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What better way to start off Spring here in south-central Arizona than a mountain bike race? I was lucky enough to be invited by my former employer, Summit Hut¹, to be part of a corporate team at the 7th Annual 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.

The race takes place over 3 days on public land just west of Oracle and north of Catalina (about an hour from Tucson). I arrived on Thursday to set up our team campsite and get the lay of the land. The race started Saturday at noon and ended Sunday at noon. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this type of event, it brings over 3,000 people to the Sonoran Desert every year. It’s a big race and the first in the season for those riders that race the entire mountain bike endurance racing circuit.

Basically it’s a relay. You carry a baton, and when you are done with your lap you exchange it with the next rider who then goes out to ride a lap or two on their own. There were over 1,000 riders, so there were always people out there with you in case something bad happened. The racers were of various ages, genders, and skill levels so it was a good mix of folks.

Of course there are solo riders, who are totally nuts. They race the whole thing by themselves! There were a few hard-core soloists who did more laps than our entire corporate team of 10 riders. Our team was focused on making sure everyone finished at least one lap, and we figured the rest would be icing on the cake.

Since finding out about the race a few months ago, I’d been out to the race course several times. I rode a night lap (well, half a night lap), and several laps in the daytime with team member Aaron. The course is between 15–16 miles long and has single track, hills, cactus forests, rocks, and lots of sandy washes to cross. It was perfect!

This was my second 24-hour mountain bike race, so I was hoping to capitalize on that first experience as well as improve my performance. The way it worked out, I rode two day laps (not sure how I got that lucky), and they both went really well. On the second lap, though, I got a pinch flat on an overturned rock in the trail about 300 yards out from the finish! I rode for a bit on the rim, then decided to save the bike; I picked it up and ran the last few hundred yards to the exchange tent. Crazy, but I am always very competitive and didn’t want to give up the 5 or 10 minutes it would take to change the flat right there in view of the finish.

We did pretty well in the standings, too! I don’t know the final results, but out of 20 or so corporate teams, we came in probably 16th or 17th. That’s pretty darn good for a team just out there to have fun. We were all safe and came through our laps without too many scratches (some bloody knees and sore muscles though!). David was our fearless first-lap rider and also did a second lap in the early morning sun. Other team members: Charles, Stephanie, Adam, Trevor, Tree, Meade, RJ (and Sharon set the whole thing up²).

Check out some photos that Erin took, they are here on our site in the Photos section. I also posted them to Flickr in case you want to add comments or download large copies to print. Make sure to check out the photo of AJ’s orange socks!

[1] Special thanks to Dave Baker of Summit Hut for sponsoring our team, that was really cool. Thanks Dave!
[2] Also big thanks to Sharon Scott for the idea and follow-through to make the team happen. Mercy buckets!