Howdy Ya All, Nevada Dave Norton here. Thought I’d put out a little rundown of my experience on the course. First of all, I started riding with this race in mind since January, when I started layin down some base miles in no matter what weather. Time and intensity is what I focused on. Steadily increasing the amount of time and varying intensity is what I did. Mileage (how far), and weather (it’s cold, snowy, wet, dark, etc, waaaaaa) mattered not. Non issues.

This race was a unresolved issue for me from last year. I entered 24 solo last year, and bonked 3 hours into it. I have some theories as to how this happened, but it really confounded me at the time. I’ve raced 12 hours before, and did well earlier this season, but I still had some trepidation standing on the same starting line as last year.

The gun went off and the 1/4 mile cattle stamped lemans style run to our bikes began. A nasty cramp almost welled up in my leg, but I breathed deep and it didn’t set in. Found my bike and took off on the long lead out to the woods. I had my heart rate monitor on so I could stay around 150 for the early part of the race. However the first 3 hours or so, I found myself WAY above that. More like 170s.

THE COURSE: The course was 14.2 miles I believe. Mostly undulating and flowy singletrack. However, there was certainly a fair share of roots and rocks. Nice long cinder climbs, and fast cool descents too. It wasn’t like ORE TO SHORE 19 MPH fast, but it wasn’t LEVIS TROW 100 10 mph either. It was just plain SWEET!!!

MY THOUGHTS/FEELINGS: Yeah, I was very happy and motivated after cranking out some fast times early on (just like last year) and getting past the 4 hour mark, which is when I bonked out last year. I purposefully was trying to reel myself in, and conserve energy. Not easy for me in a race setting. Mentally I had to reel in my body that was saying “go real fast”. I did so, and my times leveled out, and I was just really enjoying the ride. I never got bored or even really weird emotionally. I just surrendered to the fact that I’m going to ride ride and ride till someone pulls the plug on me. I felt best at night. It was cool, and I was rolling. I did have two very bad laps. One long pit, and one time my lights went out, and I rode for an hour barely holding onto a small flashlight. I really thought that there was no chance of getting top ten after that, and I was sort of bummed. I had enough endorphins floating in me that I really wasn’t that down, and when I got lights I actually experienced the highlight of my race. May not seem like much, but to me at the time it felt very uplifting. I was going through the chute, and right in front of me was Nat Ross for Subaru Gary Fisher. YES, I know, he just lapped me, but hear me out. We were on the lead out, and after a while I just casually passed him, and ducked into the singletrack. I just fueled up, lubed my butt and chain, had very bright lights, and began riding like a monster was chasing me. That monster being Nat. Long story short I held him off for almost 2 laps. I thought it would be about 5 minutes. Yea man, I was rolling and wasn’t gonna stop after that.

Sun came up and I knew the end was in site. I missed the night. I went in at 16th place and came out in 10th. My goal was top ten, so I felt good. Even though I felt very good, I really didn’t have a lot of fight to battle for many more places. I just wanted to hang on and not stop riding. My feet, butt, and triceps were what hurt the most. I was standing up most of the last laps, and my heart rate was way down. I couldn’t seem to ride fast enough to keep it up. I was focusing most of my mental energy on protecting my right knee of all things. There was a few technical sections that I could have bumped it, and due to a prior injury, it hurts LIKE HELL if I even tap it on the bike during riding.

FINISH: I finished up with a lot of steam left over. Pulled a wheelie by the pit. I don’t plan on racing a lot next year due to the fact that I want to do other things, BUT if I was to do it again, I KNOW that I would go Much faster. Thanks to all of my support from my pit crew. I guarantee that I would have been closer to 20th place without them. Cristina, Justin, Paolo, Mike, Liz, Roxy, Sophie, and Sean Reeder who dominated the singlespeed class. We all rocked the house CHICAGO STYLE !! woo woo! Sincerely, Dave Norton