Who would have thought I'd ever enter a 24 hour race? Those of you that know me, would say no way...... well I did at first.... until I was asked by a good friend and a top Japanese Cycling Federation Officer. I got roped into it in a way, but, I will say it was an experience that I won't forget!! Ya-chan had a couple of friends who wanted to do it, and asked me to join. I was very hesitant because I am not the 24 hour kind of person, being the short distanced DHer that I am. Then, Takahashi San, asked me to join as well, since it was going to take place in my back yard so to speak. The location was in Snow Harp, located in San Osaka, Hakuba. It is the olympic cross country ski grounds from the former Nagano Winter Olympics. Since it was going to be run by locals and my house only 3 minutes away, I decided to join the team knowing that I was only minutes away from my hot shower and warm bed......

Little did I know I would catch a cold the week before, so it wasn't easy. After my first round on the Saturday evening, I didn't feel well and head straight to my house to sleep hoping that I would feel better in the morning and promised the girls I would do the first morning shift if all was good. I did just that, out riding at 6am wowee, a bit early but was great to be out there. The night riding was a blast, so freaky not being able to really see where you were going and just letting the front wheel spin and using balance to keep you going......

Our team was made up of five riders, Ya-chan, Maki, Mizuho, Hiroka and myself. We agreed to take one hour shifts and rotate. We ended up doing three lap shifts where one lap took anywhere from 18-28 minutes. The race started at 12 noon on the Saturday and finished at 12 noon on Sunday. We took from midnight to six am off for a sleep break. Our team wasn't hard core and we were riding just to have a good time. We came in 2nd place!!! Ha ha, even with a 6 hour break. WELL DONE TEAM WHEEL SISTERS!!!!!! Thank you to all of my team mates for a great experience, and who knows.... we may even enter next years race... did I really say that???????? MORE PHOTO'S HERE!!!