12 Hours of Santos--Ocala, Florida (2/19/11)

This past weekend, Gone Riding hosted a great event at my home trails--The 12 Hours of Santos. My dad and I went down and set up camp on Friday, along with some of our friends, and spent the night before the race at the Vortex. It was a lot of fun!


Our campsite. Our tent is actually the blue one in the back. Bryce and his dad slept in the orange one.



By the time my mom made it over in the morning, there were hundreds of tents, campers, and RVs set up, and all kinds of people with bikes riding around all over the place. Everybody seemed really excited about the up-coming race.

Before the start of the adult race, there was a kids race called the 12 Minutes of Santos. I signed up to ride as a team with my friend Kyley. It was her first time racing and we wanted her to have a good experience. In years past, there were several relay teams doing the race, but this year, we were the only team. Everyone else rode it solo, including my friend, Bryce. We did really well, being the only two racers who could rest between laps, and came in first. Bryce did an awesome job riding the course without a partner and came in 2nd.

Of course, it wouldn't be a race without video to share, so here's this week's video below.

After the kids race was over, the actual 12 hour race started. There were tons of people lined up at the start, including my dad. They had to run up a long hill and through the park gate to where they had placed their bikes. Then, they had to get on their bikes and ride through all the people in order to really start the race. It was mass chaos!

While all the racing action was going on, those of us not racing enjoyed hanging out and playing together. The moms made lots of food and when it got dark, we had a campfire where we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores.

My dad's team came in first in the co-ed division. He was so excited.

Our friends' team came in 3rd in their class and the youngest team in the whole race, 'Underage Rage!' made up of my friends Trent and Nicho, and their friends, Austin and Cameron, actually beat 5 other grown-up teams to place 8th. They were amazing (and very tired too, I bet)!!!

3 Fugitives: Mr. Donovan, Mr. Kovi, Mr. Fernando



Underage Rage: Trent, Cameron, Nicho & Austin

It was a really fun event!  My dad made a couple of videos of the 12 hour race that can be seen on MTBMike.com.