Today, I'm trying to sleep.

I’m in the San Nicolas Hotel in Ensenada, Mexico. I rested yesterday and slept as much as I could last night. I’m trying to sleep more. At midnight, I will have a helmet and riding boots on. I’ll have carbon fiber neck and knee braces on. I’ll have a hydration pack on with tools, wire, zip ties, a satellite tracker and satellite phone. I’ll be sitting on a 2009 Honda 450X motorcycle customized for desert racing – a truly badass machine. Next to me will be my son, Tanner, similarly outfitted on his own race machine.

We will be on the starting line of the longest non-stop cross country race in the world – the Baja 1000. This year we will be facing 1134.4 miles of hostile desert and a 46 1/2 hour time limit. We will endure cold (last year below freezing at night), heat (last week 104F during the day), blinding dust, a billion rocks, millions of cacti, 100,000 miles of barbed wire, thousands of large hooved animals, booby traps built by locals (I was taken out by one last year) and perhaps as dangerous as anything – the other race vehicles.

When we begin, it will be dark and cold. We will race through that night. Then we will race all day long. Then we will race all night long. Then we will race all day long. Then we will race to the finish in the night. There is a 46 1/2 hour time limit.

The other race teams in custom race trucks and buggies of all kinds and motorcycles have teams of drivers and riders. They will ride a few hours, maybe three or four, and turn the vehicle over to a teammate. Not us. We are solo. It’s the “Ironman” class (nothing to do with swim, bike, run) where you do it all yourself.

We have teams supporting us. Each of us has a driver, a mechanic, a video guy, and some friends following the chase truck in another vehicle to help anyway they can.

I’m trying to sleep. In 24 hours sleep, and even lying prone as I am now, will be a highly prized activity, but unavailable. I’ll see my chase truck sometimes just 90 minutes after I saw them last, and other times not for 6 hours. When I see them, I’ll get a chance to eat, refill my hydration pack, get the bike checked over and fixed if necessary, and rest my riding muscles.

Less than 20 people have ever even finished this Ironman class in the Baja 1000. Most don’t due to injury, exhaustion, or mechanical failure (crash). I’m trying to sleep.

This year, friends Todd Lutinski (MA), Franz and Trevor Froelich (CA), Bobby Miles (OH), Ralph Carpinella and John Sayour (CT) will be following the chase trucks in secondary vehicles. They’ll drive down paved roads and meet me as the course snakes out of the desert to meet paved roads.

You can follow the race live at score-international.com. My race number is 714x and Tanner’s is 775x. The 7 at the beginning means Ironman class and the x at the end means motorcycle. We should get off the starting line somewhere between 1-2am PST (4-5am EST).

This will be the biggest mental and physical challenge of my life.

I must finish.