The 12 Hours of Santos 2018

onetracker

Well-Known Member
Thanks again. I am putting your knowledge to good use.
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onetracker

Well-Known Member
Been riding Santos. The weather has been awesome. I have hit approx 60% of the Santos trails so far. So fun. Did most of the OMBA epic yesterday.

Hitting WAF next week when we move to a different location. I will post up ASAP!

So worth the trip... The sunshine is making us so happy.
 

onetracker

Well-Known Member
OK. A short update. My pup, Camper, has been sick so I have been trying to reduce the drive time. We moved West to the Hernado FL area so it has been fun to ride the western most part of the Santos Trails. Therefore, I have been riding from the Ross Prarie Trail Head. Super fun; especially the new trail called Troll. At this point, I have ridden all of the Santos Trails and the Epic.

Today, I rode the Croom trails in the Withlacoochee State Forest from Parking Lot #1 in Brooksville, specifically the long Blue Trail. Super fun, hidden trail features, and a bit more of a back country feel. Definitely, some lose sandy sections. Awesome!!
The map is here: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/31f1b8_55084c0cdcf941f497e71f6f733ee919.pdf
 

WickedSistahEast

Well-Known Member
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Early season race recap ...

I’m sitting in my hotel room right outside the Orlando Airport right now waiting to fly home tomorrow morning. I’m down here for the 12 Hours of Santos at the Vortex Trail of the Santos system in Ocala, about an hour north of here off Rte 75. This was the second time I’ve done this race, the first being in 2016 when I managed a second overall in the Open Class. There is no SS class here so once again I lined up in 12 hour solo Open.

If anyone wants to stop reading quickly, here’s the top line result: no repeat this year as I managed 5th or 6th (didn’t stick around to find out which it actually was.) There are a lot of reasons for that, though, and that’s where the real story is ...

First, let me just say that racing in Florida is legit. This is a fantastic event for a community of riders who are really into riding and racing. And if anyone is picturing just flat, sandy single track a la Wharton, let me clear that up for you right now: this is among the toughest SS courses I’ve ever raced, no kidding. It’s really hard to be competitive with the Open geared guys out here because (1) they’re really fast and (2) the second half of the course is just too fast for a SS to keep up over 12 Hours. In 2016, the course was different - there was more of a mix of tech and speed throughout the 9 mile lap. This year, they mixed it up: shortened the lap to 8 miles, and basically made it 3 1/2 miles of pure tech and hills followed by 4 1/2 miles of more flat and fast single track. And that was the problem:eek:ver 12 Hours, there is no way a SS is going to be able to gain enough in the climbs to offset the losses incurred in the flat. The tech just beat you up too much.

And that’s not to say the course cost me the race - those guys up front were flat out stronger than me. The field was tougher this year than in 2016, for sure. I figured that out early when I had to back off the pace before the end of the prologue - it was just too hot for me for ja 12 hour day.

At any rate, it was a fun but very tough day. Early in the race, on one of the brutal short power climbs,a rider in front of me put his foot down halfway up and I had to react very quickly to avoid a crash. It was my own fault - I was following too close. But I pulled sideways to avoid him and popped a rib or something - I spent most of the first four hours unable to pull up on my bars without a lot of pain in my side. I really thought I’d have to quit, but eventually it worked out (or, more likely, other shit started to hurt just as much and pushed it down the list of agony ... #endurancelife ...) For an idea of what the climbs are like out here, the closest I can think of is Cathedral Pines - the one step-up climb early in the lap? Add rocks to that and make it a little steeper and longer and that’s more or less what most of the first 3+ miles of Santos is. It’s got North Jersey rocks with constant up and down. If that sounds crazy, just bear in mind that whole part of the course used to be a quarry.

So my first few laps put me pretty far down and once I started to feel a little better, I was pretty much already out of it. I didn’t really have a plan for this race, and even on Friday’s pre-ride I knew it was a much tougher course so I just settled in and tried to ride a solid pace. The difficulty in that - and I can’t stress this enough - was that the longer I rode, the harder it got to recover from the tech to put down a hard pace in the back of the course. I needed to recover for a bit before I could ask my body to push in the flat. This really was a course where a FS geared bike was the right tool and about the only thing I can think of worse than a hard tail SS would have been a rigid SS.

But don’t get me wrong.i had a blast ... 85 degrees in February, nothing to do all day but ride, and a crazy positive race vibe everywhere you looked. This is a fun, fun event (and for those who have no interest in 12 Hours, there are 3 and 6 hour options offered as well. It’s a chance to get out of the freeze and have some fun on a bike in February - if you get the itch, definitely worth a look.)

