24 Hr Race - Hot August Nights

August 22 and 23rd have come and gone and so has another 24 Hour Hot August Nights mountain bike race put on by ChicoRacing. The course was hit with rain the night before and again an hour before the race started and several more times throughout the race - a common theme this year in South West Ontario. Naturally, mountain bikers tend to be a bit twisted, so I think the idea of a mud run riled us all up a bit.

I rode the exact race course once prior to the event and plenty of other regular rides throughout Albion Hills, I figured I could handle anything the course threw at me…except maybe the 10 extra pounds of mud I carried from the guys tire in front of me. There were a few hours when the course was just down right nasty, unforgiving and the mud did a number on some people. Chicoracing also set up the "Shooting Gallery" - a fan favorite as it is an opportunity for riders to roll around in some mud and the watchers to drench us with hoses.

Smiles were still abundant though. This guy hit the deck before there were many people watching. It was a good thing Alex, our camera guy, was there and this blog to capture this moment forever. Classic...

I completed 5 laps with my best time being on the longer 15km (9 miles) first lap at 51:18. And I finished my last lap in 53:10 on the 14km course. As you can see, I was trying to push myself even when clipping out when entering the timing tent. I call this my “cross face chicken wing” style.

My team, “Doing it in the Dark” consisting of Ivan, Kurt, Allen and Keith had a tremendous time. We managed to pull off 6th place in our 32 team category (5 men ages 150-199). Keith, the trooper that he is, started the final lap with 1 minute before the cutoff and managed to be the second last rider on the course…followed only by one superstar with a flat tire and his bike hiked over his shoulder.

The Doing it in the Dark team will definitely be making another appearance next year for Hot August Nights in 2010. With Kurt moving to Edmonton in the fall, a couple of us are planning another return trip to Canmore, Alberta for the 24 Hrs of Adrenaline and the world solo championships…you have to love the solo riders for their stupidity, drive, strength and stupidity….I can’t lie, I’m a bit jealous of them.

My team had a professional photographer, We Stiehl Weddings, follow us around the course and snapped a ridiculous amount of photos. The photographer, Alex, was fantastic as he is a fellow mountain biker with plenty of experience and knew where to be to grab some great pictures. The full album will be loaded on Facebook and can be seen at facebook.com/andrew.nause.

Mountain biking in the middle of the night with nothing but the two LED lights, the sound of your breathe, and the faint smell of a skunk that ruined some poor riders night is an experience that every mountain biker should partake in...especially if you can do it during a race. It is ridiculous how much I love mountain biking.

Andrew Nause