24 hours in MOAB

So Andrew had his final bike race of the season about 2 weeks ago in Moab. It was a 24 hour bike race...that's right, 24 HOURS!

Of course it was a relay so it wasn't THAT intense, but still nuts! They had a team of 7 called "The Lost Boys" or Team 294 - Andrew, Jake, Brodie, Steve, Enoch, Adam and Gareth. They started Saturday at noon, and raced all day/night to Sunday at noon.

Go Team Go!

Megan (my sister-in-law, Jake's wife) made the team matching shirts that were way cool!
(I would say cute, but since they were for the guys I'll stick to cool)

She has a toy that she has way too much fun with, it makes me jealous!

So back to the race. Since they have so many riders/teams there, they do this thing called a LeMans style start to begin the race. They all line up their bikes in racks behind the starting line and the racers have to run out 300 yards and back to pick up their bikes from the racks before they can begin their lap. Then every leg after that they scan their card and pass a baton to the next rider.

The starting line.... and all the bikes.....So there is quite a variety of people at the race. There were hundreds of teams from across the country, and even some from Germany, Sweden, Finland and lots of other places..
but that is not my point, there were freaks... see! I have proof! what male would wear this.. in the dead heat of the desert, while biking a 14 mile bike trail... over and over? And these were not the only ones, there were more, I just didn't get a chance to take their picture!

What a stud!

Andrew was the 3rd on his team to go. The trail they raced on was way tough. I'm sure Andrew would love to tell you all about it if you asked :) There were a few nasty hills, sand pits, hike-a-bike sections and some fun 30mph down hill berms. Andrew crashed just once and was lucky enough to come away unharmed. All night they had EMTs picking people up off the course. One guy broke his arm and the bone was sticking out! Gross huh...Anyway, Andrew's first lap was at about 3:00 pm, and his second lap was at about 4:00 am. He actually enjoyed his night ride more than the day ride. This is him heading out on his first lap, and coming in 1 hour and 45 minutes later.So Kennedy and I decided last minute to go with Andrew to his race, so we hurried up and packed the car and we were out. We decided not to take a tent and just lay the bench down and camp in the back of the xterra... Here is our camp..So we under estimated how cold it got in Moab in the middle of the night.. But no worries, Kennedy was prepared! We had her in so many layers! 1- a onesie 2- pair of closed toes and hand PJ's 3- socks over the toes and hands 4-another closed toe and hand PJ's with an extra pair of socks on her hands because she always squirms them out. then... 3 blankets on top of that, 2 onesies we wrapped around her face to keep her ears warm! She LOVED it!She is soo cute! Anyway we had a lot of fun! I am glad Kennedy and I decided to go! Andrew and his team did great! They were in the 'just for fun' class but ended up getting 30th out of 69 teams! Does that mean they had a little more 'fun' than the other 39 teams behind them?? I guess after riding 45 miles on a killer course, you'll have to ask him :)