Endurance Race...

I primarly consume my time with racing XC (and soon, I'll be dabbling in Cyclocross), but this weekend I did one of the WEMS series endurance races. And it was a blast. I entered a 6 hour Duo team with my very fast brother (he is a top comp rider...we have so many fine and fast mountain bikers that race in wisconsin that they created a "comp" category for them. It falls inbetween sport and expert for those of you who are familiar with NORBA race classes...it is basically a stepping stone to expert).

We took second out of ten teams. The only team that beat us had two very fast males of expert and comp status. The course was about 8.5 miles long, 50% doublerack & 50% singletrack. There were lots of tight twist turns....it was fast and super fun. And I'll have to do another one of these races next year. Maybe a 6 hour solo or a 12 hour solo if it is later in the season (when I'm a bit stronger)

My question to those of you endurance mountain bikers....What type of endurance racing do you do? How often do you change your clothes? Have you ever done a 24 hour solo? and if so how often did you stop and rest? no sleeping, right? If you've done a 12 hour solo, did you stop and eat regular foods?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dar - you will appreciate this....(here are the results

www.wemseries.com/2006_Stump_Farm..htm we were actually awarded with second, because they accidently forgot to count one of our laps...so we had 8 total)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I did my first endurance races this year. One 12 hour on a team of 4 chicks that I put together and one with my hubby. They were awesome. We are going to do the 12 hour as a team of two next year.

We did the 12 hour in a 14 hour rainstrorm, so I I did not bother changes clothes until about 3/4 of the way through because we were COVERED in mud. I just put a layer of fleece over the top to ward of hypothermia.

As far as food,I can't be too much help because I had time to eat. If I do any solo next year, I am going to try to eat real food, not just GU.

Not much good advice to offer but a hardy YEE HAA!!! Good for you!