Last summer, I enjoyed riding the Greenland Open Space trails. Riding the 8-mile Kipp's Loop was perfect for a lunch time workout. So when I heard that there was a bike race on that same loop that was part of the famous Elephant Rock event, I was psyched.

I tried in vain to get some friends to join me, but the thought of biking for 24 hours was daunting to most. It's really not so difficult, I pleaded, as you can get a team of people and make it a relay race so it's not like you're biking solo for the entire 24 hours (although there are some uber bikers that do just that). But alas, I had no takers. So I had written off this year's race and figured I'd just go watch part of it to see what it was all about.

Then about 2 months before the race, some new friends invited my husband and I to join their team for the race. We were thrilled with the invitation, but I had just had an accident which nearly severed a few fingers on my right hand and it was in a cast with a pretty dismal outlook of getting functionality back anytime soon. So after about 5 minutes of deliberation, we said "Sure, sign us up!". (File that under the WHAT WAS I THINKING? folder).

Information on the race (from the official website) states:

Over the next two months, I worked on getting the use of my hand back. The team members started communicating via email and we came up with our team name ("Bike Me!"). Our team included a couple relatively new to biking (Mark and Kathleen), an avid road biker (Kari), a marathon runner (Wade), a couple of computer geeks (Rob and Steve), our team captain and cheerleader (Linda), and myself.

The week before the race, I started getting nervous. I had never done anything like this before, and part of the race included riding at night. Since the Greenland Open Space is closed at night, you can't practice. Also, good bike lights aren't cheap and since I wasn't planning on making night riding a habit, I was going to rent a light at the race so that would be the first time I'd ridden with a light at night. Eeek!

The night before the race, our team got together for dinner (pasta, what else?) and to come up with our strategy. One of the computer geeks (Rob) made a spreadsheet with our fastest times listed and a projection of how fast we would do each lap (slower at night and slower near the end of the race). We decided on a riding order, drank some beer, and headed home to get some sleep.

Sleep eluded me, partly because of nerves and partly because I had other commitments (work and volunteer stuff) to complete before the race.

Friday was one of those insanely busy days, with wrapping up work, making sure the kids and dog were taken care of (pizza ordered and all that), and buying those requisites such as Gatorade and trail mix. At about 11am, I realized I'd never gotten my bike in for a tune-up, so I called Tim at Balanced Rock Bike and Ski in Monument and after he stopped laughing at me, he told me to bring my bike in and he'd get it taken care of. (Major thanks to Tim for the quick turnaround!)

At about 4pm, we headed out to the Greenland Open Space to set up camp. We camped with our other team members in a chaotic spot which included tents, pop-up campers, lots of chairs, and bikes everywhere. The race began at 6:30 and Steve, having been the only one NOT to say "no" to starting the race, was our starter. The race started with a run up to a point where the riders could get on their bikes. There were 80 teams competing, so there were 80 racers at the start, which was pretty crazy. Steve did a great job keeping up with the crowd and we cheered and waved him off.

Since our marathon runner Wade had never actually biked the trail before, we decided he could go during the daylight hours for his first lap. Also, Kari, who was unfamiliar with the trail was also slated to have a daylight run. The rest of us had our first laps in twilight, or in my case, at about 10pm.

There was a tent set up with card readers so that when a rider ended the course, they rode into the tent, swiped their card, and then the next rider could go. We arranged it so that each rider had a buddy to tell them when they could go and give them moral support up to that last minute. When it was time for my lap, my legs were shaking and I was full of nervous energy. WHAT WAS I THINKING WHEN I SIGNED UP FOR THIS?

My turn came, and I started out on the loop. What a great feeling! My bike light worked wonderfully, and the weather was cool with no wind and at times I was all alone on my part of the course. I found that I absolutely LOVED riding at night. The course starts on a fire road and goes steadily uphill for about the first 3-4 miles. Much of the road is very sandy, which makes it tough to gain traction. After the fire road segment, there is a climb with some switchbacks up to a grave site. (We affectionately called this "cemetery hill".) From the grave site, the rest of the course is delightful, with good turns and some great downhill runs. The last part of the course is relatively flat which is great to get all powered up and pump it in to the finish.

