I laid on my sleeping pad amongst a hundred tents all propped up in the middle of the Queens College athletic field and kept telling myself...let your booty recover. My watch read 3:30am. I was in pain, and in area's I usually don’t feel pain, my palms hurt, my neck was stiff, and my booty was not used to this. I faded into a sleep.
At 5:10am I squinted my left eye peeled open my right, and a hint of glow began to illuminate the new day. I knew I would draw energy off of this, as I always had when running thru the night, and hurried back onto my saddle to ride around the booty loop. I had already pounded out a 100 miles, and was on a mission to keep going.
The 24 Hours of Booty is in its 9th year, and has expanded to two other cities other than Charlotte this year; Columbia, MD and Atlanta, GA. The ride starts at 7pm on Friday and ends at 7pm on Saturday. This year, the 24 Hours of Booty collectively raised $1.07 million for cancer research. This makes the event that much more special, an adventure with a cause.
Joey and Katie decide to stomp their bikes, and I pull back and enjoy the slightly cooler weather that we were having compared to the heat wave that has lingered this summer in June and July. I hydrated well, and took in electrolytes. I ate much.
Darkness fell upon me and I rode thru the night. Every so often I would pull into our base camp, and take a break and let the body recover. I later met DC hammering away on his “Cadillac” ride thru the night and he mentioned he was shooting for 300 miles! His strategy was to take a break every 15 miles or so, and let the body recover.
When I hit 100 miles I decided to take a nap. The next hundred miles would prove to be harder than the first. My legs were fine with it, cardiovascularly I was conditioned to push beyond 200, but the booty and the palms were not havin it. They screamed at me! I ignored them and rode as far as I could and then would take long pit stops at base camp to walk off the pain.
Mad A, is that you out there? Whoa...
I ran into Katie again on the loop at mile 160, and we drafted off of each other. I had a few miles on her because I was stubborn enough to ride more thru the night and sleep less. She was moving faster and better than I, and found myself falling behind on the hills. I just kept telling myself that I would never come back out here again and ride this long, so I better give it the best shot now.
I took a break at 175, 181, 190, and picked up some speed when I hit the loop at mile 190. Its that feeling you get when you see the finish in sight. But no, after one lap I noticed my rear tire went flat. I was used to this by now with the whole Blood, Sweat, and Gears ride. I had my friends at Bicycle Sport help me with the flat, as I had very little dexterity in my hands, and off I went to finish this ride off. I got into a grove, and moved as fast as I could. Finally, I found myself riding in a line of Mojo’s, some of which dropped me while riding at night, I just couldn't hang! I drafted, and we were going 20+ mph. My thighs pulsated, just like my heart was, as I pushed thru the 200 mile mark. I rode an extra lap for John and Leah, who although were not here, were on the Mojo team. 205 miles in total, I finished this up around 5:30pm, and called it a day.
I rode on a team, Charlotte Runners Bike 2. I would like to recognize the members of the team who have accomplished more than what bargained for, and hope that they too learned something on the personal journey of circular asphalt -- the 24 Hours of Booty. A special thanks to Bevin for helping get this team up and running!
Charlotte Runners Bike 2 TEAM:
Katie Whidden 200 miles
Bevin Jett 150 miles
Arturo Cardenas 127 miles
Tim Oates 100 miles
Joey Church 100 miles
Kevin Hicks 100 miles
April Wells 100 miles
Alex Ely 100 miles?
Chloe Bomberger ?
Tara Davis ?
Charmaine Klein ?
Jennifer Kletter 30 miles
Edgar Rendon ?
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