Last weekend my brother and I competed as team "GO JAMIE!!" in the new 2 man 8 hour category at Hurkey Creek near Idyllwild, CA.

We've done lots of these races in the past, but always in the 24 hour category. With kids and busy schedules we thought it'd be fun to relax a bit and actually sleep at night. We competed in support of Jamie Whitmore the Xterra world champ who is battling cancer, and got a few donations from fellow riders to help her cover her skyrocketing bills. We didn't have any amazing lap times or anything, we just did it for fun. It was a blast an reminded me why I love mountain biking so much. The mountain air was awesome.

I had some interested onlookers as I loaded up my gel flask with some homemade 'gu' recipe consisting of organic dates, agave, dulse, lime zest. Vegan power! Now if I could only make my commitment to excellent nutrition equal to my commitment to actually training!

One of the best parts was on the 2nd morning when an older woman who was in the solo category crossed the line after her last lap (her 12th! - about 120 miles) and they asked her how old she was. She didn't look a day older than 50, but she replied over the mic "I'm 64!". Talk about inspiration. I now have a lifelong goal of doing 12 laps when I'm 64! Amazing.