed up.

Super Mario driving us by the beautiful Whiskeytown Lake.

Mario, Josh, and I took turns driving. Although we all definitely had different tastes in music, there were a few things we could agree upon....well,,,basically we agreed that I'd be the "Director of Entertainment" and we'd listen to whatever I wanted. :) Of course Shakira and Moby were on the playlist and Josh almost threw himself out the door,,,,but he didn't... so that was good. We stayed the night at Lou's place in San Jose and from there we drove the rest of the way through Redding and on to Weaverville where we met up with Fuzzy. We checked into the Trinity Motel, laid out our gear, and DMS'd each other. Aaaaaahh, DMS, what did we ever do without it? The boys had some laughs (while I wasn't listening)...something about taxidermy...and Fuzzy's philosophy of hair to hair and skin to skin...but I'll let you read more about that one on Super Mario's blog. Around 5pm, we drove about a mile from our motel to the race headquarters at a local school where we checked in and then pre-rode the course.

Black Widow by my bed in our room at the Trinity Motel

The course immediately started with a long fire-road climb that took about a half hour. After that there was some flat fire road with magnificent views of gorgeous lands with lots of tall trees (something we don't see much of in SoCal). Then it was pretty much all down hill!!! There was some super fun narrow singletrack that took a bit of concentration. I don't think I've ever ridden such narrow singletrack before. The theme of my race became "FLOW" "FLOWING" "DON'T CRASH!" "FLOW" "RELAX AND FLOW" "DON'T CRASH!" "JUST FLOW" "FLOWY" "DON'T FLAT!" "SMILE AND FLOW" "FLOOOOWWW" "YELLOW RELAX LIKE JELLO" It was so much fun and I just got better at it every time I went down. That downhill singletrack was soooooo worth the 30 minute climb....in fact, it was worth 4X the 30 minute climb!,,,,,,,,heck it was worth the 11 hour drive from the OC & 4X the climb!! Yup, I guess I enjoyed it.

Team Sho-Air "rules the school!"

After the pre-ride, we went to a Mexican dinner with Fuzzy, his girlfriend Christina and some other NorCal folks we met. Then we made our customary trip to the grocery store. I've decided that the only time I enjoy grocery shopping is when I'm shopping for a race. Is it because it's the only time I can justify buying Have'a chips, Red Bull, Coco-Cola, and extra super duper plus calorie rich foods??? YUP!! That's right! Then we went home to Motel Trinity and watched one of my favorite shows Deadliest Catch before we went to sleep.

Our pit with our new NorCal friends

Everyone kept asking about us; who we were, where we came from. I think they were happy to have some new folks around. And we were extremely happy to meet new people, ride in a new place, and experience a different mountain bike community. They are so lucky to have such beautiful trails with such beautiful views!

Fuzzy & Christina

Fuzzy started off super strong, but then his sciatica kicked in and knocked him out for a while. He took a long break and then his competitiveness kicked in past the sciatica and he busted out another couple of laps before the pain took him out again. Hopefully he will overcome that obstacle and be back on the podium again in no time!

Hammer Josh rides through the pit

Someday Hammer Josh will really stick to his plan and he'll have the top spot on the podium! But this time he battled the heat and his own demons and stuck in there to finish 2nd in the pro solo male category. Not too shabby!

Secrets of the enduro freaks! BIG 'OL CAN OF WHOOP ASS when you're really in a pickle, PIMP JUICE when you want a boot in the butt, & RED BULL when you need wiiiiings!

Hammer Josh and La Ruta Lou full of dirt, sweat, and cheers!

I think Lou must have drank a COUPLE of cans of "WHOOP ASS" 'cause she kicked some booty and got 1st place! 9 laps for her and when she was done, she ran a marathon, swam Lake Erie, and climbed Anapurna! ;-) (okay, well, she probably could have!)

Fellow adventure racers Scott & Jen

Scott Porter and Jen Ratay were at the race. Scott did it solo and finished with 8 laps while Jen supported him and chit-chatted with me in between laps. I will do an international adventure race with Scott later this year. Jen is great! She's an incredible adventure racer and 24 hour mtbiker too. It was so fun to hang with her and I hope to spend more time with them in the future.