Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1524446
12 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com NE24-Hour A race of selflessness and Sportsmanship By Rich Albert The Northeast 24-hour Challenge is a race of endurance, prepara on, and team effort. If anyone has taken the challenge they understand all the work that goes into an event of this nature. Just to be ready, the prepara on before the event can take days. Racing for 24 hours straight also carries a lot of emo ons as the ups, and the downs can be palatable. Now imagine that you're 17 years old, love riding dirt bikes, and are riding with your brother and close friends. You've entered the 23 rd hour of the race and you are on the checkered-flag lap. You are running on pure adrenaline, having only had one hour of sleep as you've been riding or support- ing your teammates throughout the race. You are about 1 mile from the finish. You can feel it. You can taste it. Your team is in 6 th place and looking to hold, and then the unthinkable happens. Your bike runs out of gas. At that moment, you can't think. You are stunned, mad, in disbelief that you can taste the finish but won't see it. Bikes pass you and you are beside yourself. Do I start to walk? Run? Scream? So mad that you could spit nails, you are at a loss for your next move. And then, miraculously, some- one stops. "What happened?" You explain that your bike ran out of gas. This rider doesn't think twice. He asks what he can do. You respond that you need gas, and he asks how that can happen. You work out a situa on where he uses his water bladder to siphon gas from his tank to yours. And he tells you to go finish the race. You prom- ise him a new drink bladder as you move along toward the finish. You finish – one place behind where your team was – but you finished. All due to the kindness of a stranger. That person's act of selflessness and kind- ness in that moment – when other bikers just went by, thinking of the end – is a true act of sportsmanship. Sam Albert Sam Albert Jack Albert Jack Albert