News flash - 24 hour racing is actually fun!

. . . if the weather is great, you have a good support crew, the course is fun, you have no mechanicals, you win your division, and you only bonk really hard once during the race.
Happily I can report that all of these conditions were met. Billy and I each completed twelve laps of the 8.25 mile course - the other two teams in the two-man singlespeed division each did only sixteen laps. We were third out of all the two-person teams, and 31st overall out of >100 teams.

We started the race pulling two laps at a time, and we were able to do ~50 minute laps for the first six or eight hours. This allowed us to bank a bunch of time against our goal of averaging 1-hour laps. Happily, we maintained our riding pace at about that level throughout the night, so we took a 1-hour break for breakfast (bacon and eggs, mmmmmmm). We each pulled a 3-lap turn overnight, to allow for more rest between turns. My loaner HID light set was really nice - my lap times overnight were not hampered by visibility, only by fatigue. I made a conscious effort to not hammer on the carriage road sections of the course, knowing that I could burn myself out too early. The consistency of our lap times from 8pm to the finish suggests that this was a good strategy, though it begs the question, should I have pushed a little harder? I bet we coulda' gotten 25 laps in. . .

I was extremely pleased with the reliability of our equipment - the only issue was Billy's one flat tire. My just-built rear wheel (with a fancy White Industries ENO eccentric hub) performed just fine, and my chain didn't fall off once (goodbye tensioner! Ben, I'll send yours back, I don't need it anymore - thanks for the loan).

It was great to be so well matched as a team - our lap times were within a couple of minutes of each other throughout the race, and we each pulled our weight. Billy was running a 32/18, and I ran a 34/18, and I think our gear choices reflected our relative strengths. Billy's a marvel at the technical stuff, and I was able to haul on all the carriage road sections. There were a couple of singletrack sections that I never really got wired, but it was fun to ride the same trails 12 times in a row and settle on the best line. The course was about 70% carriage roads and 30% fun singletrack.

The race was a great excuse to eat a lot, too - we had a huge variety of goodies, because it's hard to say what you might crave after a 24 mile bike ride in the middle of the night. My appetite stayed elevated well after the race, but I think now I'm just using it as an excuse to overeat - I don't really have to replenish any more calories because of the race.

Next up, 'cross season! And the daily excitement of Boston traffic, of course.