What More Could A Girl Ask For?: 24 Hours in Boone

I had the pleasure of spending 24 hours (really it was more like 27 hours, but who's counting?) in Boone over the Labor Day weekend. I know, anyone who has spent any amount of time in Boone is wondering how even 24 minutes in Boone could be pleasurable, but I think that anyone can enjoy Boone if you are with the right people.

Cam and the rest of the Rasmussen Bike Shop Team (Andy, Kent, and Jed) were in town to defend the team championship that Rassy's has won for the past two years. The 6th Annual 24-Hours of Seven Oaks Mountain Bike Race brought out solo riders and team of two or four to race for 12 or 24 hours.

The weather was awesome and the company sounded great, so I committed to hanging out with the team for the full day. Armed with a camera, some food and beer, and the truck tent, I met Cam at Seven Oaks on Saturday morning to set up camp. They already had a pretty sweet set-up with the Rassy cube truck (fresh off the road from RAGBRAI), a couple of big tents, some lights, a generator (Team Satisfied take note, these guys do it right!), and all the equipment necessary to kick some butt.

The whole bottom of the ski hill was full of tents, teams, solo riders, and lots of fans. The course followed a serpentine pattern at the base, to allow the fans to catch more than just a glimpse of their favorite riders on each lap. This was also helpful to allow the next team rider enough time to make his/her way to the exchange zone to start their lap.

The race started at noon on Saturday, and Team Rassy took turns , one lap at a time, covering the 8+ mile course. After a few rounds, I hiked up the "mountain" to take some pictures. Andy was just finishing his lap while I was scouting for good places to grab a couple shots of Cam when he came out for his next lap. I was distracted for just a brief moment on the trail and nearly had a potentially fatal collision with Andy speeding through the woods. I'm sure both our heart rates when up a few beats, but all was good, and I did end up getting a couple decent shots of Cam having a blast.

Took some fun pics of the wildlife: some bees doing their thing and a rather large millipede living it up in one of Jed's discarded tires.

The guys slowly started gaining ground over the second place team and lapped them in the evening. As the sun started to set, headlamps and lights started to make an appearance on the course. Although we still had some daylight at camp, I understand that things were getting pretty dark in the bowels of the course. With the setting sun came cooler temps. The race had already lost a couple people to heat exhaustion or heat stroke (one guy (24-hour solo competitor) we almost lost permanently - paramedics said the next step for him was death...), so it was a welcome relief.

Around midnight, the guys started doing two laps at a time, to allow for some sleep. At 2am, I got up out of the truck tent to "help" send Cam out for a couple laps. Really, I just had to go to the bathroom, but don't tell him that...

As I was walking back from the bathroom, I took a couple cool pics of the fog that had settled in over the camping area.
I thought for a few minutes about trying to stay up to cheer Cam on for his two circuits, but the cold and sleepiness drove me back into the warmth of the tent.

By morning, the guys had added another lap to their lead, and we thought everyone would be done after they'd completed their 7 laps at about 10:30am. But the second place team could technically still win, if they got another two laps in while Team Rassy rested. Andy, although visably bitter about having to go around one more time while everyone else had breakfast and cleaned up, suited up and took one for the team. That last lap secured the win!