25 Hours of Frog Hollow 2011

HURRICANE, UTAH - As if 24 hours of racing wasn't enough, someone had to go up the ante.

Billed as the longest one day race ever, 25 Hours of Frog Hollow takes advantage of the shift from Daylight Savings Time to squeeze in one more hour of racing for the season.

The course, set against a killer backdrop of hulking red mesas and the towering sentinels of Zion National Park, proved to be extremely fast but not too easy for the 216 participants. Starting from the staging area, the course climbed for the first five miles, mostly on primitive road, before a long descent to the cliffs above the Virgin River as it winds it's way through the canyon. Views along the river were grand, but the long rocky climb back to the staging area proved to be challenging for many as the race wore on.

"The Jem [Trail] descent is fun cause it's really fast and the turns are banked. It's the kind of descent where you just swoop back and forth." Jeff Clapp said, but noted "The Hurricane Cliffs trail beats you up."

Clapp's racing compadre Steve Edwards enjoyed the technical element on a course that was relatively easy. "It's good to have some technical stuff on the course," he said.

The most challenging element of weekend however, was the weather. Friday night brought a light but steady rain as winds began gusting and temperatures hovered around freezing. Saturday morning it began snowing as the pre-race meeting was being held, dampening trails but not spirits. By race time the sun had begun shining and the moisture only served to pack the dry Utah earth into a hardened surface perfect for racing. The wind and cold remained though, dipping into freezing temperatures by late into the night.

"The cold really bothered me, it was just hard to figure out what layers to wear," Tyler McLaughlin said. "I think it starts weeding people out, but it makes you realize those that show up are the hard-asses," he said.

"The snow and rain at the beginning were pretty awesome. We watched a group of people next to us leave an hour before the race. They left just as the sun broke through the clouds. " Justin Libby said.

In the end it was Bill Martin of Bozeman, Mont. bringing home the bacon for the second year in a row in the Solo Male category with 20 laps in 25:19:06. Martin fell short of last year's time by 1:16:52 due to illness, but kept pushing on with the help of his pit crew, who also happens to be his girlfriend. "I got sick at night and she held it together for me. With other people dropping out I just saw an opportunity to catch up," he said.

Solo Female winner Bec Bale of Steamboat Springs, Colo. spun 14 laps in 24:55:47 and trounced last year's record of 12 laps by an hour less. Coming from the high country, Bale was able to take advantage of the low elevation and relatively easy climbing. "It's really nice coming from Colorado where you have a lot of long climbs." she said.

Also blowing in from the high country was Will Inverso of Carbondale, Colo. to win the Solo Singlespeed Male category. Inverso also came ready to race, he stomped 19 laps in 25:38:25 to best last year's record of 17 laps by 27 minutes.