12 Hours of Great Glen

So I headed up to Maine over the weekend for dinner in Portland with my gf and her parents and then made the drive to North Conway which led me to Glen, NH - the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road. I made it there by 9:30, 30 minutes prior to the registration cutoff time! The sun was long gone and I had to set up my camp site in the dark when I realized I forgot my tent poles at home. Somehow I packed my entire basement into my car except for the one thing I need to sleep in my tent.


I decided to put up my 10'x10' canopy tent instead and sleep under that hoping no bears would come lick my face during the night. It was 43 degrees that night but I was really warm in my sleeping bag. The next morning brought clear skies and warm sun for the start of the race. I was feeling pretty good and my parents showed up shortly after 9am to help me set up and get my things settled before the race ... you know the usual race prep and laboratory station of drinks and electrolytes!

The rain they got on Friday made the course a bit slick but I did not preride it having been here the past 6 years, and luckily the wind and sun helped dry the course making it pretty fast! Waiting at the start line for the cannon to fire I see a fellow racer Thom Parsons pull up to the line who was racing with a 4-man pro team and thought to myself I am surely not getting the fastest lap now!


The dreaded run around the pond is rediculous in carbon soled bike shoes that are about as stiff as strapping planks to your feet and trying to run on pavement. I somehow always manage and then hopped on my bike for the lap, coming in at 41 minutes. It appears the fast team riders did a 38 or 39 minute lap which wasn't too much faster than mine and I managed to pull off sub 45 min laps the first 6 laps of the race, pulling ahead of my competition and putting myself 6th overall out of EVERYONE.

Half way through the race I find out that the second place rider was nearly 30 minutes behind me and stayed there for the remainder of the race, forcing me out on more laps until I ended with 14 right at the midnight mark. You cannot cross the line until midnight, so I had to do a slower last lap and wait until 12 rolled around. My second 1st place 12 hour finish of the year!

Results:
http://www.grannygear.com/realtime/public/gg_index.php

My parents were a great help, especially with the timing, food prep, and pumpkin choc chip cookies! We all slept in our cars that night and left early the next day where I headed to Reid State Park on the coast of Maine to meet back up wirth my gf and her parents. Dinner on the rocks 10 feet from the ocean is pretty nice after a long day on the bike!