Big Kahuana Race Report

I chose this race for a final tune up for 24 hour MTB World Champianship on October 7th in Georgia. I figured the 4 1/2 hour hammerfest with be pretty much whats its like on the start of these 24 hour races. The object is to go real hard and try to stay with the lead pack and then cruise all night long.

The weather was real nice and cool. There were high clouds and fog but not to bad. The water temp was 59 deg, so a bit chilly but once you got in it for a few minutes it wasn't so bad. Swim went pretty good, came out of the water in 3 rd or 4th place in my wave. Exiting the water it was a good 1/4 mile to transition. Now im on the bike and hammering away to catch who ever i can. My plan was to be steady and get to the turn around not to hammered. I caught everybody in my wave and most everybody in the wave ahead of me witch was 7 minutes in between at the swim start. I consumed 1 bottle of carb boom that was 350 caloies, 1 carb boom gu, and 1 bannana. On the turn around my paln was to hammer hard and on the up hills keep the momentum and hammer even harder. It was working well and pain was comming along with it but I knew I need to keep going at this pace to do well. About mile 30 there was a big crack in the road and I happen to catch the last bit of it and ripped my side wall tire and popped my tub. By the time I changed it those 4 guys passed me again in my age group and alot of other people that I passed also. I thought no big deal still have a few miles. Took about 5 minutes and now back to work. Well 5 miles later my rear tire started to hiss again and there I was with the tire off and changing another flat as everybody I passed again goes by me "again". Im not to fustrated just stuff happens and up intel now I have been pretty fortunate not for these tings to happen, so as long as they don't keep happening. I figure it hasn't been a great year anyway. So back on the bike and I made it the rest of the way with anymore hickups. So get into my running shoes and go like hell. I was pretty flat at this piont but stll a long way to go. I just ran hard and tried to run as fast as I could without cramping to bad. They came a few times so I had to slow down a tad to keep them away. After the half way piont it was time to turn up the gas as go like hell. So I did. I caught a few peopl but nobody in my age group. I figure I lost 10 minutes with the flats. My overall time was 4:40. So not all that great considering 2 years ago was 4:20. Hasn't been my best year for results as I struggle with why this is happing I will contnue to train and never give up.