the Lunar quarry 12 , held this past weekend at Pine hill park in Rutland VT. this is a 12 hour race , so its long , and the 12 hours they decided to use was 6PM to 6 AM so it was Dark!
well My son and I both decided to do as solo riders , we are not the smartest ones here thats for sure. but it was fun .
the venue the start/finish /camping area /venue was actaully in the quarry it self
( taken from on top of the quarry wall )
Bikes ready to go
Riders well we are ready
now to start the race , they get every one lined up near the camp fire . now the campfire is really really raging . it is HOT near it . but thats not all. to start the race there is this 6 foot wood and paper moth , that flies down a wire from the top of the quarry wall into the fire .
we wait and watch , but one other thing , this moth is covered in Gunpowder!
Thats the signal to go!
well my son took off in front of me ,a bit after about 3/4 of a mile I passed him. I felt really good on this lap , and found my slef pacemaking for 2 other Solo riders, It was nice I was able to do most of the lap with out my lights being on, I turned on my bar light with a little less then a mile left in the first lap.
coming in from my first lap
i went thought the check point , and just continued right on out for my 2nd lap .
My son coming in from his 1st lap
I continued on pacemaking , but was not as strong , so I asked the other guy to make pace for a while. that was working well. and it was getting darker , so I turned on my helmet light ....and nothing .....tried to stay up with my pace maker using just the bar light , but I finally had to stop and try to fix my helmet light , I had a spare battery with me , and nothing still. crap. so I had to do the rest of the lap with just a bar light. and with a very twisty course the bar light just didn't cut i. so when I finally got back to camp ( and my son passed me while I was trying to fix my light ) I stopped to figure out what the problem was . turned out I had a loose wire in my connector. I fixed that had some food , my son was there eating brick oven pizza . there was a brick oven set up and they were making some awesome pizza's, so I ate some food , in the mean time my son took off ,and I left a few minutes behind him. I realized as I was riding That i wasn't drinking enough water. so I started taking long drags on my camel back hose and halfway through the lap , I was suddenly out of water! There were 4 aid stations along the course so i stopped and filled up, while at the aid station they told me my son had stopped because of cramping issues and they halp him stretch them out. .
I continued on and finished my lap.did I mention the Biathlon portion of this race ? yes at the end of every lap you had to take 5 shots at targets from a paint ball gun. this was lots of fun and most time I went 4/5
I took a longer stop this time . My son was in, but he was getting tired . I ate some more , rested for a Bit . then took off, leaving my son still resting I guess he left about 5 minutes after me . I did a Decent lap . I most defintly starting to tire so I was walking up some of the hills trying to conserve energy and taking it relativity easy. I made i it and needed to rest some , food , drink energy stuff etc . My so would come in shortly there after.
I took off before him again , and did an uneventful lap. got back , and just had to lay down. My son went out about 10 minutes after me . and as i layed there I relized I had been laying down over half an hour and my son still had not come in. he finally got back close to 45 minutes after me. I guess he broke his chain , and had to fix it on the trail. and he was also having cramping issues too. he layed down for a bit as well. I left he was laying down . I started up the trail , when My Light went out ! not even 1/2 mile from the camp. I forgot to swap out batteries , fortunately I was not far from camp , I went back and changed out my batts and off I went on my 5th lap. feeling pretty good . I layed down an OK lap. got back had some more food and rested a bit. I was getting ready to take off on my 6th lap , when My son came back in finishing his 5th lap. very tired cramping and sore , but other wise Ok , said he wanted to lay down for a bit then he was going back out . and if when I came back he was still there to wake him. Ok . so I took off going really slow this time , I was just out of gas , but kept going . i was about a 1/3 of teh way through the lap, and was walking the bike through a tough section , when "POW" My rear tire exploded! ther was an AID station about 400 yards up the trail so I hoofed it to there , and analyzing it there the side wall was shredded on my rear tire. ! the guys there started telling me the fastest way to walk back to camp. I was no way I can fix it . I used a couple of dollar bills to line the tire then, put a new tube in it , and it held . I then somehow managed to finish my lap with out flatting again. I got back to camp at 4:45 , you have to finish you last lap before 6 for it to count . I knew there was no way I was going to be able to do a 1:15 lap My son was asleep in the tent , I knew he couldn't do that quick of a lap either , so I sat down and cartoons !
then ate the pancake breakfast.
will definaly do it again!
well My son and I both decided to do as solo riders , we are not the smartest ones here thats for sure. but it was fun .
the venue the start/finish /camping area /venue was actaully in the quarry it self
( taken from on top of the quarry wall )
Bikes ready to go
Riders well we are ready
now to start the race , they get every one lined up near the camp fire . now the campfire is really really raging . it is HOT near it . but thats not all. to start the race there is this 6 foot wood and paper moth , that flies down a wire from the top of the quarry wall into the fire .
we wait and watch , but one other thing , this moth is covered in Gunpowder!
