2008 12 Hour Hill of Truth RACE!

Smap gave up racing this year to tend to our foster bullie mix pups....Cole and Penny.

Here I come finishing my second lap. Smap is there watching me and the pups (who are under Dave's car).

Jen Smelser and me coming up the road finishing lap #3. Jen did her first two laps on her single speed, then switched to her trusty gears.

Odd/gross looking photo of me taken by my dad. New Belgium donated two tasty kegs to the event. Their cool tent in the back ground.

Smap and me between laps.... (Cole is blending in to Smap's sweatshirt, but he is actually there). Penny is trying to get a kiss too. I think I am heading out to my third lap here...

This year's 12 Hour Hill of Truth race was pretty fun. I raced my single speed as a one woman team. I did okay getting in 6 laps in just over 6 hours, but then gave in to the pain mostly coming from my feet. This year's race course was a close repeat of the original course in 99'. The push up Red Hill and the other steep hills proved just too much for my feet in shoes with barely any cushion. Later on, I thought about the nice commuter shoes I have that would have been perfect for the race...oh well. If I continue to race long races on my single speed, I will just have to invest in a really good pair of insoles.

My friends Emily Parker (the 15 year old phenom) and Jen Smelser got 2nd and 3rd! Emily incredibly got 9 laps and Jen got 8! Very impressive for both of them! My friend Dave Holmes did 13 laps (I want to say) to place 3rd in the solo men. Dave did 6 of his 13 on his single speed. I am not sure if anyone did more than 6 laps on a single speed? Another impressive result was my and Jen's friend Kelly. She is relatively new to the mountain bike scene (she was a UT runner) and VERY new to the single speed scene. Kelly did a VERY impressive 5 laps on her new 29'er single speed. Next year, she will kick my butt probably. I also have to mention my favorite girl team that raced (there were only two female teams racing this year). My friends Missy, Rebecca, Abby and Amanda kicked some butt for first place in their division. Way to go!

As I mentioned under a photo above, New Belgium donated a couple of tasty kegs to the 12 Hour festivities. They also donated a cool New Belgium cruiser to be raffled off with the proceeds going to our local SORBA affliliate club here AMBC. Smap and I put a total of $7.00 in for the running, but obviously we didn't win.

This year at the 12 hour, they had a stage set up for a really groovy band. They played a lot of cover songs from what I heard, but they were really good. I left a little early this year due to my sore feet. I was tired and just needed to be on my couch at home with my pups and my big dog, Ippon, near me. I think I had enough fun last year to cover this year anyways.

I will post some other photos this weekened. I have been extremely busy after school with the puppies and working out, so I have not touched a computer at home in several days. We did finally get a new hard drive, so we are actually going to be able to download all the photos off the camera...FINALLY!!!!!