My third race at the 18 Hours on The Farm event was held August 15th and 16th at the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation in Goochland County, Virginia. The course and venue are among my personal favorites. The course is 9 miles of fun fast single track with about 2,000ft of vertical per lap. The Boy Scout camp has a wide sweeping layout, so getting a pit on the course is a relatively easy affair. The race begins at 16:00 on Saturday, and ends at 10:00 on Sunday. Last lap needs to be completed by 10:00 in order to count - makes the finish more fun.
George Scott and his wife Sara arrived at the race site about 30 minutes before me. We had a little competition going to see who would get there first… I lost but got off cheap as Domino’s wouldn’t deliver to the Boy Scout Camp at 01:30. :) It was pretty warm and humid Saturday afternoon, and although the pit site went up quickly I was mighty wet. Hydration would surely be a significant factor for this event.
Race started right at 16:00. My goal was 13 laps, which I figured would give me a finish right around the top 5-7. I used my high tech lap counting system (bits of tape attached to tent pole) to keep track.
Race went pretty much on schedule and according to plan. Lap times were just where they needed to be to hit my 13 lap goal. George had a problem 4 or 5 laps in and got a flat tire on his tubeless wheel set. I helped him to change his cassette to a backup wheel to get him rolling again. We rolled out together just before midnight to do a lap together.
Luckily he was with me on this lap, as about 3 miles from the end my light went out. Totally my fault as I was pushing the time of the battery pretty far. Lost about 30-35 minutes here.
At 5:00am I stopped to take a 20-30 minute break. Wanted to refuel a little, find out where I was, and get ready for the upcoming morning hours. The short break lasted 1 hour longer than expected. I didn’t realise how wet my bibs got, and that had lead to some wicked chaffing. (Yeah, rookie mistake – some damage). Brought three changes of kit, but forgot the 3rd pair of bibs. So, I had to dry a pair of bibs before continuing (no small feat in a Boy Scout camp at 5:30am). Actually found a running window AC unit that I hung the bibs on. Also, although not normal low, I wanted to try and bump my BG the 60 point to the target 150 for the final planned push.
Once I got back on the bike, I was at 8 laps done. I realized that I really needed to hustle to get as many laps as possible in the remaining 3.5hrs. I new I couldn’t get 13, but didn’t want to settle for 10. So, 11 was the new goal. Time to go.
Finished 11th with 11 laps done. A couple of of feet short of 20000ft of vertical, and I burned 15760 calories.
But that doesn’t paint the full picture. This was one of the races I am most proud of myself for pushing to the end, and the overall placing doesn’t tell the whole story.
After I waited those issues out, and did some calculations, I knew I needed my 3 fastest lap times of the race during the final 3hrs and 20 minutes or so to reach 11 laps. Wasn’t sure if this was going to make a difference in my overall placement or not, and it didn’t matter to me either way.
Although endurance races are about beating the other riders, in reality it is just as much about testing and proving yourself. As one of best friends Marcee told me during a phone call right after the race “…it’s about control of your body. Forcing it to do something that it doesn’t want or need to do. Proving you have control over it. Proving you can control diabetes, and it doesn’t control you”.
Wow. She’s absolutely right.
It was a very difficult challenge to push through to get it done in those waining hours. No time to fuel and test the blood glucose, so I ended up actually just turning my insulin pump off for the last 2 hours and pedaled hard.
Overall the race went mostly perfect, save for a miscalculation on the first battery charge and the wet clothes issue. I continued to turn my planned lap times throughout the event, and the Superfly was great!! Just perfect. I mean unbelievably fantastic on this course.
BG was good as well. Stayed on the exact eating, hydration, and insulin pump adjustment plan. No complaints at all. Maybe one of my overall best endurance races in terms of race management.
Finished 11th, but I dug deep to get it all in. With 10 minutes to spare. 
Yeah, I am in control.
