Gone Riding MTB Race Productions hosted the 2nd annual 13 Hours of Santos on the Santos bike trails this past Sunday, it was a huge success. 215 racers participated ranging from young kids to semi-pro NORBA racers. The trail was in excellent shape for the race due to the efforts of volunteers, who put in 185 hours in August. Thanks to the well designed trails, intelligent race routing and a little cooperation from Mother Nature (no rain!) the trail was actually in better shape after the race than before. It's nice to know our trails can handle over a thousand laps in 1 day (not to mention probably a thousand more in the few days leading up to the race) with no ill effects! The 13 Hour is a relay race involving teams of up to 4 riders who take turns doing laps. There are also some sick fools who do the race solo (this year's winner, Chris Janiszewski rode 14 laps on an almost 9 mile course - yikes!) as well as a 6 hour solo option that had the biggest class on the line this year. Relay races like this always bring out a big mix of participants including lots of first time racers - I know several active OMBA members entered their first event last Sunday. Relay races also tend to have a bit of a zany element - there were some interesting outfits on display, witness the lovely red thong (ouch!) The race went very smoothly, there were lots of compliments on the trails and the event, the main complaint that I heard was about the heat. Many of OMBA's bike patrollers were either racing or running support for racers, but several bike patrol members kept an eye on the Vortex area which we opened up as an alternative parking area, and the tireless Gary Hoel (2005 FBA volunteer of the year - yay!) worked all weekend long to help the event go smoothly, even coming to the rescue when we ran out of t.p. in the restroom - thanks Gary! Larger format pictures are available if needed. ---Valerie Naylor Trail Coordinator Office of Greenways & Trails Fl Dept. of Environmental Protection 352-236-7143 (office) 352-427-4483 (cell) valerie.naylor(AT)dep.state.fl.us