Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1524446
A er 12-15 hours, many of us get into Zombie Mode, both in the pits and while out racing. Pit Zombies limit the conversa on to cri cal, race-related topics and will perform only those tasks necessary to wash off the dust, get to a bunk, help a teammate, and prepare for their next shi . Race Zombies are focused only on the trail and may lose track of where they are on the course. Easy to do when it all looks like the inside of a running shop vac. The Acadia Bark Busters had big mileage markers at each mile, and I haven't been the only one to get surprised…" Whah, I'm at mile 7? Cool." But, truth be known, we were the lightweight Zom- bies. A er 18 hours The Ironman racers could appear delirious. Diligent filtering of the scoresheets would, I'm sure, reveal the total number of laps run. My round number guess is ten thousand. Whatev- er the number is, it was way more than needed to turn fresh single track into a hammered, rocky dust trench. It was s ll ridable with no stoppers, but it was a different course each shi . As dawn arrived the scene became even more surreal. Along pit row there were racers on deck, silently wai ng in lawn chairs for the transponder to arrive. The rela ve cool of the evening was fading as the orange-yellow sunrise brought back the heat of a mid-July day. Near the end of the first lap of the final shi , there were dozens of racers parked by the side of the trail, wai ng for the leader to go by so they could get a finisher pin without having to do another lap. In the end and without a fair amount of frustra on, Team Posse Whipped achieved our goals in that every bike and every rider completed the race without damage or injury. When the scores were tallied Posse Whipped had com- pleted 37 laps and got 7 th place in the Novice Team Class. Good enough in our eyes for five guys racing a six-man team class! Will we do it again? Absolutely as there's nothing like the NE24. Imagine 1000 racers all interac ng as one big happy family. Yes, the NE24 is that cool. Huge thanks have to go to the Acadia Barkbusters for all the work before and during the race. And also to Captain Richie for mo va ng all of us to par cipate and manag- ing our pits like a boss.