2019 24 Hour World Time Trial Championship: Race Recap

Well, I’ve been meaning to “bring back” the blog for a while now, and I figured that this post would be a bit too long for Facebook, so now is as good a time as any!

For those that don’t want to read the novel below – Reader’s Digest Version:

• Raced my 1st 24 Hour Time Trial in Borrego Springs, CA this weekend at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championship
• 74 Men & 15 Women Lined up to contest the Solo 24 Hour World Time Trial Championship Titles
• 1st Place (2019 World Champion!) Women’s 40-49 Division
• 2nd Place Overall Solo Female
• 12th Place Overall Solo Combined Men/Women
• 3 Strava QOMs (insert laughing emoji here!)
• Made a rookie mistake that ultimately cost me about 1hr40 min … learned from it… won’t make it again!
• Race Stats:
  • 423.6 miles completed (21hr 26min 10sec moving time)
  • 19.7 mph Avg Moving Speed
  • 17.9 mph Avg Speed (including stops)
• Full Race Results Here: Race Results

Now for the full length race report!:

Jamie & I packed up and headed to Borrego Springs, CA earlier in the week along with Andrew Willis, Brant Speed, Tice Porterfield, and Shane Traughber. Andrew, Brant and I all represented Holland Racing in the 24 Hour Time Trial, while Jamie, Shane, and Tice worked the pits/crewed/sherpa’d/provided neutral mechanical support out of the TeamTracyATX VanDoIt.

The race course consisted of an 18 mile loop with ~370 ft elevation gain per loop, and a 4 mile small loop. Racers raced around the 18 mile loop for the bulk of the race, and the final ~hour was raced on the small loop.

The forecast called for light winds and relatively cool temps with highs in the low 80s and lows overnight in the upper 40s. I planned and packed accordingly. In order to save time in the pits layering up, and then stripping layers later, I started with arm warmers around my wrists, to be pulled up when the temps dropped, and planned to stop after 4 laps/around 8:30pm to add a vest and apply Embro to my legs.

I carefully laid out a race plan with time allocated for handups, quick pit stops to swap bottles and stuff pockets, and 2 slightly longer stops to put on/take off layers. Based on the weather forecast, course profile, and my recent training #s, I set a “stretch” goal of completing 25 Big Loops & 3 Small Loops, for a total of 482 miles. My plan was to race 4-5 laps in between refueling stops, and to keep stops to 2-3 minutes. I budgeted a total of 12 minutes stopping time over 24 hours.

My plan included a fast ~49 minute 1st lap (drafting was allowed for the first 12.5 miles to allow things to break up after the mass start, at which point the “no draft” policy was strictly enforced throughout the remainder of the race), and 53-54 minute laps for the remainder of the race. I planned to “sit in” with the lead group until things broke up, and then settle into a very comfortable, steady power output that I felt I could maintain for the remainder of the 24 hours. Regardless of whether I was in the lead, being chased down, or sitting 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc at any given time, I was determined to “race my race” and hold that steady power output, and let attrition take it’s toll on the rest of the field.

Everything started off according to plan – actually even better! The race was combined start, and I am very comfortable in male/female combined start races due to Gravel Racing, so when the “fast guys” decided to light it up from the gun, I had no problem sitting in comfortably. As soon as we hit the turn that designated the “break up” point, I sat up to let them ride away, and then settled in comfortably at my planned power output. I finished the first lap in 43:42 WELL ahead of my planned pace, but adhering 100% to “the plan”.

After the first lap, I was the overall female leader, and I settled in comfortably as sun set, and temps began to drop. My next several laps were also faster than estimated, at 51-52 minutes each, but I was still adhering my planned power target – the very light winds just made for a very fast course this year.

Crystal Spearman (UK) passed me to take over the Women’s Overall Lead on the third lap, around 50 miles in, but as she blew by me, I could see/hear that she was working quite hard, while I was sitting comfortably at an endurance pace that I knew that I could hold for 24 hours. . . it’s never fun being passed or losing the lead, but I was fairly certain that attrition would take it’s toll, and that “slow and steady” was the way to win this battle, so I stuck to my plan and continued to race along at my steady/comfortable pace. Crystal held a ~1 minute gap on me at the end of laps 3 and 4, but I overtook her again during lap 5 as my lap times held steady at 53-54 minutes, while hers gradually grew longer.

By the end of lap 5, ~9:15PM, temps had fallen to the mid-40s, and I stopped briefly in the Pit to pull up my arm warmers, throw on a vest, and put some Embro on my legs. I had decided ahead of time that I didn’t want to spend the extra time in the Pit pulling on leg warmers/tights or putting on thermal base layers, and I hadn’t packed a jacket because I honestly thought that Arm Warmers, a Vest, and Embro would be sufficient for the ~47 degree lows that were forecasted. This was ultimately the (poor) decision that cost me a shot at the Overall Women’s World Championship Title. . . . more on this in a moment!

By the end of lap 9 (~1:00 AM), I had a comfortable ~15 minute gap on Crystal Spearman in 2nd, and ~22 minutes on Meaghan Hackinen in 3rd, and temps had dropped to the upper 30s (MUCH COLDER than forecasted!). I had to pee, and my knees were starting to ache from the cold exposure, so I called Jamie to let him know that I’d be making a Pit stop to pee and pull on leg warmers. By the time I got to the Pit, I was SO COLD that I was shaking everywhere, and my hands/fingers didn’t work properly. I was also beginning to have trouble focusing (my vision was starting to get a little blurry and my thought process foggy). It took me a lot longer than anticipated to get my skinsuit unzipped/pulled down/pee/pulled back up, zipped back up/wires for radio re-arranged/earpiece put back in/leg warmers over cleats and pulled up legs. By the time I’d gotten all of that taken care of, I had been stopped for nearly 12 full minutes. . . and was freaking out a little bit. I had the split second fleeting thought that maybe I should take another minute or two to put on a thermal base layer. . .the only things protecting my core from the wind were a summer weight skinsuit and a summer weight wind vest (with mesh back). . . but panic about lost time set in, and I quickly dismissed the thought, jumped back on my bike, and started my 10th lap.

