Blend Lab

Dust, sweat, aching muscles and fat tires. It just doesn’t get any better.For the uninitiated, the “24 Hours of Adrenaline” is a 24 hour mountain bike relay set in Canmore, Alberta at the Canmore Nordic Centre. There, teams of 1, 4, or 5 riders wind their way through a fast, rolling, and mountainous course attempting to complete as many laps as they can.

Upon arriving in Canmore and getting the final details on the course, I have to admit that initially I was a little disappointed that this years course was only 14.5km in length, but 14km in Edmonton is a lot different than 14km in the mountains… A lesson I learned rather quickly.The race began with a 600m Le Mans start, which as team captain, I had the honor of undertaking. The start of the race could probably be summarized by the following:

1. Run up a big hill
2. Attempt to not choke on the dust of the racers in front of you (the smart competitors wore masks)
3. Get on your bike
4. Battle the field for position
5. Grind your way up the side of a mountain for the next 4km
6. Only 10km left… Get going!

Alright… perhaps it wasn’t quite that bad (actually it was great), but with the adrenaline pumping, I may have pushed myself a little hard out of the blocks, and let’s just say that by the time I had completed the 4km uphill struggle of my first lap I feared a stroke might be waiting around the next corner.

My good friends Sheldon, David, Myra, and Graeme served as my stalwart companions through our grueling 18 laps. Though each of us may have struggled on our respective laps, at the end of things there was always an ear to ear grin on each persons face!The race started Saturday at high noon, and as we cycled through lap after lap, the conditions couldn’t have been any better. However, once the sun started to dip behind the mountains we were in for a bit of a surprise… Shortly after Myra started her night lap (around the 10 o’clock mark) the entire camp was caught up in a severe wind storm. Anything that wasn’t nailed down managed to get blown everywhere – it even managed to blow our neighbours tent right into our camp! Thankfully when Myra returned, she told us the wind didn’t really affect her ride at all since she was almost constantly protected by tree cover. For us, the only real negative effect of the windstorm was the loss of a few hours of sleep.

Outside of that our team was very lucky, admidst broken collarbones, broken arms, bleeding faces, shredded derailleurs, broken chains, and flat tires the only ‘real’ mechanical problem we had was Dave’s tire… Which provided a very unique riding experience for him when the sidewalls of his tire stopped adhering to the interior of the tire. Thankfully we were able to get a new one on prior to his next lap.In any of these events I am always amazed at the fitness level of my fellow competitors. A quick glance at some of the stats illustrate some pretty fit individuals:

• The winning team overall rode 29 laps
• The fastest lap time was 0:44 (our times ranged from 0:59 - 1:43)
• The winning solo competitor rode 20 laps

Looking at the event as a whole, there was only one thing that might have degraded the experience for some… The campsite itself. Because of the extensive construction throughout the past year, most of the main ‘campsites’ were located in what could best be described as a dustbowl. With the beautiful weekend we had, we just ended up getting pretty dusty and dirty - if the weather had turned however, I shudder to think what the campsite would have looked like. Outside of that however, the entire event was fantastic. The organization of the event, the Nordic Center facilities, the great staff, and the volunteers… If endurance, or adventure sports are up your alley I would highly recommend signing up now while there’s still room.If you’re interested, you can check out some additional photos here. Also, despite my expression in the photo below (just a little exhausted after the first lap), I had a blast.