I felt great after my first lap, and after staying for a while to cheer on others, I decided to try to get some sleep before my next lap at about 3am.

Sleep, however, was impossible. The Greenland Open Space is located between the train tracks and Interstate 25. If a train wasn't rumbling by (and blowing it's horn...now why do they have to do that all night long?), the noise from cars and conversations from other bikers going in and out for their laps was constant. Adding insult to injury, in our haste to pack we had inadvertently packed a kid's "sleepover" sleeping bag and not a camping bag, and I was freezing.

At about 2am, my wake up buddy (Rob) told me it was time to move out, so after stumbling around putting contact lenses in and trying to find my socks, I headed out into the much colder night for my second lap. After waiting for about 30 minutes in the cold (legs still shaking not only from nerves but the cold as well) it was my turn again. Out on the course, I was again thrilled with riding at night. This time, there were coyotes yipping in the fields and birds just starting to titter (were we keeping them awake or do they normally start to get up at 3am?). My second lap time was about the same as my first, which I was pleased with, and this time, when I headed back to my tent I had the wisdom to plug in my IPod to block out the noise and actually got about 2-3 hours of sleep.

My next lap was scheduled at about 10am, and we were about an hour under the spreadsheet schedule Rob had made. Adrenalin and the race atmosphere were working it's magic with us. We were all doing well, and no one had any flat tires or other major issues. Linda's husband, Tad, was on a team who decided at the race what their order was, and they wrote it on a paper plate attached to their camper. We were high-tech with our spreadsheet, but they were high tech with everything else. They ended up coming in 2 nd out of 20 teams.

Again, I was nervous at the start. I was poised to start up a little hill and had clipped my foot in my pedal, so when it was time to go, I pushed off but didn't have enough oomph and lo and behold I just fell over! Smooth move. Feeling very un-graceful and a bit embarrassed, not to mention landing hard on my leg, I got back up and started my 3 rd lap. This lap was more grueling. The wind had picked up so the initial few miles uphill now had a stiff headwind. The sand on the trail was getting deeper and I was feeling the effects of only having a couple of hours' sleep. I tried to put my mind in my "happy place" and just pedal on. My time on the third lap was a couple of minutes slower than my other laps, but I was thrilled to finish it and then commiserate with the other riders about the wind and the sand. The kids had also come to watch part of the race and were there to cheer me on when I came in, so that was really inspiring.

The race was sponsored by Go Fast, which provided energy drinks, and lots of riders were quaffing energy drinks and/or "GU" gel, but I had heard that they either make you feel great or make you throw up. So I opted to pass on the energy stuff. A little mac n cheese and peanut butter kept me going.

My fourth lap was supposed to be at about 5pm, but the team decided to change the order a little bit, so I ended up with my lap starting at about 3pm, which was fine by me as I was just ready to get the race over with at this point. By this time, I think I was just too tired to be nervous, and so the last lap was fairly uneventful. For the last 4 miles of the course my mantra was "fish tacos and beer...fish tacos and beer". Coming in to the finish was a great feeling!

About an hour later, a storm rolled in and there was a little bit of rain. Our last rider, Kathleen, bravely headed out. We anticipated her lap to be about an hour long, as she was tired and the headwind was ferocious. But little did we know that the lightning and impending storm was quite the motivator, and Kathleen ended up logging an impressive last run. On that note, we celebrated our finish at 15 th out of 20 teams. Since our goal was just to NOT come in dead last, we succeeded!

At the end of the race, we enjoyed our Wahoo's fish tacos and (free) beer and toasted each others' accomplishments. Steve went to return his borrowed sunglasses from the Optic Nerve guys and was told he could keep them. (Big thanks to the Optic Nerve guys - those are awesome glasses!) We were really impressed with the camaraderie and team spirit we saw all around us. Bikers are great people!

We all had a fantastic time, and unanimously agreed that we would sign up to do this race again...and maybe we'll have our rider list on a paper plate next time.