So ... after that pitch, here’s a quick rundown of what’s a pretty standard post-race experience that may change your mind if all this sounds great. Every time I do one of these, the physicals bill that comes due after I finish is, well, a little steep. This time around, as I sit here in the hotel, here’s a shortlist of what I got for the effort:

1. Sunburn on my face and arms despite regularly applying sunscreen
2. Cramped and sore upper back and shoulders
3. Bruised triceps
4. Core feels like I spent the last 24 Hours being punched in the gut by a boxer
5. Hamstrings and quads pretty much on the edge of cramping since the second I stopped (particularly fun when they actually do cramp while I’m sleeping.)
6. The always fun loss of body temp regulation after I stop. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve finished an endurance race and then had my entire body start convulsively shivering, I’d have ... a bunch of nickels. This is why whenever I finish a race early in the season, I make a beeline for my car and heat right away.)
7. Swollen and bruised hands with temporary numbness in my fingers - all of them.
8. Especially painful - on harder courses if I’m pushing hard, my feet tend to hit the front of my shoes enough to crack my toenails by the end of the day. (Doesn’t always happen but it did happen yesterday and I’ve had it happen before.)
9. For like three days afterward, I could everything in sight. Today alone I’ve already had 2 bagels, a waffle, a Jersey Mike’s Sub (large) and I’m ready for more.
10. Saddle sores ... there isn’t enough chamois butter in the world to stop saddle sores from happening when you ride that long in that kind of heat.
11. Finally, this doesn’t happen with anything less than 12 hour races, but I always have insomnia for a few days after longer races. I slept only 4 hours last night and I know it’ll be similar tonight.

But I still say it’s worth it. Despite the fact that I was a shell of a human being as I Gollumed across the finish line at the end, knowing I sucked it up and h7ng on for eight more hours when I thought I was done at 4 gives a genuine sense of accomplishment.

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My ghetto pit ... $3 Lowe’s moving box ...
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This climb is way steeper than it looks ...
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... and so is this one ... and so were the other six or so in the first three miles of the lap
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The drop-in ... this was soooo fun to ride every lap!
That's awesome. I rode at Santos in January and there is some crazy single track!! That drop in was on of my fav features though!!! Good job in racing there. I can only imagine how tough it was.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
How big is this park for actual riding? IE is it a one day and you hit everything and you're done type of park?

And what kind of bike? It's Florida so I'm assuming singlespeed hardtail...
 

V-Dub

Well-Known Member
How big is this park for actual riding? IE is it a one day and you hit everything and you're done type of park?

And what kind of bike? It's Florida so I'm assuming singlespeed hardtail...
I would say suspension bike with dropper. Many many fun features, drops, jumps and so on in between the miles of twisty single track.
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
How big is this park for actual riding? IE is it a one day and you hit everything and you're done type of park?

And what kind of bike? It's Florida so I'm assuming singlespeed hardtail...
I did the race there twice. Singelspeed hardtail is fine, but it's definitely not flat. It's on the site of an old quarry, and the climbing is all short, steep power stuff clustered in one tight area and that area is fairly techy - lots and lots of rocks. Once you get outside that part, it's all super smooth with maybe just a bit of sand here and there. I originally thought I'd want to run a 2:1 for the 12 hour race but I was very glad I pre-rode because I backed it off to a 34:19 and that felt right for the whole day. If I were just riding there, I think I'd go with the same. If you wanted more miles, there is a section along that trail that hooks up to the cross-Florida trail that includes the land-bridges over the interstates between the east and west coasts. I never nade it all the way out that way when I was there, but it seems like it would be a pretty cool ride to do.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
As much as I hate Florida, I kind of want to check it out.

And oddly enough my family owns swamp land in the area since my grandfather fell for scams so I may have a place to camp...
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
And oddly enough my family owns swamp land in the area since my grandfather fell for scams so I may have a place to camp...

When I rode here, I got an AirBnb that was an RV in someone's back yard. I sat in a rocking chair and watched college football that night.

While I kinda of agree that "it's not flat" it's also not exactly vertical. Vortex is the destination trail here. Min elevation is 60 feet, max 100. So we're not exactly climbing Whiteface with this one.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
When I rode here, I got an AirBnb that was an RV in someone's back yard. I sat in a rocking chair and watched college football that night.

While I kinda of agree that "it's not flat" it's also not exactly vertical. Vortex is the destination trail here. Min elevation is 60 feet, max 100. So we're not exactly climbing Whiteface with this one.
The guy who said it isn't flat lives in Florida.
 

onetracker

Well-Known Member
How big is this park for actual riding? IE is it a one day and you hit everything and you're done type of park?

And what kind of bike? It's Florida so I'm assuming singlespeed hardtail...
I am here now laying in my hammock post ride. I am riding a geared hardtail and it is super fun. I have been noticing on avg, there is ~600ft of climbing per 20 miles. Power climbs but not tons of elevation in aggregate. It is super fun. I do not really jump stuff andI think a hardtail is fine (for the record I only own XC hardtails). Some day I will bring my SS; it would be a hoot. If you want to send it in the Vortex, bring a trail bike. Also visit the Croom Trails, Alafia and Balm Boyette if you make the trip. I use to hate FLA but central FLA is a bit different with lots of Scrub Forest. Hope you make the trip!!
 

rick81721

Lothar
I am here now laying in my hammock post ride. I am riding a geared hardtail and it is super fun. I have been noticing on avg, there is ~600ft of climbing per 20 miles. Power climbs but not tons of elevation in aggregate. It is super fun. I do not really jump stuff, I think a hardtail is fine. If you want to send it in the Vortex, bring a trail bike. Also visit the Croom Trails, Alafia and Balm Boyette if you make the trip. I use to hate FLA but central FLA is a bit different with lots of Scrub Forest. Hope you make the trip!!

Alafia and Balm Boyette are awesome - and within 1 hr drive for me. Gotta get there soon. Haven't been to Croom yet
 
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