Humbolt 12 'Never Give Up'

[Carl Sanders]

Somewhere past 8 hours, not able to read or figure out the split time board posted near the finish, I finally asked the time station where I sat against other 12 hour riders.  '15 minutes off..' 'she said. 'Back or ahead?' I asked. 'Behind...' she replied. I took off in hot pursuit after Justin Graves, who I thought held the lead position.

Early in the race, I held a strong lead for the first 5 hrs, enjoying the day and my brisk pace. Unlike the trying conditions at Tahoe Sierra, the day was overcast with temps in the 50s and the buffed-out single track under the redwood canopy was unbelievably tacky. This was good.  

Then, on a course without a single rock, I flatted on a fast fire road descent, spraying Stans latex everywhere when I attempted to re-inflate with a Big Air cartridge. Discouraged, I stuffed in a tube, listening to riders blast by behind me, as I fumbled with my tire, tube and pump. I rode for another couple laps and flatted again. This time it appeared the valve stem screw broke on an old spare tube. I slipped in another tube, but was not confident that this tire would last either. On low pressure, I limped back to the start to swap in a spare wheel not knowing how many more positions I had let go. With my momentum as deflated as my tire, I swapped wheels, re-stocked with extra tubes and finally got back on the course for the second six hours.

Learning of my supposed position in the 8th hour, I began pushing hard, trying to maintain a 45 minute average lap time. Finally, I caught and passed Justin who I thought was in the top position during the middle of tenth hour. When I rolled past the finish just into the 11th hour, the timers where yelling out 'your done, you don't need to go out again....' Not understanding what they meant, I set out for one more lap, knowing that with my consistent 46 minute averages on the last few rounds, I could knock a final lap under the 12 hour mark.

Spent, I rolled across the finish at 11:54 with 15 laps completed, covering ~100 miles.  Dazed, the timer looked up at me from her table and asked me 'the good news or bad news first?'  I was too ride stupid to muster an answer. Apparently, they had double-counted a lap for Justin early in the race, which meant that I had never fallen off first place and didn't need to push so hard to catch and lap Justin. 

The good news was that I still won, with Justin knocking out 14 laps and Jesse Palmer completing 13 laps.

Up next: Mount Tam Double 

[Jim Hewett]

Good job, Carl!

[shiloh]

damn Carl, going hard for that win.

[Paul Montgomery]

Way to stick in there... Congratulations!

[Ryan Gibson]

I am consistently in awe...nice work! You are the Eddie Merckx of mtb-suffer suffer suffer.

[Adam Nuyens]

Wat to hammer to victory, Carl!