home · my photography · biking & cycling · about me · contact me
biking home | events & photos | bike journal
12 Miles of Hell - March 05, 2006 - Lawton, OK
Video 01 - Start Line through Powerline Hill (18 min)
Video 02 - Powerline Hill through Engineer Pond (27 min)
Hi everyone! Wow what a great day for a bike ride, eh?
After worrying all week that we'd have a lot of rain and chilly temperatures, I was very happy to wake up Sunday morning to find that the temps would be near 90 and we wouldn't have the 35+mph winds we had during the previous day's pre ride!I went into this year's 12MOH with the goal of finishing in the 200's overall. In 2005 I had finished 411th out of 534 who finished overall.
I was very excited when my son pointed out that my race number was the same as this year's T-shirt artwork! After I got home, I was looking through the photos and noticed that there was a photo of me in almost the same spot on the Kevinator as the T-shirt artwork!
I promise we did NOT pose this. :) Here is the picture with the artwork beside it:
The results haven't all been posted yet, but it looks like I finished 274th out of maybe 500 this year. I was having an awesome day.. the legs felt great, the energy was great, the bike was flowing over the rocks, everything was working.. until about 2 miles from the finish when I pinch flatted.
I had failed to bring a tube.
I don't know why.
I guess I was too caught up in the excitement of getting to the start line with a small warm-up. I had also never flatted during a race and I guess I was tempting fate with this one.
Thanks to David Ridilla who loaned me a 26" tube for my 29" wheel... and to Terry Plenert who stopped to help me get it going. We did blow the first tube out because we failed to pay attention to how the bead was sitting... but Terry gave me another tube and soon I was rolling again.
As best I can calculate (based on the finish times of some riders who passed me), I lost 20-25 minutes on that little "break".
I wound up with 5th in my category so I got to take home a rock!
Thank you so much to Mike LaSorsa and all of the volunteers who made the 19th annual 12 Miles of Hell possible. I am very sad to hear that next year may be the last so I hope so much that someone will be able to step up and allow Mike to turn it over to them... and help keep it moving forward.
-Paula
Jayde, my son
Ryan, Jayde's friend
Yay! Got my number!
I sure hope the owner was able to reclaim this gem
My race number ROCKS!
John Purvis
John Purvis
John Purvis
Forrest Smith
Jason Humphrey
Jason Humphrey
Jason Humphrey
Jason Meinke
Shad Schreiner
Bobby Smith
Scott Robertson
Joshua Bennett
Shawn Dunn
David Nily
BRANDON RALEY
Pete Ridilla
LOGAN LUKER
GLEN POKLIKUHA
AARON LOYD
SAMMY DAVIDSON
KYLE SHOUR
DUSTIN RIDGWAY
PHIL TROTTER
BRIAN PIERCE
RON ACKLIN
CHUCK METZGAR
BRIAN WATERS
STEVE EDSTROM
MARK MOERNER
BRAD SMITH
Lonnie Cooper
CHRIS ZENTHOEFER
CHRIS ZENTHOEFER & LANCE ROBINSON
CHRIS ZENTHOEFER
BRIAN FARNEY
MIKE BOHN
RYAN FIEKER
ED HESS & ANNA BUGBEE
JOHN WILSON & MATTHEW WATSON
MATTHEW SMITH
JON COTTON
LEE KRUMHOLZ
TIM BILLS
DAVID ROBERTS & RANDY ALLEN
RANDY ALLEN
STEPHEN FLIES & NANCY JONES
NANCY JONES
JEFFREY CARR
JIM SHIPMAN
RYAN DELONG
CASEY STODDARD
ROB FRANKLIN
BROOK SCOTT
TONY HEBERT
RODNEY CROWE
NICK BISHOP
NICK BISHOP
BRANDON WATLING
WES HOLLANDER
FRANK MADRIE
JOE RICHARDSON
JEFF MASHBURN
SCOTT THAGARD
TRAVIS DAWSON
Sara Kay Carrell & W C JONES
Sara Kay Carrell
Sara Kay Carrell
DUSTIN SMITH
ELIAS PETERSON
RUSSELL HOOPER & DAVID JORDAN
SCOTT HOPKINS
Ben Rieck
