G-N-G 12 hr

The crew( Eddie,Chris and Len)
winner,winner,chicken dinner!
The Guts-N-Glory 12 hr was held and Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX. The Texas heat was in full force Sunday, with the temp around 95 and the index into the 100's. To tell you how demanding this course is, Lance did a marathon here in January and dropped out after the first 23 mile loop.


The day started uneventful, the start was controlled with a group of 4 of us moving out ahead of the rest. The course has a lower 12 mile loop, comes back through the feed zone, then there's a upper 11 mile loop for the whole 23 miles. After the first full loop, we were still all within a minute or so.


I didn't really mean to try to distance myself from the group, but on the next big climb, I'm guessing I had a few minutes on 2nd and the others were dropping back a little more.


After the 2nd full loop, we were getting into the early afternoon and the heat was taking a toll. I went out for #3, and apparently 2nd,3rd and 4th needed to cool off a bit, because when I came back through about 2:30, I had a good hour on them.


I took this time to rest for about 20 minutes, get some food, electrolytes, and just plain cool off! The course had a large majority of exposed areas, so the sun was cooking me.


When I went out for #4, I knew I just needed to ride smart and consistent till the end and I would stay in the lead. Late afternoon brought some nice breezes and some sporadic clouds for the sun to dip behind, so it wasn't all that bad. I seemed to get a good rhythm for there and finished #4 strong. It's amazing the way pain is dulled when your doing well.


I looked down at my odometer and I was at 92 miles, and there was an outside chance that 2nd could catch me if I stopped right there. My only choice was to do another 1/2 loop. I fueled up a bit and ended up turning that loop only 6 minutes slower than the opening one. In all I logged 4 1/2 laps for 104 miles in 11hrs 19 min. It was nice to be done.


I have to give props to my crew(Len, Chris and Eddie). When I would come through the feed zone I did nothing. They would get me PB&J, water, mix my bottles, supplements, and even clean and lube my Anthems drive train. These guys were nails. There is no doubt, that they contributed huge in my success..........thanks guys!