12 Hours of Mesa Verde

Sleeping Ute in background

What could possibly be better than getting to ride one of your favorite mountain bike trails? Getting to ride that trail three times in a day, pushing yourself to your limits and maintaining the smile on your face at the same time.

 I enjoy riding my mountain bike no matter what the trail or the conditions. The unique thing about 12 Hours of Mesa Verde is that the Phil's World trail system is one of the most fun courses you could possibly imagine. Almost 100% flowly fast single track with short punchy climbs, and technical rocky sections. The combination makes for one amazing ride on a single speed.

 I have done this race for the past three years with a group of friends. This year one of our friends had bronchitis and we decided to stick it out with a three person team and get some extra laps in, I'm very glad we did this. I usually only get two laps and as my fitness has improved I want to get more mileage to push my limits.

 My goal this year was to turn a lap under 1:20 as I have done 1:23 and 1:25 laps on the single speed last year. This year I did the opening lap, albeit slower than I wanted due to traffic, it was still mileage and that's training.

 I decided that I'm going all out on my 2nd lap in order to achieve my goal. My subconscious was telling me that it was going to be hard to reach my goal considering I had already done a 17ish mile lap semi-hard. I approached the Rib Cage and noticed I had quite a bit of time left for a sub 1:20 lap, I decided to use up whatever I had left to reach my goal. I raced in to the exchange area with a lap time of 1:17....goal reached and then some. 

 While I was out on the course I noticed a lot of people with flat tires. This reminded me that the last time I had put sealant in my single speeds tires was last years 12 Hours of Mesa Verde race! I stopped by the NoTube's van where I found Kenny Wehn enjoying some well deserved rest after his super fast lap. I asked Kenny for an empty Stan's sealant sample and he gladly obliged. I returned to the camp site, removed my valve stems, poured some of my sealant into the sample container and then dumped that into my wheels.  I felt much better knowing I had some fresh Stan's sealant in my wheels. 

 I enjoyed some well deserved rest and hung out for a little while with my 10 month old daughter Arya and my wonderful wife Heather who made me some very welcomed lunch! My friends Terry and Kevin some of their best lap times in the past 3 years, everyone was excited to be racing and racing so well. I went out for the teams 7th lap, during the first half of the lap I wasn't feeling super strong. I found my legs on the 2nd half and told myself I'm going to turn another sub 1:20, I did just that coming in @ 1:19.

 It was absolutely amazing to do an extra lap and still destroy my previous PRs on my 2nd and 3rd laps. I am feeling very strong and very happy with how far I've come in the past two years since I started taking cycling seriousl and joined the NoTubes Endurance Team.