The Hardcore24 - a solo effort.

Another year, another solo 24 for TreeSaw. Sometimes I wonder why but then I realize it doesn't matter why...it's just something I do! It’s an amazing challenge – physical and mental, but I really do enjoy them.

The Hardcore24 is held in Naples, NY (western NY near Canandaigua Lake). In the past, the race has been held at a Boy Scout Camp on Father’s Day weekend in June but this year, the organizers changed the location to Gannett Hill Park and moved the date back about a month to July 11-12th.

The new location is GREAT!!! At the very top of the mountain and the top of the park, there are some pavilions that racers could rent and there is a nice flat area for camping (rustic) or you could rent a campsite farther down the hill with water & electric.

Household Pest (a Rochester band that a couple of friends are in) was playing on Friday night so we decided to set-up camp on Saturday and enjoy some time with our friends on Friday. We arrived on Saturday morning at about 9:30am, selected our spot and set-up the EZ-up. It was REALLY windy and quite a few of the EZ-ups were taking a ride so we tried to weight ours down with as much as we could and Sq-Earl hopped on the bike for a course pre-ride while I readied my gear, changed, ate and tried to warm-up. Sq-Earl returned with a smile and gave me a basic over-view of the course – no long sustained climbs, instead, the climbs are more spread-out, relatively short, some steep but the course has flow and was pretty fun…good news!

Rather than begin with a LeMans run, we were to follow a dirt bike through a mowed path in the field to the mid-way point on the hill then turn and climb up the road before heading onto the course singletrack. We were also told that the first woman and man in would receive a $100 prize…nice, but not worth burning my legs this early in the race for me.

As we ducked into the first section of singletrack, I began to wish that I had passed a few more people because it was rather bunched-up, but there were some spots to pass so I managed to get past a few people. I finished my first lap with a smile, looking forward to riding the course again.

That smile quickly faded when I looked at the sky! Severe thunderstorms were predicted and they were definitely coming and fast. The wind kicked up even more and the sky blackened. I headed out onto my second lap after a quick bike adjustment knowing that the storms were a definite, but hoping that I could get a good portion of the lap in before anything hit. All the best plans – about 2 miles into my second lap the thunder and lightening was intense and it was beginning to rain those big hard drops. I mustered on and by mile 3-4 it was pouring and the once hard packed sections of trail were running streams so I could only imagine how soft the new singletrack would be. Visibility was poor at best, the sheets of rain, darkened sky illuminated with streaks of lightening and thunder rumbling through my core, I finished my lap and decided to wait out the rest of this storm. The temperature was dropping and as soon as I stopped riding, I was cold! I tried to warm-up and ate while the 2nd round of t-storms rolled through. The power went out so that meant no bike wash to clean the drivetrain for a while.

Once the storms cleared, I hit the trail again – BAD idea! A large part of the course was newly built singletrack so it was soft and REALLY muddy. I had to stop 4-5 times to clean the mud pack from my rear triangle so my rear wheel would spin. When I finally made it to the transition area, everyone marveled at the adobe hut that was my rear triangle...not a pretty sight with no hose (no power). Exhausted from the constant battle with the mud, I decided to call it quits until the course dried out (as did just about everyone else in the race). More light rain about 11pm left me sad and wondering if I should just be finished, but I love riding at night so I decided to give another lap a try at about 1am. The course was really slick and there were many crashes being reported, but I managed to make it through my lap disappointed with the conditions, but glad to have given it another try. I ate and took a little nap until morning when I would go out for two more laps and call it a race. On my last lap, I had fun and that's what really counts! I have always said that I'll stop racing these when they stop being fun and this one began and ended fun so I think by next season I'll be able to forget all that bad stuff in the middle ;)

All total:
6 laps,
42 miles
5478 feet of climbing
And a 2nd place trophy for me!

Last post was in October huh? Wow!!! I need to keep up with this a bit better. After changing jobs, I am enjoying the summer (well...it's rainy and cool here but atleast I get to play with Syd). We're heading to the park for a ride so hopefully I'll have more ride pics and stories to post up soon.