24 and no, I'm not talking about that TV show

Okay, so 24 Hours has come and passed. The race that is. And granted, it is only the first 24 Hour race of the year, but it has come and gone. Survived it, yes. Happy with results? Not at all. Brian had a tough time this year. There are several hard spots in an endurance event like this and they seem to make or break you for the race. After several weeks of strategizing and figuring out a new game plan for these types of events, Brian decided to test our theories at the 12 Hours of Weaverville event last Saturday.

First and foremost, I must say that Weaverville was beautiful. Reminded me a lot of my hometown Placerville, before it became a suburb of Sacramento. I was most impressed by the local grocery store, Top's Super Foods, which surprisingly catered to our healthy, organic eating lifestyle that is on par with Whole Foods. Go figure right? 300+ miles from the closest airport, an hour from a large city and here you find a haven for healthy lifestyles. I think my problem is going to be convincing Brian not to pack up and move there!

For me, the race was nice, though at times, I found it to be a little cold for my liking. Scarlet fared well and was, as usual, an attention getter. She seemed to like playing in the muddy grass best and took to running up to rather large dogs in hopes that they would play with her. All in all, the people were really nice and I was happy I got to read an entire book, two magazines and I learned how to clean & grease Brian's chain for him. It was relaxing and I'd happily return to any races that Brian wants to go to there. Here are some pictures of our day:









The race ended up quite well for Brian - he finished the race strong, well nourished and ready to train the next day! He received first place in his category of Expert, finishing ten laps in 12 hours and he was second overall by mere minutes to a two-man team with the same number of laps. Quite impressive to me, especially considering he's training hard, he didn't taper and he's never been riding in that area before!

Now that he's redeemed himself and gotten down his endurance race strategy, I feel more confident that he'll see some success in his remaining two 24 Hour events this year in Wisconsin and Georgia. I am definitely looking forward to more racing, more reading and more travel!

Before I depart this time, I would like to tell our funny story from the weekend. Usually, you put the two of us in a car together for a long time and something entertaining happens. Well this weekend was no exception. For the first time since we met, Brian got pulled over by the Highway Patrol. This time, even I didn't see him coming! We were rushing through Weaverville looking for Trinity High School the night before the race, trying to pick up his race packet. Well, of course, we were going 45 in a 30 mph zone. Oops. Brian was apologetic and was fortunate to get a nice officer who let him go with a warning. My two cents? I think the cute little puppy wagging her tail was what got him off! ;) We laughed about it and let out a collective sigh of relief. Of course, Brian promptly sped all the way back home from the race! I'm convinced that he's lucky - maybe I should get him to buy some lottery tickets........