12 hours of Santos

12 hours of Santos

Cast:
Bill
Mitch

The adventure begins at the grocery store, as usual, in the parking lot when we notice a truck that has the same bike rack as me. A couple of tall slender chaps walk out and we inquire if they are racing at Santos tomorrow? "oh, we are, have you pre-ridden the course?". We say no. They say , "wow!" , "The reds are at the start and finish with the flats in the middle." bill asks,"what are these reds that you mentioned?" Slender 1 replies " Technical" Slender 2 adds, "are you two a team, or solo, because I did a 12 solo last year and it was a 'Death-march!!!' " Later in the check out line. A patron with a t-shirt on that reads "we do it in the dirt" is ahead of us as we wait to check out with our carbohydrates. Bill questions the individual "are you racing Santos ?" "Yeah." the patron retorts. Bill asks " What do you think of the reds?". Patron says "I don't know what you are talking about." Then the patron and his buddy proceed to go weigh themselves on the free scale and announce to any and everyone that the scales are "Wrong!!". Bill and I exit immediately. After a few carbs, we turn in relatively early, even though as Dave the Oracle Muse states, " the night before the race is not as important as the night before the night of the race".

6:30 am race day

Food intake for bill. Oatmeal and coffee with a banana (even though a fruit, not citrus)

Food intake for Mitch. Eggs, pork, oatmeal and herbal tea with honey.

8:00 am race day

Mitch and bill enter the vehicle and point it toward the event....10 minutes away.....

8:45 Mitch and Bill after a few mis calculations arrive at the race site.

9:00 pre-ride. The "reds" mean business.

9:45 line-up for the lemans start. And we are off at 10:15?...

Anyway the crowd of racers " sprint" up the hill toward the bikes and mount and speed down the road to the hairpin turn-in and everyone halts and the conga begins for the first lap. The " reds" have a manageable flow with sharp ups and turns that have strategically place limestone boulders in the path...bursting out of the initial "reds" one finds themselves in the flat-lands of speed and burmed turns...sweet mother of pearl...then back to the ruthless cliff hanging trails of death and craggy climbs of insanity until the trail spews you out of the "vortex" to the transition area...8.9 miles of fun and a touch of pain.

2nd lap for Mitch.

Cruising through the flatlands a call of on your left comes out and I shift to the right as a racer proceeds safely by.....then as we allow the polite racer to proceed, the trees tighten and a lunatic appears on the left and attempts to squeeze through the non existent space between the trees....my handle bars lock up with said lunatic and we dance off the trees to a beautiful rolling somersault on the left of the trail...some pleasantries were exchanged and then the lunatic decides to "pull" at 5 mph...I then explain to looney that passing someone improperly then having the access to lead usually would result in a faster pace instead of a slower one....I then say "on your left, kind lunatic" and zip through the reds to rid myself of this vermin.

4th lap for Bill

The Pain cave has set in....the pace has slowed.....and yes the dreaded lock-up cramping has appeared. Bill has navigated through the reds, the flatlands, and now is about to enter the vortex, when his legs fail him on the second wall of doom.....his legs lock, he is half way up the the hill...he grabs a sapling to his right and holds on for dear life as trail crewman rush to his aid....and what do you think happens?........yep, he hears, "on your right!". Pepe le pew has decided the quickest route up the second hill is straight through Bill's clinched lifeline....Bill says.." young man, you should know that I refuse to let go of my wood and you best consider a different route option." or something to that effect.

Mitch finished with 3 1/2 laps with neck/back pain due to his tumbling routine.

Bill finished with 4 1/2 cramp filled finale.

Post race:

Chick-a-fil
Bill and Mitch in the line to order when bill almost collapsed....a lady in front of us asked if she should call 911? to which we replied..." not yet......."