24 - Pain

Not only does the Pain last for 24 Hours, but it gets better...for another 4 days after the race it is fatigue in the legs and really sleepy in the brain. After the race I went for a Subway(last year I had 24-9 of Subway 6" sub after each lap) and could hardly get the words out of my mouth while ordering. This year I actually thought about a menu before I was driving to the race. Bagels, lunch meat, vanillia pudding, pretzels, bananas, and lots of water. Karl and I rolled out of Sheboygan at 7:00am to arrive in Wausau in perfect fashion 5 minutes before Darkness was making his mad dash away from the finish line. After he split we rolled the PCW car over to the Trek area and started unloading. It was pretty nice to be in with the Trek guys with all the necessary tools, bike stands, tents, and chairs you need for a 24 hour race. Soon after getting unpacked I was setting up my 8 - 10 man tent. It's all about the operating room. One Deluxe Luxury Therma Rest, One Sleeping Bag, and 7 PCW Kits. After getting situated I had time for a bagel and then it was off for Lap 1. No pre-ride, I figured 24 hours to get to know the course. It was sweet...somehow they managed to link together about every sweet singletrack I have ever ridden in Wausau...After my first lap we had a 4 minute gap over the Velo Rochester Team from MN. Jesse was busting out some incredible lap times. The next 20 hours kind of blurred together. I remember Doug looking dilarious singing lots of Beach Boys songs, I remember Karl giving Marko shit for not smiling, and I remember thinking Jesse did another really fast lap. My night laps went really well...1:03 and 1:03 consistent and smooth. I was happy to see the morning sun on my 5th lap as I started out 25 seconds from lapping the 2nd place team. Soon after the first single track I had caught and lapped the rider from MN. The next 4 laps for our team were basically victory laps. I had the last leg and rode a conservative 1:10 lap. I was pretty happy to be finished and even more happy to pull on a 2nd Stars and Stripes. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way. Next up is Alterra WORS in Milwaukee. Todays ride went really good and I'm ready to do battle w/ 3 national champs this weekend. Racing in Wisco rules! Getting the mental game on for O2S!

One other thing that was pretty sweet. There was this mysterious Pizza in the Trek Team tent when I arrived to the race. 24 hours later John Poz ran over with that frantic look on his face. He said, "Does anyone know where I can get some pizza, Chris Eatough is dying for some pizza?" We gave him the box and he ran away pumped as a kid in a candy store.