24 hours of Moab

MAMB is failing miserably. I may have to resign. Here is why: I gave in, went along with the family down to Moab for the 24 hour relay mountain bike race, and . . . I think I actually had a good time! I even screen-printed everyone matching team t-shirts. What?! Ok, ok, besides the dirt EVERYWHERE, the kids playing in the dirt, the porta-johns, the porta-johns a quarter-mile from our camp, the campfire all the kids were trying hard to fall into, and all the anxiety this created for me - and lastly besides all the literal NON-STOP mountain biking (we were at a 24 hour race) a good time was had by all. Especially JD who by the last day there was singing a sweet song he made up himself that went a little something like this, "Happy JD, happy JD, happy JD". I know he was having the greatest time ever, but I don't think we'll ever get him completely clean again.

Here's the scoop -

Jake, Gareth (my brother), Brodie (my brother-in-law), Andrew (Jake's brother), Steve (a good friend), Enoch (a neighbor), and Adam (another good friend) made up a 7-man team that would be racing through the desert in Moab, Utah that would begin at noon on Saturday and end at noon on Sunday - and yes it was 24 hours straight, and yes some of the morons there actually do it solo, no team required, and they still kick butt. Anyway, so we went. And we camped. Me: camping. Now, I know "girly" or "prissy" aren't exactly words that describe me very well, but strangely enough, I don't love camping. I don't hate it, but I will try to avoid it whenever I can. But alas it could not be avoided this time. Jake had done this race last year sans support team, and had been talking about taking us with him next year ever since he came back, so I think I was kind of roped in. I am just too much of a control freak to let my kids eat, sleep, and play dirt, and I get major anxiety about cooking on an ashy pit of coals and eating outside amongst all that dirt, and I get all crazy woman any time the kids go near the fire for fear that someone is going to end up falling in! So, that's my story, but I did it. I put on a brace face, was still all psycho about the dirt and fire, but Jake made sure it was as un-miserable for me as possible by renting us a little pop-up trailer, because don't even get me started on tents. But, the trailer was actually really cool, and we are even considering buying our own one day, even if we may only use it for what is now probably going to be the yearly Moab trip. It made for an enclosed place for us to sleep, a clean-ish place to keep food and dishes, and if our ultra-sensitive carbon monoxide detector had not continued to screech every time we turned on the indoor stove, we could have cooked in there as well and actually been able to use the built-in heater instead of freezing all night- now that's camping in style!

Back to the race-

Brodie was to be the first racer and he did awesome with the difficult start of the race. They do this thing called a LeMans start which is they all line up their bikes in racks behind the start line and the racers have to run out 300 yards and double back to pick up their bikes from the racks before they can begin their lap. Its crazy I tell you, but cool to watch - that is if you can actually see the start through all the red dust kicked up by the runners. Also, some teams come up with crazy costumes to ride in, and spotting the most outrageous ones becomes distracting.

Need I say more?!

Anyway, after Brodie came back from his first 14.9 mile lap, Jake was up and he also rocked. The Lost Boys were in it to win it, except that they were racing in a less expensive version of the race called the Just for Fun class, and there wouldn't actually be any winners. But, they all had a great time and everyone did awesome.

Brodie ready to get going.

the pack waiting . . .

the support waiting . . .

And they are off!! Look closely and you can see Brodie right in the middle. Look again and BONUS! - a racer in a purple boa. My photography skills surprise even me sometimes.

Jake

Andrew

The support teams (aka wives and children) were in charge of keeping up base camp, keeping kids safe and happy, and cheering on our racers. Since there was only one racer out at a time, we had lots of time to hang out and let the kids get massively dirty together, and pretty much have the time of their lives. The whole group looked like this: My sister Bronwyn accompanied Brodie all the way from California. Andrew's wife Sophie came with their little girl, Kennedy, not even 2 months old. Enoch brought his wife and 4 kids, the youngest being 2 months. Adam's family of 6 also came, including a 5 month old baby, from Colorado. The 6 of us. And then our "single" guys Steve and Gareth were without families there, but not support. At least that's how I hope they felt. And we wonder why the other campers around us mysteriously disappeared . . . but we had enough in-house entertainment, so we didn't really notice our solitude. But, then there was the problem of the availability of bathroom facilities. The closest place to go was at the staging area which was close to a quarter mile away. This presented a problem since the kids rarely synchronized their 'need', and it made waking up in the morning a little stressful. One by one our racers returned from their lap with most of the team or support team there to cheer them in and to see the send-off of the next racer. This was a lot of fun for the kids and they looked forward to the walk back to the staging area, the whole way having to dodging the racers, other spectators, cars, RV's, campers (and their dogs) on the way down all the way up until it was time for them to go to bed. At that point, the team members wanted to make sure they all got some sort of rest in before their night lap came up, so somehow it became up to Bronwyn and I to keep the fire going, wake up the next racer in line, and bring in and send off all through the night. It was actually more fun than it sounds, and considering I hadn't slept the night before due to our freezing trailer, I lasted a long time. I did take a short nap in between, but being super tired only made us more loopy and the whole experience quite amusing. Bronwyn has a break-off MAMB organization called BAMB (which is also failing miserably) and we found it quite ironic that MAMB and BAMB were the designated stayer-uppers, but we had a good time anyway. I was glad she came because it might be something to do with our DNA - but she doesn't care much for camp dirt either.

our sweet popup trailer, the "Sultan's tent", and some of the boys comparing race stats

Sierra Bennett had a birthday, but we didn't have any candles to celebrate so she designated 7 camp friends to be candles while we sang "happy birthday" and then she blew them all out. It was really cute and creative - we loved it.

JD loves camping!!

There was also a mini-race for the kids called the 24 minutes of Moab. Nathan and Livy are already veteran racers, but even JD got to race! He is officially the youngest racer at the venue ever. He was definitely a crowd favorite. He had so much fun that even after his race was over, he was still trying to get out on the course to race the bigger kids. When we wouldn't let him, he would find one of the other adult racers who were just coming off their lap and wandering over to watch the kids, pull his little bike up next to them, shout "GO!" and take off, looking over his shoulder to make sure he was winning. He got a lot of laughs. How does so much cuteness fit into such a little space? Again another MAMB failing - I am actually proud that my 20 month old is already a hardcore mountain biker. Elle was the only one who didn't race, but I really think she needs to heal a bit more before we put her on a bike among a pack of other kids on bikes. I'm just saying . . .

(you know they are in the zone when you see their tongues sticking out.)

go JD!

JD mad at me for not letting him back out on the course.

JD off to see if he can race with the big boys.

The Lost Boys should be proud of their respectable finish, and I am happy that I still have all my children healthy and in one piece despite the dirt, fire, and outside eating I was so stressed about. I think I managed to cover everything, and I saved my favorite picture from the whole weekend for last. I think it sums up our experience pretty well, and is a great one to sign off with.

like father, like son