{"id":5639,"date":"2014-08-23T20:47:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T01:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=5639"},"modified":"2014-08-23T20:47:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T01:47:48","slug":"powderhorn-24-a-story-of-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2014\/powderhorn-24-a-story-of-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Powderhorn 24: A Story of Bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past weekend was the 4th annual Powderhorn 24 race which starts about a 1\/2 mile from my house! This was my 3rd year riding in the 24 hour event. \u00a0This year our group consisted of 2 teams of 4 and 2 solo riders all being based from the same house directly on the “official” course. \u00a0It was setting up to be a hot and humid weekend for a 24 hour bike ride. \u00a0It was a little chilly over night, but the humidity was a strong presence.<\/p>\n

We setup the same plan as previous years. \u00a0Each rider would do 2-3 laps (10-15 miles) or ride about an hour before switching riders. \u00a0This would allow us to stay fairly fresh and would provide a nice chunk of “off” time. \u00a0Unfortunately, one of our riders had to go home around 2 am due to sick kids. \u00a0He rode a few extra laps before heading out, but this hurt a little later in the day – can’t blame him though!<\/p>\n

Our volunteer time was 4am – 7am at Checkpoint #1 where we would punch rider manifests. This meant that none of us would really get a break during this chunk of time. \u00a0It was a fun way to volunteer as you get to see a lot of the riders and actually the 4am shift isn’t too busy as a lot of solo riders and even teams are taking a break at that point. I met some interesting people, like a guy who was trying to help but could barely stand up and wasn’t super effective at punching manifests.<\/p>\n

They had bonus laps again this year. \u00a0One of mine was stopping at a retirement village and having a conversation with one of the residents. The building was cold, which felt nice. \u00a0I talked with a woman (can’t remember her name) who was nice at first and then started talking badly about her family, so I found a graceful time and way to exit. \u00a0Eric, was in line ahead of me and ended up talking for quite a while with his guy! \u00a0Another stop we played ping-pong – they did a horrible job at scoring and following rules. \u00a0One stop was almost impossible to find, I found it, and then they still didn’t give me credit for doing it.<\/p>\n

One cool thing they did this year was to actually track each rider, instead of just the team. \u00a0So we are able to get some great data<\/a>. \u00a0This helped verify some of my data about number of laps ridden, etc. \u00a0The data isn’t 100% accurate as we swapped riders out on the course, while most did it right after the checkpoint, but it should be pretty dang close.<\/p>\n

One quibble with the results… we beat the other team at our house by 1 lap ridden, but lost by 1 lap since PH24 missed our check-in for 2 bonus laps. \u00a0Our riders do both of them – I did the one and the other was Crossfit and I remember talking to our rider about it afterwards. \u00a0The other team knew they missed one and that was all they missed. \u00a0This means that we both lost out on the extra 5 points which would have put both of us in the top 10! \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0 This year we did beat all the solo riders!! For the last 2 years that wasn’t the case. \u00a04 solo riders beat or tied us overall (with bonus) due to the bonus laps! \u00a0Another quibble with the overall race was the fact that the first lap was an uncounted, “community” lap which meant that it was super slow. \u00a0It also wasn’t a true community lap as by the end it was quite spread out. \u00a0My thought is that if you want to do a community lap it should start at 6 for those who want to do it. \u00a0Keep the mandatory meeting at 6:40 and roll out at 7pm for official laps. \u00a0Our first rider didn’t finish his first lap until 7:45 and came through on his next one 17 minutes later. \u00a0So a lot of time was wasted – plus no one knew that this was going to happen beforehand.<\/p>\n

A major frustration for me this year was that my phone didn’t work for all my rides. \u00a0The first time I thought it was a fluke, so didn’t change anything. \u00a0After the second time I thought it was a bug in Strava, so I downloaded Map My Ride. \u00a0I could hear it talking to me for awhile, but at the end of the ride it had quit too. \u00a0Finally, I decided to put my phone in a ziploc to see if my sweat was impacting it. \u00a0Sure enough, it worked. \u00a0I was disappointed that such an easy fix could have helped early on. \u00a0It was extra frustrating as my bike computer wasn’t syncing (it is wireless). \u00a0I think it is probably just a battery issue, but need to do something about it!<\/p>\n

Here is the data that I was able to collect:
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