24 Hours Round the Clock - Karyn Abraham's Race Report

I decided to celebrate my 31st birthday in an unusual way-by riding my bike in circles for 24 hours! I’ve wanted to try a 24-hour race for a long time and decided this was the year to do it. I had no idea what to expect…maybe that was a good thing!

The weekend started innocently enough…that is, until we hit the 20-mile backup at the pass. Duh! We finally rolled into Spokane around 10:30pm and set up camp next to the VanderWaal family RV. I barely slept that night- was it from anxiety or the constant squeaking of port-a-potty doors? The morning of the race was pretty relaxed- my husband Eric installed a new computer for me and we even had a pancake breakfast courtesy of Aaron’s mom.

At noon the gun fires and we’re off to run a short loop. The first lap was fun and hectic as the relay riders sprinted for the front of the pack. I was tempted to hop on one of their wheels but remembered I was only supposed to do a 1:30 lap. The second lap was faster but I noticed that I wasn’t drinking nearly enough (no surprise). I swapped out my bottle for a camelback in between #2 and #3 and it turned out to be a huge mistake. Between the heavy pack, the hot temps and my busted fork I started to get crabby fast. My left elbow was really starting to hurt and I was losing my grip on the handlebar. I shall refer to lap 3 as “the dark ages”. I returned to camp on the verge of tears and wondered why the heck I signed up for this. Thankfully Eric found someone to adjust my fork and the next few hours of riding were much more enjoyable.

I found my second wind after the sun set…in fact, I think everyone did. Sometime after dark a few teenage boys streaked the course and I was definitely awake after that! After I finished #7 I realized that my goal was only two short loops away. #8 and #9 were relatively quick and then I rewarded myself with a nap. I gave Eric strict orders to wake me up after an hour. At 5am the conversation went something like this: “Get up!” (Eric) “Go away!” (me). I stumbled out of the tent at 7am, putzed around camp for an eternity and then rolled out for another two laps. #11 was brutal…I found myself on the verge of tears again and knew this was the end. I came in around 11am and immediately consumed an entire bowl of fresh guacamole. Yum!

I ended up in 7th place, which is better than I had expected. However, next year I'll be sure to scan my chip at noon on the nose so I don’t drop down in the rankings (5th place was only two minutes ahead of me- ugh). Overall I'd say this was a fun, well-organized race and I can't wait to do it again next year :)

I want to give a shout out to the fine folks at GU Energy…I don’t know what I would have done without my Tri-Berry gels! I also want to thank Ann for being my personal hair stylist and cheerleader :)