Desert Solstice 24-hour
My only race of 2020 was definitely a memorable one! With this being an end-of-qualifying year for the US 24-hour team, the Desert Solstice Invitational was absolutely stacked with talent. Among the 18 men starting, I was a legit back-of-the-packer! Zach Bitter, Harvey Lewis, Oliver Leblond, Nick Coury, Ryan Montgomery, Bob Hearn...(I could keep gong, world and American record holders all over the place!). It was easily the most competitive 24-hour race on the planet this year, and somehow, I got a late invitation off the ‘B’ list in November, as other faster people withdrew. In summary, this race went absolutely NOTHING like I expected. I expected a bunch of elites to run 160-170 miles, and I expected to run 150-something myself. The biggest surprise to me was how absolutely punishing and difficult this track format is. Runner-up surprise was the impact of the afternoon heat/sun. Will break the race into segments below. 0-3 hours I’d planned to do 21 miles in the first 3 hour