24 Hours of Adrenalin, 2002

Hurkey Creek was the site of the 24 hour of Adrenaline relay race. This event is a relay race, non-stop, 'round and 'round, day and night, hot and cold, around the race course from 12 noon Saturday until 12 noon Sunday. For those of you who are new to the club, the 24 hour race at Hurkey Creek is the highlight of Team Dirty Work's race schedule. Actually it is the only race on TDW's race schedule. Every year for the past four years the club has entered at least one team. Every year the race and mother nature kicks butt on the silly little men of TDW--all mere mortals (Chad and Rick excepted). Every year after the race, we lick our wounded egos and announce, resolve, and promise to "train really hard for next year!" Of course every year some of us appear to be in better shape than in years past; and then again, some of us just take on a whole new, somewhat larger, spongy shape. We camp out at this event and we always bring too much food!

This year's event featured two TDW teams, the fast team--No Bluff Too Tough, and the fun (slow) team. The fast team consisted of (in order of appearance): Chad, Rick, Howard, Big Paul (240 lbs./55 minute lap), Justin, little Paul (less than 240 lbs.) Doc, and Newguyed. The fun team consisted of: Wiley, Mikemoreno, Tony (single speed), Wayne Tucker, Malcolm (single speed), Scott, Jeff Clutter, and Dave Turner. The fast team finished seventh overall in the corporate division--23 laps. The fun team was only 4 laps behind in 22nd place--19 laps.

Some of the highlights (or low lights in Wiley's case) included Chad's 55 minute first lap that included a run and a parade lap. Rick followed with a 49 minute lap. Big Paul hammered out a 55 minute lap, and later a 1:07 lap after his chain cried "no mas!" (Big Paul is quite a nice guy, very fun loving, a true mountain biker). Newguyed hammered (wait a second, "hammered?" he only weighs 145 lbs!), ur uh, Newguyed scurried around the course in well under an hour on two of his laps. Doc, who showed up late, injured, and with hockey equipment (elbow and knee pads) wheezed his way to a couple of hour-plus laps. His grips did stay on though. Justin managed a 1:05 lap and he didn't break any of his equipment. He did crap up alot, ur uh, I mean cramp up alot. On the lighter side, Wiley requested a 4:00 AM ride so that he could "ride by the moon light." He enjoyed the fog and the rain so much that half way through, he decided to take a short cut and return to camp so that he could start all over again. Actually, Wiley was dueling it out with Tinker Juarez when that skinny little dreadlocks-wearing corporate sponsored it's too hot I quit it's too cold I quit sissy boy sabotaged Wiley's lights! Actually Wiley just ran out of lights and came back to camp to get Malcolm's lights so he (Wiley) could go out and run out of lights again. Can you say 2 hour-plus lap! Chuey really wanted a piece of Wiley after that fiasco! On the brighter side, Malcolm cooked a 1:05 lap on his single speed, while the best Tony could manage was a 1:09 (he did get held up by a geared-queen riding pansy who told Tony to "go around" on the opening single track climb). Tony did strike a moral victory for the fun team on his second lap. Tony came roaring back from 5 minutes down to catch and pass Justin. Justin caught back up and was on Tony's wheel, when they hit the sand on the way to the road. Tony heard Justin sink into the sand and figured that Justin would cramp up again as he tried to extricate himself. Tony was correct, Justin cramped. That was Tony's signal to start hammering. Tony beat Justin by five minutes--that's a 10 minute gap on the road (5 minutes down to 5 minutes up). Wiley gets credit for the excellent tire advice--2.35 is goooood. Due to Wiley's long moonlight adventure, Malcolm didn't have time to go out for a third lap. Tony (1:12) finished up for TDW and Justin (1:20) finished up for the fast team. Fun was had by all.

A special thank you goes out to Jean Bader for all of her support for Malcolm (and as a by-product, us). I encourage others to add their accounts of the event. Ride-on single speeders! How about a 5-man all single speed team for next year?! I'm gonna start training right now! Boy I'll be in great shape for next year! All sub hour laps! Wait, is that a candy bar? Uh, I think I'll start next year's training tomorrow...may be the day after.