The nearly 24 Hour NORBA Nationals; the Nat Ross diary

And they're off (Image credit: Mike Reed)

Hey fellow endurance followers -the National 24 Hour Championships was called off early due to a horrific storm. Despite only getting to race for 19 1/2 hours, my body is still completely trashed. So I'm sitting in the lobby of my Hotel in Wausau, Wisconsin the morning after the race and it is still dark outside. My crew is in a well-earned deep sleep and I'm wide-awake. What's up with that? My internal clock gets so messed up after a solo 24 hour race that it takes a good week to get back into my normal nine to ten-hour sleep schedule.

The National Championships got down to business at 10AM as opposed to noon like most of the races in the states. I have to say that I was a virgin 10AM starter going into this one. Most of the races in Europe start at 2PM and Montezuma's Revenge starts at 4PM. I was really looking forward to finishing at 10AM, but thanks to mother nature the race was called off way earlier at 5:30AM. I actually don't care one way or the other, but I can say that it will be easier to recover from not having to go the full distance. My second place was pretty much locked in and there was no way I was going to catch Chris Eatough (Trek/VW), the new National 24 Hour Champion.

My teammate Cameron Chambers (Subaru/Gary Fisher) held the stars and stripes jersey until now. His race did not go nearly as good as it did for him last year and he was very disappointed with his15th place finish. These races are so tough both physically and mentally. Cameron was bummed out that his body wasn't up for the battle, but this kind of racing is brutal and he'll be ready to rock in no time.