AZ, Snow, and well...I don't know

Roger (Jim) here.

Well that was a strange and adventerous trip...the trip I'm talking about is Amanda and I going to Tuscon for the 24hrs of Old Pueblo. To hit the highlights...

I spent $800 on my truck to repair an idling issue the week before. Of course it seemed fixed until we were an hour into the trip. And now an idling an issue it wasn't, the Tach was racing from 2k to 4k...uhhh oh! We made our way to Patterson Ca. with the hopes of finding either a dealership or an auto parts place. Fortunately, an Autozone was their!

This leads me on a tangent, a tangent about our Google world! Prior to my trip to have my truck fixed, I simply googled the symptom and the make of my vehicle. I found 100s of hits on the issue and the fix. Now, I'm not ready to diagnose and take direct health advice from the internet, but from now on, I've made the jump on car care. I took that info to the dealership, think they would have fixed that part.....no, everything but! Last trip to that dealership.

Back on point, so into the Autozone I go. "Do you have a throttle postion sensor?" "Sure, he replies." He hits a few keys on the computer and wanders back into the aisle head cocked back to the upper teirs of the inventory. Back he comes with handsize box. That's it? I ask. "Yep. That'll be $47 with tax. " I hand him the plastic card and head out to do my best parking lot mechanic impersonation.

I look at the simple device, two bolts is all it requires. I search the side of the throttle body for the current device, since I now have a face with a name. I locate it, and what do you know there isn't even anything to take off to get the device off. Five minutes later, the new device is back on. I start the truck, the idle is smooth. We back track through Patterson, the idle is smooth, the acceleration is smooth. An hour of driving 70 mph on I-5, it's confirmed the lil $47 device fixed what the $800 at the dealership couldn't.

Scoreboard...Google/Internet 1...Dealership 0!

We spent the rest of valentine's day driving to Phoenix. It was uneventful except for the last hour or two. I'm not a good night driver, the reflection from lights really screws with my rods and cones and I get the heebee geebees. Toss in double trailer semi's hauling ass at 80+ mph and I'm pretty freaked at this point. Fortunately, we made it safely to Phoenix.

Up early on Friday we trek through Florence and have breakfast at the Old Pueblo Cafe...kharma...maybe...but it was actually the only breakfast place in town except BK. It was raining now and cold. I bought the AZ Republic and went straight to the forecast for the weekend. "Showers until noon and clearing on Friday. Saturday cloudy and dry. Sunday warming." Great.

Bellies fat, we head South (yes South as toward MEXICO!) to Oro Valley and the race site. Quickly rain turns to sleet, turns to snow. This aint good. Sean and Mary call and say to not hurry out there and instead go into to town and hang out till the storm stops. We do just that. By 1 P.M. there's breaks in the clouds and after several errands we head out to the race site. Now to get to the race site, you have to drive 9 miles of dirt road. When it's dry it's not bad but quite washboarded. In the rain/snow it's a different story. Lets just say it took $10 to get all of the dirt from my truck after getting home. It was quite an ordeal.

Through Friday, Amanda and I, Skip, and Sean and Mary sat in their trailer most of Friday, discussing the accuracy of weather forecasting. Late in the day we made our way down to registration and ran into Nat Pellman my long lost buddy who actually planted the bug for me and 24hr racing. Also ran into Scott the CCCP promoter which was great because he let us know it wasn't full yet. So I'm heading to Oregon in June, woohoo!

Trying to sleep was interesting. We were sleeping in a tent which already had ice on it by the time we laid down at about 9 P.M. Thankfully, I brought a large moving blanket to lay on top of our sleeping bags, which without what had made the night even more unbearable. We listened to the alternating of rain on the tent, to silence as the weather switched from rain to snow and back all night. At one point, Amanda was trying to get out to go to the bathroom. She was attempting to find the zipper to the tent but couldn't I told her where it was but she said it wasn't. I reached across to where I thought it should be and it wasn't there. I dug my hand deeper down and quickly came to the realization something was wrong. Eyes beginning to focus, I looked up and could see except for a small pocket over where we lay, the tent was collapsing under the weight of ice and snow. We stood and knocked the ice and snow off the tent and were able to get it up enough for Amanda to get out of the tent for some relief. Did I mention this was a six man tent!

After a very cold night of snow and no sleep, the wet stuff stopped falling at about 3 a.m. Miracuoulsy for the most part dried out by noon! It was still cold though and I started the race with long sleeves, a vest, and knee warmers.

The race:

The race went off well, I got toward the front of the mass and had a nice pace through the first two laps and was somewhere in the top five of the SS category. That works itself out over time so I was more concerned about consistency. My pits were good ranging from 3 minutes to 7 minutes as the race progressed.

After two laps in, Perpetum just wasn't doing well with my belly. I switched over to Powerbar Endurance with a combination of cream of wheat for calories. Things were going good and I was in a very steady state of lap times. Chatting with folks from New York, regulary seeing Nat Pellman and Dave Nice through each lap.

Something happened though at the end of lap 8, that had the wheels of my race starting to falter. I put down some of cream of wheat and wasn't feeling nauseau's at all. I went to wash down a couple electrolyte pills and one kind of went down sideways causing me to gag. The gag reflex and 10+ hours of racing equaled everything coming up. I tried to nurse nutrients back into me during the next lap, but something else began to occur too. I couldn't stop peeing. Three times during that lap. I came into the pit and thought maybe it was a bonk. I rested drinking and eating for the next hour, almost ready to quit. Amanda got me out of the pit and I was on my way. Through the bitches I was fine, but by the Corral Trail I had loss power and I was feeling kind of drunk. I also again had to pee. This happened five times during the lap. When I came into the pit, I was a bit concerned with how I felt. I've bonked before and this wasn't like a bonk, it was something else. I was shaking from the cold (27 degrees reported out on course) and a lil incoherent from what ever going on with me. Amanda took me to our tent got me changed and into the sleeping bag. Unfortunately, I was done. Was it the blow and go that got me screwed up? Was it the change from Perpetum to Endurance? Was it too much water leading into the race had depleted me? Was it the very cold night? Don't know...really, probably was a combination of all the above.

I've done seven 24hr races and I've never had one where the negatives out weighed the positives. I guess I was due. I got myself screwed up somewhere and I guess sometimes that happens. I take consolation that my training and preparation leading up the race was spot on and I was actually where I wanted to be at that point of the race.

Even more important it was a great lil adventure for Amanda and I, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. She was wonderful and especially as she's dealing with her own more serious injury than my overnighter. Thanks honey!

And thanks to Sean, Mary, and Skip who made a cold weekend very fun!

Next up is maybe Boggs and for sure the Coolest 24hr race.