05/28/06 Warrior’s Society News
In this issue:
1. Open practice for the 24-Hours of Orange County well attended – solo participants and teams plan their strategy
2. Sign up for the 24-Hours of Orange County by Tuesday (May 30th) to receive an event t-shirt – Registration closes on Thursday, June 1st
3. Does your 24-Hour Team need members? – Do you want to be on a team?
4. Good advice on poison oak
1. OPEN PRACTICE FOR THE 24-HOURS OF ORANGE COUNTY WELL ATTENDED – SOLO PARTICIPANTS AND TEAMS PLAN THEIR STRATEGY
We had over 100 people attend our open practice for the Rock N Road / Sho-Air / Specialized 24-Hours of Orange County. The single tracks are in great shape; with all the mustard growing around them it’s like riding in a tunnel. We had a lot of comments from participants asking if they could ride the trails outside of events or practice session, which unfortunately at this time, we are not set up to open the park for riding on a regular basis.
We have a lot of solo riders participating in the Orange County Mountain Bike Championship Series. Many of these solo riders are competing for the first time in the novice and intermediate championship classes; it was interesting to hear their strategies for competing.
Many of them plan to take it easy during the hottest part of the day from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. They plan on doing 2 to 5 slow laps during this time period (saving themselves for the cooler night time laps when the temps are predicted to be in the low 60’s) and enjoy the festivities in the staging area.
In the staging area on Saturday we’ll have root beer floats at 3:00 p.m. and hot dogs at 5:00 – as well as a horse shoe tournament and bike toss (we may move the bike toss to Sunday and replace it with a water balloon toss on Saturday).
The solo classes should be interesting to watch as the participants plan their strategies to stay ahead of their closest competitors by watching the lap board and not blowing up. The key for solo riders is to save themselves for the cooler temps at night and not go out from the start hauling buns. Many of the teams are also adapting some of the strategies of the solo riders.
The Rock N Road / Sho-Air / Specialized 24-Hour course lives up to the reputation of our Vision Quest event (The course is 5.6 miles long with 1,253 feet of total elevation gain per lap).
With the elevation per lap it will be important to take it easy during the hottest part of the day from 12:00 to 7:00 p.m. (and enjoy the root beer floats) and make up for it at night. The trails are clear, compact from the riders attending practice – and a blast to ride.
The expert riders who attended the open practices had (fresh) lap times of 33 minutes with the average (fresh) lap time of 51 minutes for the Geoladders test riders.
It will be 24-Hours of exciting racing…
2. SIGN UP FOR THE 24-HOURS OF ORANGE COUNTY BY TUESDAY (MAY 30TH) TO RECEIVE AN EVENT T-SHIRT – REGISTRATION CLOSES ON THURSDAY, JUNE 1ST
If you want a Rock N Road / Sho -Air / Specialized 24-Hours of Orange County event t-shirt you must register for the event by Tuesday, May 30th. I’ve attached the t-shirt design to this email (the t-shirts will be black). Registration closes on Thursday, June 30th.
The last day to register and still receive an event t-shirt is Tuesday, May 30th. Registration will remain open until Thursday, June 1st. We may have late registration at the ranch on Friday but a late penalty of $5 to $10 per team member will be applied over the $85.00 registration fee.
Pre-registration will open at 5:00 p.m. the Friday night before the event at the Flying B.
Core Chiropractic will again be doing massage at the event. They’re bringing a second massage therapist who will be doing foot massage only. Her name is Beth. Several of their patients are participating in the race and will want as much massage as possible, so please find us and get your spot. The DMS massage affectively moves lactic acid and keeps muscles fresh during long races. If you have any questions, check out their website:
As we mentioned last week we will be having the following activities during the event:
Saturday afternoon and evening we will have the Rock N Road bike toss competition and the Sho-Air horse shoe tournament with prizes donated by our sponsors. At 8:00 p.m. the tunes will be playing and we will have several fires going on in the staging area with a no host (which means you do your own cooking) “weenie roast” with all the fixin’s provided by the Warrior’s Society (hot dogs, mustard catsup, cheese, chili, mustard, onions, relish, drinks and chips provided) for participants of the event; we provide the food and you cook it. We will also have self-serve vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, or if you prefer, root beer floats. Please let us know if you prefer vegetarian “dogs” at the weenie roast.
Eating/cooking times for solo riders (and support person), 2 man teams (and support person), 5 person teams and corporate teams for the no host “weenie roast” and ice cream sundaes/floats will be given out at registration time.
All participants (and one support person for the solo riders and two person teams), will receive meal tickets for the self hosted Saturday night “weenie roast” and root beer floats. Additional meal tickets for the “weenie roast” and ice cream sundaes/floats can be purchased in advance at registration for a donation of $5.00 for ages 13 and above and $3.00 for ages 12 to 4 (children 3 and under eat free).
If you are participating in the Rock N Road / Sho-Air / Specialized 24-Hours of Orange County (and the Orange County Championship Series) as a solo rider in the expert, intermediate or novice class – and cannot continue riding for the full 24-hours of the event – you WILL NOT receive a DNF as long as you do a minimum of 6 laps.
We fully expect some of the solo riders to stop riding at times during the race to regroup and get rest – or just get worn out and stop. What ever laps you do after the minimum will count towards the Championship Series in your age group and class.
Some novices participating in the Championship Series plan to put in as many laps as they can then sleep, get up, and continue. We realize that a novice (for that matter many intermediates and some experts) competing solo in the event may not be on the course non-stop and will need to take some extended breaks.
We cannot promise that you will win, but we can promise that you’ll have fun trying. For someone testing the waters of riding solo or participating in a 24-hour event we want your experience to be challenging and fun – not intimidating.
Registration closes June 1, 2006 11:59 PM Pacific Time or when the event sells out.
The registration fee is $85.00. The entry fee includes an event t-shirt (as long as you register by Tuesday, May 30th), raffle prizes and lunch.
Online Registration:
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1301311
Downloadable application:
http://www.warriorssociety.org/Events_And_Results/24-hours-oc-app.pdf
Classes include: Solo Male, Solo Female, 2 Person Team, 5 Person Team and 5 Person Single Speed Team.
The age groups are: 16 and under, 17 to 30, 31 to 45, 46 and up (Special recognition to be given to the oldest rider)
If there are not more than 3 riders or teams registered in any single age grouping for a specific event the rider(s) will get moved up to the next age grouping.
3. DOES YOUR 24-HOUR TEAM NEED MEMBERS? – DO YOU WANT TO BE ON A TEAM?
If you do not have enough members for a 5-person team, or would like to be on a team and haven’t been able to get one together, email us with your requests to this email address ( countingcoup@warriorssociety.org ) and we may be able to help you out.
If you are in need of team members, state the type of rider you are looking for, i.e. age, skill level, sex etc.
If you want to be on a team also provide us with the same info. We’ll do our best to match people up with teams needing riders.
4. GOOD ADVICE ON POISON OAK
Amy Ferguson, the ranch manager at the Flying B, sent us this great link on advice on dealing with poison oak:
http://www.dermadoctor.com/pages/newsletter61.asp?AID=6003
Thanks Amy!