24 Hours of Booty in 2009: Bootyville and Mount Merkle
In 2009, I participated in 24 Hours of Booty, a 24-hour cycling event in Columbia, Maryland, raising funds and awareness in the fight against cancer. I rode the event Saturday into the night, then traded my bike for a camera on Sunday to photograph the cyclists who continued to ride.
At the time, I wrote a three-part series about the experience, which I shared with my then-wife. Seventeen years later, I am revisiting that original series and the photographs that accompanied it. The writing has been lightly edited, but the stories, photographs, and memories remain very much those of 2009.
Part 2 of 3: Bootyville and Mount Merkle
The day of the event came. As forecast, the weather was shaping up to be cold and wet. Although not the best conditions for riding a bike for 24 hours, my wife and I were prepared. Or, so we thought… Armed with new cycling jackets and pants, along with a few changes of regular cycling clothes, we loaded up our bikes and waited. When the grandparents arrived, we kissed our kids goodbye, as if we would never see them again, and drove over to the event.
The event location for 24 Hours of Booty was in one of the many business parks in Columbia, Maryland. Mostly flat, except for one hill, it was a good location with lots of parking and easy access. When we got to Columbia, we stopped off at our hotel. After briefly checking out our room, we changed into our cycling clothes and left for the event.
Arriving at 24 Hours of Booty, Bootyville greeted us on the way in. Bootyville… The event staging area and freshly created tent town. On one side of the road, Bootyville consisted of the official white tents of the organization and its sponsors. On the other side of the road, Bootyville was home away from home for all those cyclists brave enough to camp out in the cold and rain. Bootyville was not quite Deadwood, South Dakota, but that thought did cross my mind as we drove in and it added to my enjoyment of the event.
My wife and I arrived close to the 4:00 p.m. start. We parked our Jeep, got our bikes down and ready, and headed toward the starting location. After a brief look around Bootyville, we walked over to the opening ceremonies. A light rain had already started to fall. It was there in the crowd that a chill came over me that was not weather-related. Like lions on the Serengeti, I noticed kids on BMX bikes sizing up this unconditioned cyclist and singling me out.
Cold and raining, everyone made their way over to the starting line. Spirits were high among all the cyclists. Everyone was ready and excited as we were released to ride. My first cycling event had begun.
My wife, who had been riding all summer and was much more conditioned for the event than I, had promised to ride with me. That said… She was more than ready to leave my ass behind before the completion of the first lap. Looking back at me at one point, she smiled and shook her head as one of those kids on a BMX bike blew past me. I just laughed and told her to ride at her own pace. And so… My solitary ride began. Not a bad thing, really. Reflection is quite good for the soul.
The circuit seemed easy, too easy. Then, as I was cruising along at 25 miles per hour down a sweet incline, I hit Mount Merkle. Mount Merkle, the seemingly easy hill at the end of the loop. The hill many a cyclist would come to hate over the next 24 hours. The hill one has to mount before comfort can be found in Bootyville. The first few times around, it seemed okay. As the night wore on, however, Mount Merkle became my demon. I dreaded it and that part of the loop. It hurt.
Two times around the circuit and into Bootyville. That became my routine. After my first two laps, I came into Bootyville seeking something for a pounding headache that had developed. I grabbed some Advil from a volunteer and a couple of Nutri-Grain bars and was back to riding. As the night progressed and the light rain turned into heavy downpours, my routine sustained me and gave me a goal. Two laps and Bootyville. Two laps and a rest and hot coffee.
As I indicated earlier, I was a solitary rider. Alone for the most part with just my thoughts and the occasional cyclist asking… “Are you okay?” Or, the more frequent… “Left, left, left.” Every time I heard “left,” I so wanted to call out, “Right.” Yes, this solitary rider owned the “right”!! The right is where I rode. From the start of the event until I stopped riding later in the night, I was alone, on the right, and in my thoughts.
Although I was doing 24 Hours of Booty in memory of my mother, who lost her battle with breast and bone cancer in 1988, my thoughts while riding also involved two other people. The first person was my grandmother on my mother’s side. She was diagnosed with breast cancer back in the 1950s and, by some miracle, managed to survive it. She helped raise me in an extended family that consisted of herself, my grandfather, and my mother. She lived to see her 80s.
The second was a client of mine from a few years back. She was a lovely woman who had brain cancer. Her family was Irish, and she hired me to take candid and locational portraits of her then three-year-old daughter, Tegan, in traditional Irish clothing. To this day, I consider the images I took of Tegan to be some of my best work.
Staying on the right in the pouring rain, deep in thought, forcing my way up Mount Merkle for my reward every two laps in Bootyville, I rode. Occasionally, I would meet up with my wife. We would ride briefly together and then split. That night, I rode from 4:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. My wife rode from 4:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. When we both stopped, it was pouring rain, we were freezing, and we didn’t have any dry clothes. As we made our way to the hotel for the night, we wished we could have ridden longer, but were happy with what we accomplished.
A Note About 24 Hours of Booty
Since these pieces were originally written in 2009, both the organization and its story have evolved. 24 Hours of Booty eventually became 24 Foundation in 2017, while the original 24 Hours of Booty continues as its signature cycling event in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today, 24 Foundation focuses on cancer navigation and survivorship and has raised more than $33 million since its beginnings.
The references to the Lance Armstrong Foundation in these original posts have been retained as part of their 2009 context. The events surrounding Lance Armstrong came later and do not change the work of the riders, volunteers, cancer organizations, and communities these events brought together.
Technical Notes:
These images were captured with a Canon DSLR and a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. The photos were processed in Adobe Lightroom, with adjustments to exposure and color, along with clarity and saturation. A slight amount of film grain was applied to each image. All images are presented in their original 3:2 aspect ratio.
