My time in west Virginia was great I cant complain at all I got to hang out for a week and a half checking out the area and riding the local trails. It rained a good bit the week before the race leaving the course a little muddy but by race day the weather was beautiful and things were drying out quickly.
The run to start the race was really long but thinned things out well. by the time we hit the singletrack I was in a group of four we hit a slick muddy rock section and guys were blowing up left and right so that put me in the front I rode with a duo guy for that first lap and posted the fastest lap of the race. I continued to turn out fast lap times and was just having a blast on the rocky and rooty course, my Santa Cruz carbon blur was eating the trail up I literally had a huge smile on my face I was having so much fun.
At about 3am my back started to hurt I figured it was normal back pain because I have dealt with this in past 24’s, It continued to get worse forcing me off the bike several times to try and stretch things out. The repeated stopping was making me really cold and my back even worse. My back seized up so bad I could barley ride and to make maters worse I was shivering uncontrollably. With about three miles to go I saw a fire at one of the aid stations and stopped to try and warm up and stretch out my back, I could barely move my back was so stiff so I decided to pull the plug, it’s never an easy decision especially when you have a 30 minute lead, but I figured I could do some serious damage to my back if I continued.
24 hour racing is extremely hard on the body especially on such a technical course I’ve never really done a lot of core work but I think it will be something I need to work on for the future.