Dawn Til' Dusk - 2009 - Canceled due to Rain, Snow & MUD

Those of us who choose to entertain ourselves with hours of training and long races expect bad weather from time to time... I could tell some stories... Anyhow, Chad, his sister Beth and I headed down to Gallup, NM on Friday April 10th for the 12 hour Dawn Til' Dusk mountain bike race. It was a great trip down, good conversation, good music and good company... It takes about 8 hours drive to get there from my place in Castle Rock.


We arrived in Gallup at about 430PM on Friday afternoon, got checked in and headed over the race course which is about 15 minutes away. Chad and I were both signed up to do the 12 hour solo race. The race directors quarantine solo riders in our own special holding area which is close to the course so that it makes it easier for us to get into and out of our pit areas quickly.


We set up our canopy tent to stake out our spot which will now become our official 'Pit' area and then we head off to partially ride the course before it gets dark. This is the first time that we have ridden this course so we are anxious to see what it holds in store for us. We ride out about 3 miles out then catch the other side of the trail and return down a different set of switch backs back to the Pits. The course is very nice, the first bit of it has a couple of tricky switch backs and one ledge which is easy to ride if your mind doesn't get in the way (it has a nasty fall to the right down about 10' if you screw up). The top part is clay, 'slick rock' and packed sand... very nicely done trail.



After securing our race packets back at 'El Rancho' we head off in search of food... Pasta and chicken is what I want and we find it at a local itialian place... good food and poor service...



This is the biggest salad that we have ever seen! Go Beth!




I should interject that Beth has volunteered to come down and crew for Chad and I... what a sacrifice that she has made giving up a vacation day driving about 17 hours round trip with us etc... We are grateful for her company and for her help during the race. Thanks Beth! We enjoyed having you along and hope that next time will bring sunshine and warm temps!

Saturday 0500 comes early... none of us has slept particularly well, we are nervous as usual before a race especially the first one of the season. The other thing that is nagging us is the sound of a steady rain drumming on the flat roof out side our windows.


We are loaded and out the door by 0530 headed over to the pit area. Things are looking pretty bleak... fog, rain, snow and cold. We arrive at the pit area at about 0545 where we are greeted with a sea of mud.








The race director came by at about 0600 and told us that the race would be delayed from 0700 until 0900 due to the bad weather and absolutely deplorable trail conditions.


We are all hopeful that the present weather system will pass quickly and that the course will dry out to allow the a 0900 start. We have access to Sirus - Satellite based Travel Link radar in the truck which now becomes our sole focus for the next 2 hours. The red triangle is where we are and the weather is tracking to the north east... nice...




At the pre-race meeting at 0845 we are told that the conditions are terrible and the sections of the course are not only unrideable but also unwalkable... nice...



So an additional 2 hour delay is put into place and we are delayed until 1100 at which time they will decide to either hold the race starting at 1200 or cancel it.




From our unique position to see the weather on radar as well as to be able to cross correlate what we are seeing outside the truck we are starting to believe that there is no way that they can hold the race without 1) destroying the trail and 2) risking someone getting badly hurt or worse.








Chad starts to play with the video function on the camera to document the drama.



There was a clearing of about 30 minutes where the sun came out briefly and the weather gave us a break for a while then it socked in again... at about 1000 the weather had rolled back in and the race was cancelled... then it was a mad dash to get out before some little car got stuck in the quagmire.



You can tell from the video and comments that we are absolutely bored to death and trying have fun and make the best of a bad situation... The backhoe is going in to extract a bunch of cars that wouldn't make it out without assistance. Sometimes these things happen... we are terribly disapointed that we can't race and we feel bad for the race promoters and staff, they can't control the weather... so we start the long drive home.



We hope to try it again next year! Hopefully with better weather!