This is when things very quickly began to go south. . . My HR up until this point had been sitting comfortably in the mid 130s-140s. I didn’t have it displayed on my head unit. . I expected a bit of cardiac drift throughout the 24 hours, but not enough that I thought I would need to monitor it, and to be honest, I didn’t want the distraction of watching it gradually drop (as is 100% expected and “normal” for a race of this distance) to distract me. As it continued to get colder however, due largely to my being severely under-dressed, my HR apparently took a nose dive as my body went into self-preservation mode, slowing down my HR to keep as much blood around my vital organs, limiting blood flow to my extremities, and eventually, even reducing bloodflow to my brain. . . of course being the stubborn dummy that I am, when I started to get dizzy, and my equilibrium went off-kilter, I decided to just “focus harder and push through it”. . mind over matter, right?!? Well, it’s funny how our bodies self-protection mechanisms can overrule even the most stubborn of hard-headed fools. . . I could no longer get into my aero bars because my equilibrium was so off, and I was having a hard time distinguishing the pavement from the sand as my vision blurred more and more. The the shaking/chills started, and I couldn’t hold my front wheel steady even on the hoods, because my arms were shaking so violently. . . This all progressed gradually over the course of laps 10 to 13 (72 miles / ~4 hours), and as I stubbornly fought my body, forcing it to continue on, my lap times plummeted along with my Heart Rate. . . to the point that it was taking me >1 hour to complete a single 18 mile lap. As I neared the end of lap 13, I was shaking so violently, and my vision was so blurred that I knew I couldn’t safely complete another lap, and I called to let Jamie know I needed to stop to put a few more layers on.

As I pulled into the pits upon completing lap 13, Jamie caught me as I practically fell off my bike. Jamie, Shane, and Tice helped me off my bike and into the Van, where Jamie had turned the Espar Heater all the way up. The “quick stop” to add layers ended up turning into 1 hour and 37 minutes of sitting over the heating vent shaking, crying, and trying to bring my core temperature up enough so that I could safely resume racing. After what felt like an eternity, I finally warmed up enough that I could race without endangering myself or anyone else. . . we put all of the layers that I had with me on, and I got back on my bike to take on lap 14 just as the sun began to rise.

I eased back into the race (my body wouldn’t allow much more than that), and as I finished lap 14, I received the update that I was about 30 miles behind Meaghan, now sitting in 1st Overall, but still ~6 minutes up on Crystal, who had apparently had some difficulty overnight as well.

As the sun continued to rise in the sky, and the temps gradually rose, my legs slowly came back around, and I settled in again at a comfortable, although significantly reduced from planned power output. During my “break” overnight, my body had shut down completely – legs had filled up with lactic acid, and they never did come back around as I’d hoped they would. . but anyone that knows me knows that I’m about as hard-headed and stubborn as they come, and “quit” is simply not in my vocabulary! I knew it was a long shot, but I had to do everything in my power to chase down Meaghan and re-claim the lead. Sure, 30-some-odd miles was a big gap to close, but there was still 8 hours of racing to do, and a LOT can happen in 8 hours!

The final 8 hours were spent digging as deep as I know how to dig. Texts from Matt (my coach) and Jamie, as well as smiles and waves from volunteers along the course helped me to keep my head in the game and just keep pedaling. I emptied myself out there, and while my stats over that final half of the race were far from impressive to the casual observer, I’m happy with them because I know just how hard I had to push myself beyond my breaking point in order to hold on to those measly #s. . . . and in the process secure the W 40-49 World Championship Title, and 2nd Place Overall Female!

After writing a novel about the 1st half of the race, the 2nd half got a measly 2 paragraphs. . largely because that 2nd half was simply a blur. . . I spent the bulk of that final 8 hours simply racing as hard as my body would allow me to, and doing my best to ignore the pain. There wasn’t much in the way of coherent thought, race tactics, or much of anything else going through my mind. It was simply “Just Go. Don’t Stop. Push Harder. Harder. Harder. Don’t Stop. Close down a few more miles on her. Go. Harder. Go. Harder. Go. Harder. Go.” And that’s about it. . no room or capacity in my head at that point for much of anything else!

And can I just take a moment here and give a massive shout out to Meaghan Hackinen for racing one hell of a fantastic race?!?! She held a steady and consistent pace from start to finish, minimized stop/pit time, dressed and fueled well, and earned the heck out of that Overall World Championship Title!

So to summarize. . . I learned A LOT in my first 24 Hour Time Trial. My fitness was good, and I raced well for the most part, but made a few rookie mistakes, one of which was a biggie! While I’m thrilled to be coming home with the W 40-49 World Championship Title, I’m understandably disappointed that I’m leaving without the Overall Win. I’m walking away with some valuable lessons learned though, and coupled with another year of training, plan to be back for a shot at it next year!

Now it’s time for some off-season weight training and base building, and then 2020: THE YEAR OF GRAVEL will be here before ya know it!

Media Coverage:

• 6-12-24 Hour WTTC Featured FB Post