Thats the signal to go!
well my son took off in front of me ,a bit after about 3/4 of a mile I passed him. I felt really good on this lap , and found my slef pacemaking for 2 other Solo riders, It was nice I was able to do most of the lap with out my lights being on, I turned on my bar light with a little less then a mile left in the first lap.
coming in from my first lap
i went thought the check point , and just continued right on out for my 2nd lap .
My son coming in from his 1st lap
I continued on pacemaking , but was not as strong , so I asked the other guy to make pace for a while. that was working well. and it was getting darker , so I turned on my helmet light ....and nothing .....tried to stay up with my pace maker using just the bar light , but I finally had to stop and try to fix my helmet light , I had a spare battery with me , and nothing still. crap. so I had to do the rest of the lap with just a bar light. and with a very twisty course the bar light just didn't cut i. so when I finally got back to camp ( and my son passed me while I was trying to fix my light ) I stopped to figure out what the problem was . turned out I had a loose wire in my connector. I fixed that had some food , my son was there eating brick oven pizza . there was a brick oven set up and they were making some awesome pizza's, so I ate some food , in the mean time my son took off ,and I left a few minutes behind him. I realized as I was riding That i wasn't drinking enough water. so I started taking long drags on my camel back hose and halfway through the lap , I was suddenly out of water! There were 4 aid stations along the course so i stopped and filled up, while at the aid station they told me my son had stopped because of cramping issues and they halp him stretch them out. .
I continued on and finished my lap.did I mention the Biathlon portion of this race ? yes at the end of every lap you had to take 5 shots at targets from a paint ball gun. this was lots of fun and most time I went 4/5
I took a longer stop this time . My son was in, but he was getting tired . I ate some more , rested for a Bit . then took off, leaving my son still resting I guess he left about 5 minutes after me . I did a Decent lap . I most defintly starting to tire so I was walking up some of the hills trying to conserve energy and taking it relativity easy. I made i it and needed to rest some , food , drink energy stuff etc . My so would come in shortly there after.
I took off before him again , and did an uneventful lap. got back , and just had to lay down. My son went out about 10 minutes after me . and as i layed there I relized I had been laying down over half an hour and my son still had not come in. he finally got back close to 45 minutes after me. I guess he broke his chain , and had to fix it on the trail. and he was also having cramping issues too. he layed down for a bit as well. I left he was laying down . I started up the trail , when My Light went out ! not even 1/2 mile from the camp. I forgot to swap out batteries , fortunately I was not far from camp , I went back and changed out my batts and off I went on my 5th lap. feeling pretty good . I layed down an OK lap. got back had some more food and rested a bit. I was getting ready to take off on my 6th lap , when My son came back in finishing his 5th lap. very tired cramping and sore , but other wise Ok , said he wanted to lay down for a bit then he was going back out . and if when I came back he was still there to wake him. Ok . so I took off going really slow this time , I was just out of gas , but kept going . i was about a 1/3 of teh way through the lap, and was walking the bike through a tough section , when "POW" My rear tire exploded! ther was an AID station about 400 yards up the trail so I hoofed it to there , and analyzing it there the side wall was shredded on my rear tire. ! the guys there started telling me the fastest way to walk back to camp. I was no way I can fix it . I used a couple of dollar bills to line the tire then, put a new tube in it , and it held . I then somehow managed to finish my lap with out flatting again. I got back to camp at 4:45 , you have to finish you last lap before 6 for it to count . I knew there was no way I was going to be able to do a 1:15 lap My son was asleep in the tent , I knew he couldn't do that quick of a lap either , so I sat down and cartoons !
then ate the pancake breakfast.
will definaly do it again!
